Here Today... Gone To Hell!

AXL ALL AREAS!

It was the reunion that was never supposed to happen. Then it did. And we were there. Reporting from LA and Las Vegas, Sam Coare lifts the lid on the rock event of the millennium?

When Mike Tyson walked to the ring on the evening of June 28, 1997, he did so, as had become custom, to the sound of Tupac Shakur.

Tyson and Tupac had struck up a friendship ever since meeting outside the Palladium in Hollywood, California some years prior. Their relationship was built on a mutual respect and understanding of each other?s worlds and backgrounds. Both had been born amidst the cold concrete jungle of New York City; strong, proud, determined and uncompromising men with reputations for; quite literally in most cases, never pulling a punch, and who, by their early 20s, had conquered their respective arts.

Tupac would be present at Tyson?s fights, the first to congratulate him on his victories. He would visit him in jail, too, during the boxer?s incarceration on sexual assault charges. Tyson would in-turn mentor and support the rapper five years his junior, attempting to steer him down better paths than those he had himself walked.

?Tupac was fearless,? said the heavyweight slugger; a man who, in making a career out of dodging fists the size of bricks, would know a thing or two about being exactly that. ?I looked up [to Tyson] something horrible,? admitted Tupac.

Born nearly 800 miles and a world away from New York City, in Lafayette, Indiana, Axl Rose, too, held a deep-rooted respect for the fighter. Their stories, while not as fatally linked as Tupac and Tyson?s (Tupac would be fatally shot leaving a Tyson fight in 1996), were not without parallel, either. Both were born into a troubled world, abandoned by their fathers and possessing of a face well-known to the police. Mike Tyson?s ring debut, in March 1985, came just three months shy of the precocious frontman leading the ?classic? line-up of his fledging rock group onto the stage at the Troubadour in West Hollywood. In June 1988, Tyson would be crowned the undisputed world heavyweight champion at the age of just 20; six weeks later, Guns N? Roses? Appetite For Destruction, their debut album, hit the Number One spot in the United States. Both accomplishments would come as the two men developed a reputation as being uncontrollable, unpredictable and utterly exhilarating.

?I relate what I do to what Tyson says about when he punches someone in the head,? Axl would, in 1990, tell K! scribe Mick Wall, while grasping Tyson?s autobiography. ?He says he imagines hitting ?em so hard, his fist knocks their nose bone right back into their brains. He says when he goes into the ring, he does it with bad intentions. Well, that?s like me getting ready to start something, like going onstage. And you gotta make sure when you knock ?em down, they stay down.?

The intentions running through Mike Tyson?s brain as he walked to the ring in June 1997 were undoubtedly to do just that. Seven months prior, he had lost his world heavyweight title, unexpectedly, to the unfancied and ageing Evander Holyfield. This, the rematch at Las Vegas? world-famous MGM Grand Garden Arena, was his chance to settle a score and reclaim what he believed belonged to him.

Instead, revenge took control, in an act so violent it would shock fans of a sport who bay to watch one man knock another unconscious. Tyson didn?t just leave his opponent on the mat that night ? he left dismembered parts of him on it.

The fight lasted little over three rounds before Tyson?s career, and Holyfield?s ear, lay in pieces, the victim of two separate, vicious bites that would see the fight not only end, but his license to box revoked.

As Tyson?s world was falling apart, so, too, albeit in a much less public arena, was Axl Rose?s. The one-time most famous rockstar on the planet had largely become a recluse, increasing paranoia and megalomania driving him to hide away in his Malibu mansion, his relationships dissolving on the other side of the iron gates that cocooned him from the real world. By this time, Axl had seen his fair share of Guns N? Roses co-conspirators ? or ?employees?, as they would increasingly, in their eyes at least, become ? exit the band. Yet the relationships crumbling around him at this moment would prove terminal. In October 1996, guitarist Slash ? the man whose unparalleled fretwork the Guns N? Roses legend would be built ? left the band, exasperated beyond all salvageable means by the circus life in GN?R had become. Then, in August 1997, bassist Duff McKagan joined him in departing, the final original member?s exit announcing the death knell of a band who just six years earlier could claim to be the world?s biggest.

Mike Tyson, upon his return after a 16-month ban, would never again hold a world title, his career limping from defeat to ignominious defeat. And so, too, would Axl?s Guns N? Roses; a revolving door of characters its cast, the long-running saga of 2008?s forever-delayed Chinese Democracy its comic script, a series of derided live appearances the punchline.

For Tyson, retirement would forever end his chance at redemption. Yet for Axl, as improbable as it would seem? Well?

Located barely a few minutes walk from Las Vegas? MGM Grand, the T-Mobile Arena is the newest addition to the Vegas Strip, the garish, perma-illuminated adult sandpit. Kerrang!, like 40,000 others this April weekend, will enter through its doors. Its frontage bears the name of Guns N? Roses. Yet, for the first time in 23 years ? since Axl Rose, Slash and Duff McKagan last stepped out onstage together in Buenos Aires, Argentina ? the men who will take the stage are truly befitting of its name. No-one knows exactly what has led to Axl Rose and Slash ending the most bitter of public feuds. Until either man breaks their silence over the reunion of the century, we most certainly won?t; even then, we likely will never get the whole truth.

But that, for now, matters not; only that, through whatever intervention, Axl, Slash and Duff will take to the stage together as Guns N? Roses once more.

Welcome back to the jungle, baby. Get in the fucking ring.

They said, of course, that it would never happen. They said never again. They said ?over my dead body? ? literally. ?What?s clear,? Axl Rose told Billboard in the rarest of interviews in 2009, ?is that one of [Slash and I] will die before a reunion, and however sad, ugly or unfortunate anyone views it, it is how it is.?

There is, however, no need for the funeral procession quite yet. The headstones will need to be engraved another day. Because, no matter what has come before, here, today, we stand. The Las Vegas casinos are awash as ever with gamblers chasing the tail of their fortunes, but on this weekend, they rub shoulders with thousands of people clad in GN?R T-shirts who have made the pilgrimage for two nights of shows that will kick off a States-wide tour. Its name, flashing in lights on the side of the T-Mobile Arena, elicits a chuckle: the tongue-firmly-in-cheek ?Not In This Lifetime Tour?. People have come form across the U.S. for the occasion. They?ve come from Mexico, from South America and from Europe, too. From Japan, even. Every bar is pumping out Guns classics. Even the street buskers are plodding their way through attempts at Patience, or Sweet Child O? Mine.

Many fans here are old enough to have witnessed Guns in their prime. That wildfire quintet of bottled lightning, washed-up and beat-down in 1980s Los Angeles, all streetwise sneer and reckless abandon and give-no-fuck attitude, dangerous to look in the eye but even more so to turn your back to. Others, meanwhile, have had to live solely with the Axl Rose sideshow nearly their entire gig-going lives.

Elsewhere, a handful of commemorative T-shirts paraded around like winners? medals mark out those that can count themselves in the few hundred to have witnessed this most remarkable of reunions early. They pose sheepishly for photos with other fans, as if their presence at the Troubadour a week prior for a hastily-announced warm-up show was by divine selection, the chosen few plucked to spread the gospel of that momentous night.

That they are able to is something that those that hold Guns N? Roses dear to their hearts are still coming to terms with. Because, as with everything surrounding this reunion, first announced in January, there?s an overhanging sense that it simply can?t be happening. On the eve of March 31, when fans, tipped off via an internet forum that GN?R might be returning early for an intimate warm-up the following night, were instructed to descend upon the site of West Hollywood?s long-deceased Tower Records ? where both Axl and Slash once worked ? on the Sunset Strip, they did so more out of curiosity than expectation. As April Fool?s Day dawned, the irony wouldn?t have been lost on many. Because if there?s one thing the past two decades have taught GN?R fans, it?s that it?s the hope that kills you. And if there?s one band that can snatch defeat from the jaws of victory and leave fans kicking their heels once more, it?s Guns N? Roses.

And yet, it did happen. The late morning that ushered in April also brought with it validation of why hundreds of fans had spent the night on the concrete. Guns N? Roses ? albeit without founding sticksman Steven Adler or rhythm guitarist Izzy Stradlin, it would transpire ? would return to the Troubadour that night. Tickets would cost a meagre (or, as it was billed, ?retro?) sum of $10 a ticket. They would be strictly sold one per person. Mobile phones and cameras would be locked away in bags upon entry, or ? for those that braved incurring the wrath of venue security ? forceably snatched away should they be found about your person. Seeing would be believing.

The Troubadour plays a special part in the many-chaptered Guns N? Roses story. It was here, in June 1985, that the classic line-up would play together for the very first time. And it would be here, the following year, that Geffen A&R executive Tom Zutaut would witness ?the loudest show I ever heard?, form which he left two songs in. He had already seen enough to convince him to sign the band. And so, it would be here, three decades on, that they would attempt to convince an audience once more that they are the real deal.

Of course, no-one of the few hundred fans in attendance at the Troubadour last week was ever going to follow Tom?s lead and leave early, even in the face of a show billed to start ?sometime after 11!?, a wink of a blackly comic nature given the band in question?s reputation. And their dedication was rewarded by bearing witness to a band reinvigorated. A band demonstrating open affection ? albeit not in spades ? between the once-warring parties. A band led by a frontman so regularly lampooned for his appearance and live performance, instead trim, fit and on fire.

Many said it was the best Axl has performed in a long time. His tempestuous nature had even been checked at the door; disappearances from the stage were strictly for a change in attire, not a tantrum. Guns N? Roses even went onstage relatively promptly.

Even this, however, hasn?t been enough for some. The announcement of a 20-date U.S.-wide tour to follow these Vegas dates ? as well as subsequent sets at the Coachella Festival, and a pair of Mexico City shows ? was predictably met by a weary sigh: ?It?ll never last that long.? Because questions will surround this tour until the very last tones ring out, wherever and whenever ? with a world tour still heavily-tipped ? that may prove to be. Who will be in the line-up? Will any guests join them? Will they make it out on time? When will the inevitable onstage meltdown come? And when will the cancellations begin?

And yet, for now, none of that is crossing the mind of a single person in Las Vegas. None of that matters much at all. Because when Kerrang! labelled GN?R The World?s Most Dangerous Band, we could easily have christened them Most Unpredictable or Most Uncontrollable. Because it comes with the territory. Because it?s what makes people, 25 years on from Guns N? Roses? prime, travel across the world to see them play together. Because no great band is ever truly functional.

And because now is showtime.

There is, however, a catch. Of course there is a catch.

At first, the news of Axl Rose?s broken foot is just a whispered rumor spread through the increasingly large crowds assembling to enjoy an afternoon beer outside the venue. Then word spreads that the frontman had sound checked in a wheelchair. A photo follows, hitting Twitter, showing Axl uncomfortably attempting to master crutches.

Then comes the story. In an unexplained incident, Axl has broken his fifth metatarsal in his left foot. He has had surgery to correct the issue, but is in plaster and requires rest. His performance tonight, his doctor says, will go ahead, but it will be compromised and limited.

But oh, how wrong she was.

In a scene that immediately sparks memories of Kurt Cobain?s entrance to Reading Festival in 1992, Axl Rose is wheeled onto the T-Mobile Arena stage. The joke, if this is one, is lost on everyone. ?Do you like my new furniture?? Axl asks as the realization dawns: he really is going to perform this set sitting down, in a custom-built chair that had previously cradled a lame Dave Grohl last year. ?I wanna thank Dave for this,? he smiles. ?It was very nice of him.?

And then the most remarkable thing happens. No, Axl doesn?t suddenly begin to walk; instead, he finds a voice, a presence long considered lost. Left stranded and at times obviously uncomfortable in the middle of the stage, stripped of the hiding places in the wings he would so often run to, his voice becomes his only focus and weapon of self-defense. It?s So Easy, Mr. Brownstone and Chinese Democracy roll from his tongue with precision, spite and power. Welcome To The Jungle hears him howling its infamous opening question in a manor that sends shivers down spines and rolls the clock back two decades. Estranged sees the return of a unique control and range.

And as all this happens, the layers peel back, and the most human of qualities breaks out across the frontman?s face. As he finds his stride in Estranged ? one of a half-dozen songs introduced tonight to the spine of the set list aired at the Troubadour warm-up ? the words seem to hit home. ?And now that you?ve been broken down / Got your head out of the clouds / You?re back down on the ground / And you don?t talk so loud / And you don?t walk so proud / Any more, and what for?.

He is a man that appears humbled, reduced to requiring help to move mere yards, and so the facade that Axl Rose cultivated to such detriment over the past quarter of a decade melting away.

He not only smiles gratefully, but he beams at fan applause. He introduces his band not with veiled insults, but with adulation and praise. He laughs at his own expense as he climbs back into his throne following a costume change, and later modifies the lyrics to Patience to ?I sit here on my chair / ?Cause I?d rather be alone?. He fist-pumps in unison with the crowd as Slash ? himself so evidently rejuvenated by his return to Guns ? crushes the mournful This I Love. Three songs prior, the guitarist uses an extended Rocket Queen as an exercise in showing up anyone who dared take his spot in this band, to the visible delight of its frontman.

?He is a man who needs no introduction,? says Axl as does exactly that prior to Sweet Child O? Mine. They may have previously brought the very worst out in each other, but there is an unquantifiable bond that brings out the very best, too. Quite what the pair could have achieved together in so many years lost to fighting will forever remain one of rock?s greatest mysteries and, perhaps, tragedies.

Their victory tonight, though, after a week in the fiercest of spotlights, and across 22 songs and two-and-a-half uninterrupted hours, is one shared. For Axl, a man who has previously admitted to hating the nerves and anxiety that riddle his mind nine shows out of every 10, it may prove to be his greatest of all. It is certainly his greatest performance in 25 years. Ironically, finally putting him upon the throne may well prove his making. And for this reconciled family ? Axl, Slash and Duff, who once upon a time ran wild as brothers ? it hints at a future beyond the mere healing of wounds.

If the Guns N? Roses on show in Las Vegas can hold it together, then no band on Earth can stand toe-to-toe with them. And when this Guns N? Roses knocks ?em down, they sure as hell are staying down.

Interesting. I'm from Indiana, and I hate that state mostly. Anyone here ever actually been up to Lafayette? Once you get there, just rewing like 40 years and you have an idea how it was for Axl. It's kinda hicky still now, but man I bet it was real bad years ago.

I might add, I never really thought about Tyson and Rose's paralell journeys... they actually almost run side by side in a lot of ways. Pretty cool I think.

Didn't Tyson make a comeback in like 2001-2002 like Axl did with Nu Gn'R?

He did, yeah.  Lennox Lewis beat him with a knockout.

If the author hadn't so inaccurately discredited New GNR so many times in this article, I'd say it was really good.