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The Riverport riot took place on July 2, 1991, at the Riverport Amphitheatre (now named Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre) in Maryland Heights, Missouri (near St. Louis) during a concert by American rock band Guns N' Roses on their Use Your Illusion Tour. It is also known as the "Rocket Queen Riot". [1]
During the band's performance of "Rocket Queen", the fifteenth song in the set (counting drum and guitar solos), singer Axl Rose, in the middle of the chorus, pointed out a fan who was taking still pictures of the show, saying, "Hey, take that! Take that! Now, get that guy and take that!" With security unable to confront the person, Rose decided to confiscate the camera himself, saying "I'll take it, goddamn it!" and then jumped into the audience and tackled the person. After taking the camera, striking members of the audience and the security team, and being pulled out of the audience by crew members, Rose grabbed his microphone and said "Well, thanks to the lame-ass security, I'm going home!", slammed his microphone on the stage and left. [2]
After Rose left, guitarist Slash quickly told the audience, "He just smashed the microphone. We're out of here." This infuriated the audience, setting off a three-hour riot in which dozens were injured. [3] The footage was captured by Robert John, who was documenting the tour for the band. Rose was charged with having incited the riot, but police were unable to arrest him until almost a year later, as the band had gone overseas to continue the tour. Charges were filed against Rose but a judge ruled that he did not directly incite the riot. [4]
"When something like that happens, you can't help but think back to Donington," noted guitarist Izzy Stradlin, referring to the 1988 festival at which two fans died during Guns' set. "What's to stop us having some more people trampled, because the singer doesn't like something?" [5]
Rose later stated that the Guns N' Roses security team had made four separate requests to the venue's security staff to remove the camera, each of which were ignored; that members of the band had reported being hit by bottles from the audience; and that the venue's security had allowed weapons into the arena and refused to enforce a drinking limit. Consequently, Use Your Illusion I and II 's artwork featured a message in their 'Thank You' notes: "Fuck You, St. Louis!" [6]
The band did not play in the city again until July 27, 2017, on the Not in This Lifetime... Tour as, according to Daniel Kreps of Rolling Stone, they had been banned from playing in St. Louis because of the incident. [7]
W. Axl Rose is an American singer and songwriter. He is best known for being the lead vocalist and lyricist of the hard rock band Guns N' Roses, and has been the band's sole constant member since its inception in 1985. Possessing a distinctive and powerful wide-ranging voice, Rose has been named one of the greatest singers of all time by various media outlets, including Rolling Stone, NME and Billboard.
Use Your Illusion I is the third studio album by American hard rock band Guns N' Roses, released on September 17, 1991, the same day as its counterpart Use Your Illusion II. It was the band's first album to feature drummer Matt Sorum, who replaced Steven Adler following Adler's departure in 1990, as well as keyboardist Dizzy Reed. Both albums were released in conjunction with the Use Your Illusion Tour. The album debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200, selling 685,000 copies in its first week, behind Use Your Illusion II's first-week sales of 770,000. Use Your Illusion I has sold 5,502,000 units in the United States as of 2010, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Each of the Use Your Illusion albums have been certified 7× Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The album was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1992.
Jeffrey Dean Isbell, best known as Izzy Stradlin, is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He was a co-founder, rhythm guitarist, and backing vocalist of the hard rock band Guns N' Roses, with whom he recorded four studio albums and left at the height of their fame in 1991.
Use Your Illusion II is the fourth studio album by American hard rock band Guns N' Roses. The album was released on September 17, 1991, the same day as its counterpart Use Your Illusion I. Both albums were released in conjunction with the Use Your Illusion Tour. Bolstered by the lead single "You Could Be Mine", Use Your Illusion II was the slightly more popular of the two albums, selling a record 770,000 copies its first week and debuting at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, ahead of Use Your Illusion I's first-week sales of 685,000. As of 2010, Use Your Illusion II has sold 5,587,000 units in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Both albums have since been certified 7× Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). It was also No. 1 on the UK Albums Chart for a single week.
Darren Arthur "Dizzy" Reed is an American musician. He is best known as the keyboardist for the hard rock band Guns N' Roses, with whom he has played, toured, and recorded since 1990.
Matthew William Sorum is an American drummer. He is best known as both a former member of the hard rock band Guns N' Roses, with whom he recorded three studio albums, and as a member of the supergroup Velvet Revolver. Sorum is currently on tour with Billy Gibbons, with whom he also records, is a member of the touring project Kings of Chaos, and is a former member of both The Cult and Y Kant Tori Read. Sorum was also a member of Guns N' Roses side projects, Slash's Snakepit and Neurotic Outsiders, and has released two solo albums, Hollywood Zen (2004) and Stratosphere (2014). He was the touring drummer for the supergroup Hollywood Vampires from 2015 to 2017. His latest project is Deadland Ritual, featuring Black Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler, Billy Idol guitarist Steve Stevens, and Apocalyptica vocalist Franky Perez.
The Use Your Illusion Tour was a concert tour by American rock band Guns N' Roses which ran from January 20, 1991, to July 17, 1993. It was not only the band's longest tour, but one of the longest concert tours in rock history, consisting of 194 shows in 27 countries. It was also a source of much infamy for the band, due to riots, late starts, cancellations and outspoken rantings by Axl Rose.
Live Era '87–'93 is a double live album by the American hard rock band Guns N' Roses. It was released on November 23, 1999. The record was the first official Guns N' Roses release since "The Spaghetti Incident?" released on the same day in 1993. Guitarist Slash notes that the album is "not pretty and there are a lot of mistakes, but this is Guns N' Roses, not the fucking Mahavishnu Orchestra. It's as honest as it gets."
"Don't Cry" is a song by American hard rock band Guns N' Roses, two versions of which were released simultaneously on different albums. The version with the original lyrics is the fourth track on Use Your Illusion I (1991), while the version with the alternate lyrics is the 13th track on Use Your Illusion II (1991). Only the vocal tracks differ, and even then only in the verses; however, in those verses, not only are the words entirely different, but the meter and melody are also slightly different. There is also a third version, officially released only on the single for the song, which was recorded during Appetite for Destruction sessions in 1986.
Guns N' Roses is an American hard rock band from Los Angeles, California, formed in March 1985 when local bands Hollywood Rose and L.A. Guns merged. When they signed to Geffen Records in 1986, the band's "classic lineup" consisted of vocalist Axl Rose, lead guitarist Slash, rhythm guitarist Izzy Stradlin, bassist Duff McKagan, and drummer Steven Adler. The current lineup consists of Rose, Slash, McKagan, guitarist Richard Fortus, drummer Frank Ferrer and keyboardists Dizzy Reed and Melissa Reese.
"Rocket Queen" is a song by American rock band Guns N' Roses, featured on their debut studio album, Appetite for Destruction (1987). The song is notable for incorporating moans from a woman, Adriana Smith, who was recorded having sexual intercourse with the band's singer, Axl Rose.
Use Your Illusion World Tour – 1992 in Tokyo II is a live VHS/DVD by American hard rock band Guns N' Roses. Filmed live at the Tokyo Dome, Japan, on February 22, 1992, during the Japanese leg of the Use Your Illusion Tour, this recording features the second half of the concert, the first half appearing on sister volume Use Your Illusion I. Both VHS titles were distributed by Geffen Home Video in 1992.
"Civil War" is a song by American rock band Guns N' Roses that originally appeared on the 1990 compilation Nobody's Child: Romanian Angel Appeal and later on the band's 1991 album Use Your Illusion II. It is a protest song on war, referring to all war as "civil war" and stating that war only "feeds the rich while it buries the poor". In the song, lead singer Axl Rose asks, "What's so civil about war, anyway?"
"Locomotive (Complicity)" is a song by the American rock band Guns N' Roses, appearing on their 1991 studio album, Use Your Illusion II. At eight minutes and forty-two seconds, the song is the second longest on the album behind "Estranged".
The Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre is an outdoor concert venue in Maryland Heights, Missouri, near St. Louis.
The Guns N' Roses/Metallica Stadium Tour was a co-headlining concert tour by American rock bands Guns N' Roses and Metallica during 1992. It took place in the middle of Guns N' Roses' Use Your Illusion Tour, promoting their Use Your Illusion I and II albums, and between Metallica's Wherever We May Roam Tour and Nowhere Else to Roam, promoting their eponymous fifth album Metallica. The tour's initial opening act was Faith No More as Axl Rose had originally wanted Seattle rock band Nirvana to be the opening act, but frontman Kurt Cobain refused.
"Estranged" is a song by American hard rock band Guns N' Roses, included on their 1991 album Use Your Illusion II. Described as a ballad, the song was released as a single in January 1994.
The Not in This Lifetime... Tour was a concert tour by hard rock band Guns N' Roses, spanning from April 1, 2016, to November 2, 2019. It featured classic lineup members Axl Rose, Slash and Duff McKagan, marking the first time since the Use Your Illusion Tour in 1993 that the three performed together. After the previous tour in 2014, guitarists DJ Ashba & Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal, bassist Tommy Stinson and keyboardist Chris Pitman left Guns N' Roses, leaving the band with several open spots. Former members Slash and McKagan rejoined the band and Melissa Reese joined as keyboardist. The group embarked on a world tour that spanned all continents except Antarctica. They performed 175 shows making it their third longest tour ever, just behind the Use Your Illusion Tour and the Chinese Democracy Tour. The group welcomed former drummer Steven Adler to the stage for several shows as a guest spot, the first time he had played with the group since 1990. The tour has been a financial success, grossing over $584.2 million, making it the fourth-highest-grossing concert tour of all time. The tour was 2016's highest-earning per-city global concert tour as well as the fourth-highest-grossing overall that year. In 2017, the tour ranked as the second highest grossing worldwide tour. The tour was honored at the Billboard Live Music Awards in November 2017, winning Top Tour/Top Draw and being nominated for Top Boxscore.
"Shadow of Your Love" is a song by the American hard rock band Guns N' Roses, originally released as a B-side in 1987. It was later released in an alternate take as a single in 2018, which entered at 31 on the Mainstream Rock chart in its May 12, 2018 edition, and peaked at No. 5 the week of June 23 the same year. It would later be included in the 2020 re-issue of the band's Greatest Hits album.
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