By 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. The band was also struggling to get into the studio to create their full length follow up to 1987’s “Appetite for Destruction”.
By late 1989, The Rolling Stones offered the Guns N’ Roses a chance to open four shows for them in their hometown of Los Angeles. It should have been a huge opportunity for the group but the band nearly imploded on stage in front of the entire world.
The Stones were huge influences on the band. Guns N’ Roses were following in their decadent footsteps.
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 was 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.
“We have a lot of influences but The Stones are definitely a big part of it.” – Axl Rose
Despite all the group’s internal problems and their lack of shows together in 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.”
“It’s So Easy”
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. This really didn’t raise any alarms because Axl quit the band every three days at this point in time.
“One in a Million”
Apart from the drug problems, the band was still reeling from the fallout from their song “One in a Million”, which was released the previous 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.
On October 18, 1989, Guns N’ Roses played their first of four opening sets for The Rolling Stones. All of the Guns N’ 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 was 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.”
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.” 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.
Living Colour
In addition to featuring Guns N’ Roses on the bill, The Stones also had Living Colour open for them. 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. The audience gave the Living Colour member a standing ovation while Rose was once again fuming.
Guns N’ Roses finally took to the stage just before 8 p.m. The band hadn’t played a song yet when Rose went into a rant saying, “…I am sick and [explicit] tired of this publicity [explicit] about our [explicit] song, “One in a Million”. …I don’t give a [explicit] what [explicit] colour you [explicit] are as long as you ain’t no [explicit] thief drug using [explicit] crack, selling piece of [explicit]…
I don’t care what [explicit] country you’re from. You’re in America, just act like it, that’s all… What colour you are. If you want to call me a racist, shove your head up your [explicit].”
This wouldn’t be the last rant of the night or the most memorable moment of the show. The newspaper, The Village Voice, who reviewed the show claimed the band sounded more reggae than they looked.
“Unless certain people in this band get their [explicit] together, these will be the last record or shows you’ll [explicit] ever see…” – Axl Rose
At one point during the show, Axl Rose fell off the stage and into the photographers pit. The singer had been blinded by spotlights and ended up in the pit but thankfully he was unhurt.
Two security guards helped the frontman back to his feet and following this event, Rose went into another rat saying, “I hate to do this on stage but I’ve tried every other [explicit] way. Unless certain people in this band get their [explicit] together, these will be the last record or shows you’ll [explicit] ever see cause I’m tired of too many people in this organization dancing with Mr. [explicit] Brownstone.”
Suddenly the band’s internal problems and struggles were out in the public. More than 70,000 fans witnessed one of the greatest rock n’ roll stars calling out his bandmates for their drug use and almost saw the band implode onstage.
In 2004’s Behind the Music episode on VH1, guitarist Slash said, “I knew it was directed at me because I was really strung out at the time but it was probably one of the things that made me hate Axl more than anything.”
“…Attention has been brought to this band about, you know, some of the excesses that we get into…” – Slash
Following the band’s first show opening for The Stones, Slash was told by Guns N’ Roses’ management that Axl would not show up to the remaining shows unless Slash publicly addressed the band’s drug use.
Here’s some of what Slash had to say the second night the band opened for The Stones, “… I wanted to say over the years, rock n’ roll has lost a lot of the great ones from [explicit] Elvis and Hendrix… attention has been brought to this band about, you know, some of the excesses that we get into… It’s a lot of fun when you get into it and have a good time but when it comes down to life and people’s futures and what existing is supposed to be all about, it’s just not that [explicit] …
I just wanted to let you guys know that [explicit] smack and all that crap is just not what it’s all about…”
“Once Axl took his concerns public, the times of us being a gang – us against the world were over.” – Duff McKagan
Bassist Duff McKagan wrote in his 2011 autobiography, “I shrank, I was so embarrassed. Once Axl took his concerns public, the times of us being a gang – us against the world were over. We played the rest of the show but it was half-hearted effort at best. Afterwards, and really for the remainder of our career, we just went our separate ways and that night officially rang the bell for the end of an era and Guns N’ Roses.”
The band would soldier on and finish the remainder of their show commitments. The Rolling Stones would deliver another great show and singer Mick Jagger paused and commented on their opening act saying, “I think Axl did a good show,” seemingly tongue-in-cheek saying, “But I wish he’d shut up and play.”
Like this story? Check out Layne Staley’s Last Major Interview
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