Flashback: Guns N’ Roses Cover AC/DC in 1987
The widespread rumor that Axl Rose is going to be a guest singer with AC/DC later this year was seemingly confirmed this morning when TMZ posted a photo of the Guns N’ Roses frontman exiting an Atlanta rehearsal space with Angus Young, Cliff Williams and Chris Slade. The band has yet to say exactly how they will address the absence of Brian Johnson at upcoming gigs, though this makes it seem likely that Rose will be involved to some degree at some point on the tour. Rose has a pretty busy schedule with Guns N’ Roses this summer, and it’s hard to imagine he’ll have the time to be the voice of two major rock tours, but we’ll see what happens.
This won’t be the first time that Axl Rose has performed AC/DC material in concert. Guns N’ Roses played “Whole Lotta Rosie” at some of their earliest gigs in 1985 and kept it in the setlist all the way through 2014. Here’s audio of the song from a London gig on June 28th, 1987. They also began playing the 1978 AC/DC deep cut “Riff Raff” at 2011 shows and kept it in the show through 2014.
Whatever happens with AD/DC, Axl Rose is about to have a very busy few months. Guns N’ Roses begin their comeback tour on April 8th, which will mark the first time Axl and Slash have shared a stage since 1993. They headline Coachella later that month, along with a couple of nights at a stadium in Mexico City, and after that they head to venues across America. They’ve announced cities for those shows, but no dates or venues. Somewhere along the way, it seems like Axl will also sing with AC/DC. Few people would have guessed either of these developments just a few months ago, but Axl has never been a guy to do the obvious thing.