In 1991, Guns N’ Roses went on tour 5 months before their highly anticipated double album, Use Your Illusion 1 & 2 was released. The album wasn’t even finished yet when they hit the road. As a result, the band had to finish up the album while they were on tour and some bits were even recorded during live gigs.
Use Your Illusion Tour
The Use Your Illusion Tour marked one of the longest tours in rock history, spanning 192 shows in 27 countries over almost 2.5 years. It was a tumultuous time for the band as they lost one of their key members, Izzy Stradlin who left in November of 1991. The tour was also notorious for late starts, fines, controversies, lawsuits and riots.
While two riots are typically discussed in the context of the tour, the infamous 1991 St. Louis Riot and the one in Montreal, a year later when the band was on tour with Metallica. A month after the infamous St. Louis incident, there was another near riot that happened all over a traffic ticket.
In late July and early August of 1991, Guns n ‘Roses were playing 4 shows in a row at the Great Western Forum in Inglewood. At one of the concerts, Guns N’ Roses played for almost 4 hours, the longest show of the whole Use Your Illusion Tour.
The 4-hour show was notable because the band played some deep tracks off their unreleased Use Your Illusion albums including “Locomotive”. In addition, Blind Melon frontman Shannon Hoon joined the band on stage as well.
Axl Rose’s Driver Issued Traffic Ticket
At the second show of the band’s 4-date residency at the Forum, frontman Axl Rose was driven to the venue by his limo driver who allegedly made an illegal left turn and received a traffic ticket by the police officer working the event.
While being issued a ticket, the LA Times reported that the Guns N’ Roses frontman stuck his head out of the limo’s sunroof and argued with the ticketing officer, claiming his driver was simply following instructions of another traffic control officer who instructed them to make the left turn.
Axl Rose Threatens to Not Go On Stage
Rose’s attempt to talk the officer out of issuing the ticket failed and so he arrived at the venue in a rage and threatened to not go on stage unless the ticket was torn up. This resulted in a back and forth between the police, more specifically an officer named Lt Tom Hoffman as well as Rose and his manager with the police finally giving in and tearing up the ticket in fear that a riot similar to what happened in St. Louis, a month earlier, could break out.
That night, Guns N’ Roses’ concert went off without a hitch despite going on stage late and during the show, Rose personally thanked Lt Hoffman for his actions.
“Before a show, Axl is volatile. It’s a sensitive time.” – Bryn Brydenthaal, Publicist
Following the show, the LA Times pounced on the story and many people in the public were outraged over what they thought was preferential treatment for the rockstar. Guns N’ Roses’ publicist Bryn Brydenthaal would issue a statement to the LA Times that read, “Before a show, Axl is volatile. It’s a sensitive time.”
The LA Times, though, would interview several officers who were unhappy at Rose’s treatment, with one telling the paper, “Everyone is treated the same–we are preached that every day.”
“We don’t need 19,000 people at the Forum rioting over a traffic ticket.” – Police Officer
The police had to come out and clarify their position to the times, revealing they didn’t technically tear up the ticket, but rather sent it back for further investigation, with one officer telling the Times, “Rather than stick our feet in the mud and say, ‘No, we’re going to treat you like everybody else,’ we chose to avoid a riot. We don’t need 19,000 people at the Forum rioting over a traffic ticket.”
About a week after the incident, the LAPD would reverse their decision and move ahead with the ticket costing Rose’s driver about $60. The judge determined there was no one who misled Rose’s driver, who was at the scene of the incident.
The traffic violation even came up during an interview with Rose on Rockline, several months later, ahead of one the band’s show in Boston.
Axl Rose Interview with Rockline
“A police officer pointed on the very night that it happened, pointed for us to turn this way and then another police officer didn’t care and pulled us over and you know it’s like we were running late and we were told by an officer of the law to turn and we were within the law and another officer just didn’t care.”
“So it all happened on the same night. One guy said, ‘turn here’ and someone else followed you and busted you for doing it.”
“Yeah, it was taking time and it was messing things up and it was just kind of like, I think it was a lack of respect for the crowd and the band and rock n’ roll in general and fighting the system is a bit more important to me than playing a concert.”
“Yeah, and if that’s the case, and you want to take a stand, more power to you and God bless. You gotta realize though that when you say you are not going to play a show or you don’t, that there are going to be repercussions that are going to have to be dealt with.”
“Exactly and if we wouldn’t have played the show that night, we would have made it up to those people that night with their tickets another way.”
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