While everybody knows Guns N’ Roses confirmed the festival at Hyde Park 30th of June 2023 in London more will follow for this iconic rock band. The rumor has it the Graspop Metalfest 2023 is one of the festivals that Guns N’ Roses will perform, but neither party has confirmed. We will have to wait and see what happens.
Guns N’ Roses
When the band Guns N’ Roses entered the rock scene in the 1980s, many fans and press who saw the Guns N’ Roses shows instantly knew that the glam scene of L.A. was going to change and that their time was up. A lot of the glam bands at that time disbanded because there was a new King in town, named Guns N’ Roses.
The legendary line-up of the time consisted of Axl Rose on vocals, Duff McKagan on bass, Slash and Izzy on the guitars and Steven Adler on drums.
The name Guns N’ Roses was based on an earlier band Axl and Izzy had played in (L.A. Guns and Hollywood Roses). Axl himself was certainly not originally a fierce ‘rocker’, quite the contrary. In fact, he comes from a religious family. You may not believe it now, but as a little boy he used to sing in church and play the piano.
The music they made became so incredibly popular because it was in-your-face, they didn’t give a fuck. Their lyrics were very explicit and, as mentioned, they had an attitude without boundaries. If you thought Mötley Crüe was hard, Guns N’ Roses went a step further.
But because of the constant controversy around Guns N’ Roses, it was easier to make a name for themselves because good or bad attention always attracts the crowd to come see your shows. As so did the album “Lies” brought more attention to the band because of the song “One in a Million”. Because many people found this song homophobic and racist. And unfortunately, controversy brings attention and people want to find out what’s wrong for themselves.
Scandals
Their first two albums (Appetite for Destruction 1987 & Lies 1988) made them superstars overnight and they toured hard around the world. Unfortunately, this only brought pressure on the band members. At the time, there were already problems within the band and the individuals also had their own demons.
For instance, the band members with drugs and drinking problems. Another thing that the press brought to attention was Slash using obscene language when receiving an award on live TV. To me I had no problem with that because there are many more terrible things happening in the world. And you can go on and on what band members of Guns n Roses did. Also, around this time Izzy was arrested for publicly urinating on a plane and Axl’s three-week marriage ends when she accuses him of abuse and domestic violence. The only thing I could say as a writer is that the record company was not complaining about it.
A new era
In autumn 1990, Guns N’ Roses returned to the studio, with a new drummer (Matt Sorum of the Cult) and new keyboardist Dizzy Reed.
Izzy Stradlin quit in late ’91 due to pressure from touring, his bandmates’ drug use, fights during concerts and the associated media attention. As a result, he missed the whole reason this band was formed, to just play rock and roll. Duff and Slash followed soon after ‘Use Your Illusion I & II’.
After completing the world tour in 1993, they released The Spagetti Incident, an album of mostly punk covers. Unfortunately for them, around this time grunge music began to take over. Because of this and that the band was not healthy for the members, the band members embarked on all kinds of new activities with other bands, leaving Axl with the Guns N’ Roses legacy.
Another chance
In 2002, Axl Rose nevertheless announces that a new album is ready. During the MTV Awards, he made another good comeback with his new band. However, this did not go smoothly either, with Axl walking off stage annoyed at several concerts or not even showing up. Chinese Democracy was released in November 2008 but did not leave an unforgettable impression on the many fans who remained loyal to the band.
Now the question is whether Guns N’ Roses’ following is still big enough to shake things up considerably in London. This may yet depend on the line-up that will be announced. They did some touring when Duff & Slash returned but without Steve Adler on the drums and Izzy on the guitars it would never return to be the real Guns N’ Roses.
What is your opinion about this band and its history, and do you think that Steve Adler and Izzy Stradlin will return to the band and tour? Let us know in our Facebook group.
Also, check out our cool Guns N’ Roses t-shirt here.
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What is your opinion of this band and its history, and what do you think the line-up for this tour will look like? Let us know in our Facebook group.
Also, check out our cool Guns N’ Roses t-shirt here.