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 192 shows in 27 countries.[2] It was also a source of much infamy for the band, due to riots, late starts, cancellations and outspoken rantings by Axl Rose.
The Use Your Illusion Tour was a promotional tour for the albums Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II. The tour started on May 24, 1991, approximately when the long-awaited follow-up to G N' R Lies was to be released, and ended over two years later. The release date of the album, or albums, since there were now two of them, was pushed back to September but the tour began as originally scheduled. The tour marked a high point in the popularity of Guns N' Roses, with a total of over 7 million[2] fans attending, and accompanied by high worldwide album sales.
Live recordings from the tour would be issued as a two video/DVD set, Use Your Illusion I and II (featuring footage from a 1992 concert in Tokyo, Japan) and provide content for the 2-disc set Live Era: '87-'93. The tour also provided footage for music videos, including "Dead Horse" and their popular cover of Paul McCartney's "Live and Let Die". A planned documentary, titled The Perfect Crime, included footage consisted of the band's time on the road, concert clips, and information about the riots and other major events of the tour. It was never released and never spoken about after the tour. Slash mentioned in his biography that Axl Rose controls the footage and that Slash would be interested in viewing it, as he thought it captured "killer moments" from the tour.[citation needed]
The conduct of the band, and particularly Axl Rose, during the Use Your Illusion Tour generated negative press, notably from the magazines Spin, Kerrang!, Circus, and Hit Parader. These magazines were mentioned in the song "Get in the Ring" where Axl Rose attacked writers who had written negative articles dealing with Rose's attitude.
The tour was massive not just in the number and size of performances, but also in its technical aspects and the size of the crew. A total of 130 working personnel traveled with the band, using two different stages to enable faster setup.[3] The trade magazine Performance named the tour crew "Crew of the Year" for 1991.
Duff McKagan revealed in 2015 that the band didn't make profit on the tour until 1993 due to the extravagant costs.[3]
"The band had such a ball," Slash remarked in 1994. "We managed to tour for two and a half years, against all the fuckin' odds. It really was a fuckin' endurance test of pretty big proportions."[4]
Notable events
At the June 10, 1991, show, at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, Axl Rose requested that the crowd chant "Get in the ring!" This was recorded for the song of that name on Use Your Illusion II.
On June 13, 1991, during the show in Philadelphia, Rose erupted after a fan fought with Guns N' Roses' photographer Robert John. When the fan kicked the camera out of his hands, Rose cursed him out and challenged him to a fight. After the fan was ejected from the concert, the show continued.
On Tuesday, July 2, 1991, at a show at the Riverport Amphitheatre in Maryland Heights, Missouri, near St. Louis, Rose spotted a spectator recording the concert with a video camera and jumped into the audience after him when concert security failed to respond to his request to apprehend the man. Returning to the stage, Rose declared: "Well, thanks to the lame-ass security, I'm going home!" then slammed the mic on the stage, sparking the infamous Riverport riot. Rose then stormed off the stage; some people thought when he slammed the mic, because of the noise, that he shot someone. Slash told them, "He just slammed his mic on the floor. We're outta here." He proceeded to throw his guitar pick into the crowd and follow Rose. The band followed. The band was looking to come back out and finish the show, but as police and security tried to calm down the audience, a riot broke out. The footage was captured by Robert John who was documenting the entire tour. Sixty fans were injured. The band lost most of their equipment and Rose was charged with inciting a riot. He was acquitted due to lack of evidence. The band would later express their feelings regarding the incident by including the message "fuck you, St. Louis!" in the liner notes of both Use Your Illusion albums.[5]
On August 3, 1991, the day mixing of the Illusion albums was finished, the band played the longest show of the tour at the L.A. Forum. It lasted three and a half hours.[6]
On November 7, 1991, Izzy Stradlin quit the band after the release of Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II; his last show was on August 31, 1991, at Wembley Stadium. On December 5, replacement rhythm guitarist Gilby Clarke made his debut in Worcester, at the first show after the release of Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II.
On April 13 and 14, 1992, two concerts had to be canceled when a warrant was issued for Rose's arrest due to his behavior at the St. Louis show.
On April 20, 1992, the band performed at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert, an effort for AIDS Awareness in London. The band was a controversial addition to the lineup, as many in the gay community were still angry over Rose using a homophobic slur in "One in a Million." The band opened with "Paradise City" and closed with "Knockin' on Heaven's Door." During the famous "Paradise City" opening, Axl pointed at protesters in the audience and yelled, "SHOVE IT!"[citation needed][clarification needed] He had planned to address the controversy between songs, but was asked not to by the band as it would pull the spotlight from Queen and Freddie Mercury. As Slash concluded a short cover of Alice Cooper's "Only Women Bleed", Duff McKagan kept an eye on Rose, who approached the front of the stage. When Slash finished the song, then strummed the beginning of "Knockin' on Heaven's Door", McKagan walked over to Rose and shook his hand in appreciation. Later in the show, Slash joined Joe Elliott of Def Leppard and the surviving members of Queen for "Tie Your Mother Down." Rose sang "We Will Rock You" and finished "Bohemian Rhapsody" with Elton John and Queen. The show was broadcast live around the world via satellite, gathering the largest audience for a music concert in history.
On August 8, 1992, in Montreal, Quebec, during the famously troubled Guns N' Roses/Metallica Stadium Tour portion, Metallica frontman/guitarist James Hetfield's left arm was badly burned due to misunderstanding about pyrotechnics added to Metallica's stage setup. Metallica was forced to end their set early. However, Guns N' Roses were not present at the arena to begin before the scheduled time, leaving fans to wait several hours before they took the stage. A few songs into the very late set, audio problems resulted in the band not being able to hear themselves play. Rose stormed off stage due to vocal issues, sparking a riot that spilled into the streets.
On November 30, 1992, the band performed for the first time in Bogotá, Colombia. When they started to play "November Rain", a soft rain fell over the city and stopped right after they finished the song. Rose later stated this was a special moment for him because "November Rain" was #1 in Colombia for 60 weeks. Rose stated that the band were at risk of electrocution and must stop to dry the stage. The band moved backstage and returned to finish with "Don't Cry" and "Paradise City."
On December 2, 1992, the band performed in Santiago, Chile, at Estadio Nacional in front of 85,535 people, breaking an attendance record in the stadium. At their arriving at Chile, Rose attacked some graphic reporters and a cameraman was injured. Before the concert, Rose got drunk and arrived at the stadium two hours late. While the band performed "Civil War" some people threw bottles to the stage, and Rose stopped four minutes into the show. The concert ended with 50 people arrested outside the stadium, and a teenage fan with several injuries, dying two days later.
On February 1, 1993, the band performed at the Calder Park Raceway in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The concert started late due to earlier heavy rain, with minimal shelter available for those attending.[7] The concert was fraught with controversy, including reports that security staff had prohibited patrons from bringing their own food, drinks and sunscreen into the venue; this most seriously affected a diabetic teenage girl, whose medication and carefully portioned food were confiscated. The weather was very hot on that day, reportedly 42°C (108°F), and reportedly 1000 people were treated for heat-related illness. Many concertgoers went to the venue on special shuttle buses, which left the venue shortly after Guns N' Roses performed their final song. This, combined with a refusal to extend train timetables, left many concertgoers stranded.[8] There are reports that they walked all the way down the Calder Highway back to Melbourne, looting a 7-Eleven on the highway for food. An inquiry into the conditions was held, with the findings published by Ombudsman Victoria in May 1993.[9] To this day, this was the last ever concert to be performed at Calder Park.
In February 1993, Gilby Clarke told BBC Radio 1's Friday Rock Show: "For the last year and a half, we had a film crew with us. They do film every show and things backstage: hotel rooms, everything. And what we're gonna do at the end of the whole tour – which is actually after we're done in Europe – is put it all together, and we are gonna make a movie. It's pretty candid right now, so it's gonna be really great. The difference between ours and Madonna's is that ours isn't scripted. This movie is actually things that are happening around us." He also said Guns N' Roses would record an MTV Unplugged during their stay in Russia. Neither of these plans came to fruition.[10]
Stradlin returned for several shows in 1993, deputizing for an injured Clarke. "It was weird," he recalled. "We toured Greece, Istanbul, London [sic]. I liked that side of it – seeing some places I'd never seen… [But] money was a big sore point. I did the dates just for salary… [At the end] I didn't actually say 'See you', cos they were all fucked up… It was like playing with zombies."[11]
On July 17, 1993, the band performed in Buenos Aires, Argentina at River Plate Stadium in front of 80,000 people. It was their last show with most of the Use Your Illusion-era lineup (Rose, Slash, McKagan, Sorum, Reed, and Clarke). The tour was renamed the "Skin N' Bones Tour" for the last couple of legs and included an unplugged performance in a living room set. A highlight of the night was Cozy Powell dressed as a Domino's Pizza delivery boy playing drums with Sorum.
Setlists
First typical setlist
(Taken from the Inglewood, California Great Western Forum show on August 3, 1991)
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, known professionally 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.
Use Your Illusion is the name of two releases by American rock band Guns N' Roses: a 1998 compilation album, drawing from the Use Your Illusion I and II studio albums featuring songs without explicit lyrics, and a 2022 box set anniversary edition of both albums.
Live Era '87–'93 is a double live album by the American hard rock band Guns N' Roses. It was released on November 30, 1999. The record was the first official Guns N' Roses release since "The Spaghetti Incident?" released 6 years prior 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."
"The Garden" is a song by the rock band Guns N' Roses released in 1991. It appears on the album Use Your Illusion I and features alternating lead vocals between Axl Rose and Alice Cooper.
Guns N' Roses is an American hard rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1985, as the result of a merger between local bands L.A. Guns and Hollywood Rose. 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.
"Nightrain" is a song by American rock band Guns N' Roses. The song is a tribute to an infamous brand of cheap Californian fortified wine, Night Train Express, which was extremely popular with the band during their early days because of its low price and high alcohol content. The title is spelled differently, omitting a T and removing the space, making a portmanteau of the two words.
"It's So Easy" is a song by the American rock band Guns N' Roses, appearing on their 1987 debut studio album, Appetite for Destruction. The song was released as the band's first single on June 8, 1987, in the UK, where it reached number 84 on the UK Singles Chart as a double A-Side with "Mr. Brownstone". It was also released as a maxi-single in Germany later in the same year.
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.
Use Your Illusion World Tour – 1992 in Tokyo I is a live VHS/DVD by American hard rock band Guns N' Roses. Filmed live at Tokyo Dome, Japan, on February 22, 1992, during the Japanese leg of the Use Your Illusion tour, this recording features the first half of the concert, the second half appearing on sister volume Use Your Illusion II. The 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?"
The discography of Guns N' Roses, an American hard rock band, consists of six studio albums, one live album, two compilation albums, five extended plays (EPs), 24 singles, ten video albums and 27 music videos. Guns N' Roses was formed in Los Angeles, California with an original recording lineup of lead vocalist Axl Rose, lead guitarist Slash, rhythm guitarist Izzy Stradlin, bassist Duff McKagan and drummer Steven Adler. After self-releasing the EP Live ?!*@ Like a Suicide in December 1986, the band signed with Geffen Records and released its debut studio album Appetite for Destruction the following July. It topped the US Billboard 200 and went on to become one of the best-selling albums of all time, with reported sales over 30 million units worldwide, 18 million of which are in the US. Three singles – "Welcome to the Jungle", "Sweet Child o' Mine" and "Paradise City" – reached the US Billboard Hot 100 top ten, with "Sweet Child o' Mine" topping the chart.
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.
The Appetite for Destruction Tour was a tour by American hard rock band Guns N' Roses in 1987 and 1988 to promote their debut album Appetite for Destruction, which was released in July 1987. During the 16-month tour, the band opened for bands The Cult, Mötley Crüe, Alice Cooper, Iron Maiden, Aerosmith, and headlined shows across four continents.
Appetite for Democracy 3D is a live concert film released in Cinemas, Broadcast and BD/DVD by Guns N' Roses, filmed live at The Joint at the Hard Rock Casino in Las Vegas on November 21, 2012, on the tenth night of their residency, as part of the Appetite for Democracy tour in celebration of twenty-five years of Appetite for Destruction and four years of Chinese Democracy. This is the first live DVD release of Guns N' Roses since Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II in 1992. The show was filmed entirely in 3D and was produced by Barry Summers from Rock Fuel Media. The cover art features part of the original banned cover art from Appetite For Destruction. The album was officially revealed on May 29, 2014.
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"So Fine" is a song by the American rock band Guns N' Roses, released as a promotional single in 1992. It features bassist Duff McKagan on lead vocals, with Axl Rose singing the intro song's verses. The song, written entirely by McKagan, is a tribute to Johnny Thunders.
The We're F'N' Back! Tour was a concert tour by hard rock band Guns N' Roses spanning from July 31, 2021 to December 10, 2022.
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