Reunited Guns N’ Roses Plan Pre-Coachella Gigs in Las Vegas
Guns N’ Roses, featuring reunited members Slash and Duff McKagan, have announced two concerts ahead of their headlining Coachella gig. The band will play the 20,000-seat T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on April 8th and 9th. Tickets will go on sale Saturday at 10 a.m. PST.
The group announced the dates with a Facebook post that declared, “Welcome back to the jungle!” It also included a 30-second video ad showing Axl Rose singing “Welcome to the Jungle” alongside imagery of Slash and McKagan playing onstage. “They’re back,” says an announcer in voiceover. Slash also confirmed the news on Twitter.
Welcome back to the jungle! Guns N’ Roses returns to the stage opening weekend at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas April 8 & 9. Tickets go on-sale Saturday at 10am! #GnFnR
Posted by Guns N’ Roses on Tuesday, January 19, 2016
Guns N’ Roses announced the reunion of Rose, Slash and McKagan earlier this month along with news that they would headline the two-weekend Indio, California festival. The group’s Coachella performances will take place on April 16th and 23rd at the Empire Polo Club.
When the band does play its first gig with this lineup, it will mark the first time Rose and Slash have shared a stage since 1993. McKagan last played with the group in 2014 when he did a short South American tour, chronicled in his recent book How to Be a Man (And Other Illusions), and one U.S. date. In the book, McKagan – who has played one-offs with Guns N’ Roses in recent years – expressed amazement at “just how fucking good we were” when he listened to the band’s recordings.
“Ever since that original thing ended, I just kept going forward and didn’t ever go back and listen,” McKagan told Rolling Stone last May. “Things were going too fast: I went to school, we were having kids, I got sober, then Velvet Revolver started, and my kids were growing. I never sat in a room somewhere and listened to bodies of work I’ve done in the past.”
None of the other original band members – guitarist Izzy Stradlin and drummer Steven Adler – have confirmed or commented on whether they will participate in the reunion.
None of the reuniting band members have commented either. Rose was confirmed to appear on Jimmy Kimmel Live in the first week of January, but pulled out at the last minute. A source for the show blamed “unforeseen circumstances” on the cancellation.