Axl Rose didn’t think it would happen in this lifetime
Seeing Guns N’ Roses live in the late ’80s was a lot like trying to catch lightning in a bottle, or like trying to use a bad cliché effectively. Most of the time, it was a painful exercise in futility, but sometimes you’d be lucky enough to witness a perfect storm of alcohol-fueled intensity and rock ’n’ roll swagger.
The classic era of the band brought fans Appetite for Destruction and Use Your Illusion 1 & 2, which have become benchmark albums in hard rock, and left future iterations of the band with a seemingly insurmountable standard to live up to.
But even with such monumental albums in their discography, Guns N’ Roses have become more known for their tumultuous relationships and utter hatred for each other than music over the last 20 years. Axl Rose has referred to Slash as “a cancer” and when asked by fans where Slash is, he replied, “He’s in my ass—that’s where Slash is.”
Slash has called Duff “spineless” and expressed hatred for Matt Sorum. The two of them have in turn hurled their own insults at various band members.
Following their particularly nasty breakup after the Use Your Illusion tour, the core of the classic lineup, Axl, Slash, and Duff, haven’t played on the same stage together since the summer of 1993.
With this in mind, early rumours of the reunion were met with skepticism from fans, many of whom continued to dismiss the tour as a hoax until the official announcement in January. Members of the band offered no comment on the presumptive reunion until Axl Rose took to Twitter to proclaim: “The only thing I know ‘confirmed’ is my LOVE of Taco Bell! Mmmmm…. Taco Bell!!”
The first show for the reunited Guns N’ Roses took place at the Troubadour in Hollywood on April 1, followed by shows in Las Vegas and Mexico City. Succeeding these shows, the band announced a full North American stadium tour, which sold out in minutes.
The name of the tour comes from a 2012 interview with TMZ in which Rose, when asked when a classic lineup reunion would happen, responded “not in this lifetime.”
Guns N’ Roses will kick off the North American tour in Detroit on June 23, and throughout the tour will be joined by various openers. Alice In Chains and Lenny Kravitz will open on the majority of dates, with The Cult, Chris Stapleton, and Skrillex filling in on the rest of the stops. Billy Talent will open for the July 16 show in Toronto at the Rogers Centre.