Guns N' Roses: How the Band Imploded On Stage In Front of the World

B y the late 80s more specifically late 1988 Guns N' Roses were one of the hottest rock bands around topping the charts all over the world while delighting fans
Sadly though 1989 was a pretty terrible year for the group
They only played a handful of shows the band members were drifting apart being off the road and most of them were falling deeper into alcohol and drug dependency and the band was also struggling to get into the studio to create their full length follow up to 1987's Appetite for Destruction but by late 1989 The Rolling Stones offered the Gunners a chance to open four shows for them in their hometown of Los Angeles
It should have been a huge shot in the arm for the group but the band nearly imploded on stage in front of the entire world
The Stones were huge influences on the Gunners and by this time in their career The Stones were elder statesman and Guns N' Roses were following in their decadent footsteps
The Stones had a history of inviting up-and-coming artists to open for them at their Stadium shows including Prince Santana and Leonard Skynyrd who'd previously opened for them
Guns N' Roses initially turned down the first two offers The Stones made
The Stones offered Guns N' Roses $50,000 per show for four performances in Los Angeles but it would be Guns N' Roses' manager Alan Niven who would come up with the idea that Guns N' Roses should be paid $250,000 for each show totaling $1,000,000
The Stones eventually agreed
Now despite all the group's internal problems and their lack of shows together 1989 Guns N' Roses were enthusiastic about the concerts
In an interview that Axl Rose gave to the LA Times he noted the impact of the Rolling Stones on his band saying we have a lot of influences but The Stones are definitely a big part of it
As a band we haven't seemed to wear out The Stones yet
We keep learning more and more from them about the fact that you're able to do anything that you want in your music
Now a week before The Stones gigs Guns N' Roses decided to book two warm-up shows at the Cat Club
It was during one of these shows they also shot the music video for It's So Easy from their debut album Appetite for Destruction
Reportedly Rose told guitarist Izzy Stradlin that he was quitting the band at these shows and this really didn't raise any alarms because Axl quit the band every three days at this point in time
Apart from the drug problems there was another problem that the band was dealing with
They were still reeling from the fallout from their song One in a Million which was released the prior year on their EPG In Our Lies featuring racially charged and homophobic lyrics there was much outcry in the press and the public over the content of the song and on October 18th 1989 Guns N' Roses played their first of four opening sets for The Rolling Stones
All of the Guns and Roses members were there except for Axl
The band's manager Alan Niven started to panic and asked The Stones production chief Brian Aherne for help
The LAPD would be brought in with Niven remembering
I want you to immediately send two no-questions-asked uniforms to address this
Get the occupants out of the condominium in any which way they can and bring them right here in handcuffs if necessary and according to Niven within minutes a pair of police officers were banging on Axl Rose's front door
Mick Wall recounted in his Guns N' Roses book Last of the Giants: The True Story of Guns N' Roses the startled occupants were herded down to the cruiser sirens wailing and all lights ablaze
The police car sliced through the evening traffic and once the police dropped Rose off at the Coliseum the singer would be made even more agitated and upset about what transpired earlier that night
So in addition to featuring Guns N' Roses on the bill The Stones also had Living Colour open for them and the night's first band Living Colour had delivered a speech on stage clearly in response to the Guns N' Roses song One in a Million.
Guitarist Vernon Reid spoke about the evils of racism while also criticizing anybody who justified hate speech and the audience gave the Living Colour member a standing ovation while Rose was once again fuming
Now Guns N' Roses finally took to the stage just before 8 p.m. and the band hadn't even played a song yet when Rose went into a rant saying the following
When we start playing calm down
Calm the [---] down
I am sick and [---] tired of this publicity [---] about our [---] song One in a Million
Radicals (inaudible)

Trying to rape me
(inaudible)
I don't care what [---] country you're from.
You're in America just act like it that's all
(inaudible)

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