Concert Promoters Share Their Guns N? Roses War Stories

[Spirit]

Concert Promoters Share Their Guns N? Roses War Stories
By Steve Knopper

With the classic Guns N? Roses lineup (well, most of it) reupping for Coachella, it?s easy to get swept up in nostalgia for the band?s prime ? unless you remember actually dealing with Axl Rose, Slash, Duff McKagan & Co. Here?s what it was like to be caught in the middle of the GNR whirlwind.

November 22, 1987, Omni Coliseum, Atlanta
As concert promoter Charlie Brusco walked through the back door of the arena shortly after the concert started, he knew something was wrong. ?I heard this horrible sound,? Brusco says. ?I look up, and one of the guys in the road crew was singing.? A roadie for the band named Big Ron was on lead vocals, because, earlier, Rose had jumped offstage, punched a cop, and been carried away. The Omni?s head of security told Brusco, ?First strike, he hit an Atlanta police officer. Second strike, he hit a female Atlanta police officer. Third strike, he hit a black female Atlanta police officer. He?s going to jail.? Brusco begged for Rose to be allowed to finish the show. Finally the security chief said, ?If he apologizes to the police officer in writing, we?ll let him go.? Brusco agreed. He was led to Rose, who was sitting at a makeshift booking table wearing his trademark bandanna. Rose dutifully signed his apology, and security brought in the female officer. Then Rose looked up and said, ?Fuck you, you fucking jag-off cop.? He was hauled to jail, and the show was canceled. ?I don?t think,? Brusco says, ?I did another Guns show after that.?

February 12, 1988, Celebrity Theatre, Phoenix
On the night of this gig, promoter Danny Zelisko was attending a roast for a colleague across town when he got a call from the venue. ?Man, you better get down here right away,? Zelisko recalls the manager telling him. ?This place is going to explode.? Because the show was rocking? Nope. The audience was raging because, Zelisko explains, ?the opening act had been on for 90 minutes and Axl wouldn?t come out of his hotel room.? The crowd got so unruly that the city?s riot squad showed up outside the theater.

Inside, Zelisko huddled with Alan Niven, GNR?s then-manager, and asked, ?Does Axl do this often?? Niven replied, ?Nah, not really, but tonight he?s not going to come.? Zelisko wondered, ?How are we going to get out of this building alive?? He turned to Niven: ?You have a nice British accent. You make the announcement. I?m not getting torched.? Niven did, saying that Rose had ?throat problems.? After some tense moments, the crowd dispersed peacefully. As a make-good, the band agreed to return to play a benefit show later in the year. ?I said, ?You guys have to come the day before the show,? ? recounts Zelisko, ? ?and come to my house for a BBQ so I know you?re in town and not acting up.? ? Everyone appeared, except Axl. (Who, to his credit, did play the rescheduled concert.)

April 29, 1988, Coronado Theatre, Rockford, Illinois
Andy Cirzan was a talent buyer for the live-entertainment company Jam Productions when he was assigned to accompany GNR to a gig in Rockford, Illinois. ?The guys at the venue,? says Cirzan, now a VP at Jam, ?told me, ?We got this call from the Iowa state police; they wanna talk to the band members about incidents that transpired at a show.? ? Cirzan is mum on what, exactly, those ?incidents? were, though in 1990 the Chicago Reader alleged that police searched the band?s tour bus for videotapes of underage women. Cirzan says, ?I remember thinking, Jesus, what have I gotten into? I called the venue owners and asked, ?What do we do if a band member gets arrested?? ? The cops never showed, and Cirzan went to go check on the band. He saw lead guitarist Slash ?lying on a cot with a rigor-mortis grip, his arms around a bottle of Jack Daniel?s. I figured, Okay, one guitar player down.? When the band did make it onstage, Slash (he?d rallied) allegedly said to the crowd, ?Tell the fucking pigs that I?m going to do whatever I fucking please.?

December 6, 2002, First Union Center, Philadelphia
When the band (now Axl and a bunch of ringers) returned after an eight-year layoff, its front man had hardly mellowed. At this gig, Larry Magid, one of the promoters for GNR?s Philly tour stop, started to worry when Mix Master Mike?s opening set went on well beyond its scheduled last song. ?The managers weren?t able to persuade the band to go on,? recalls Magid. ?Whatever psychological issues Axl was having, he just couldn?t get onstage.? By 9:30, Mike was finished, but GNR still hadn?t shown; near midnight, an announcer declared the band would not be performing. (The rumor was that Rose was in New York watching basketball on TV.) ?The audience responded,? Magid says, ?by wrecking the place ? almost $200,000 in damages.? As the Philly papers reported, fans threw bottles, chairs, and (somehow) ceiling tiles. ?They?re not my favorite band,? says Magid. Things were bad outside the arena, too: In the parking lot, somebody threw a trash can through a Toyota Camry?s windshield. ?I did one show with them, and that?s all I wanted to do,? Magid says. ?Why would you subject yourself to the promise of more punishment??

GNR headline the Coachella festival on April 16 and 23.

*This article appears in the March 21, 2016 issue of New York Magazine.



http://www.vulture.com/2016/03/concert-promoters-share-their-gnr-war-stories.html

[D-GenerationX]

There was a picture of that trashcan through the windshield in one of the local papers here the next day.

That night was legit scary in the building.  I think its because we could all see it coming.  If it was a legit surprise, people might have handled it better.

But the longer that goober kept spinning records, you knew something was wrong.  And "something wrong" at a GNR concert is a no show.  And the ugly mood built for about 2 hours before it exploded.

Right before the announcement they came out to cover the band's equipment and soundboard.  To little avail, as the stuff still got wrecked.

[RnT]

Guns N? Roses ladies and gentlemen 

[HBK]

Guns N? Roses ladies and gentlemen 

AJjaJAJaj, Epic

 

[GNR4LIFEJD]

How about having some people talk about the hundreds of awesome shows the band has had over the years lets find 5 people nobody has ever heard of to talk crap about gnr just to remind us GNR or more so Axl is Mr. Difficult to work with

[C0ma]

How about having some people talk about the hundreds of awesome shows the band has had over the years lets find 5 people nobody has ever heard of to talk crap about gnr just to remind us GNR or more so Axl is Mr. Difficult to work with

Where is the story in that? You talk to the St. Louis, Montreal, Vancouver, and Philly promoters because it will generate buzz and reads, which translates in to ad revenue for the online entity... Plus this is vulture.com, couldn't be more representative of the name than trying to pick every last fiber of flesh of the bones of that decades old story.

Goes to show you though how powerful a few bad reviews vs. hundred of positive reviews get weighted.

[axlvai]

Young, wild, rebel.... rock.n roll lifestyle.

[Kasanova King]

I was at the Philly show in 2002. Just about every chair on the floor was thrown towards the stage (over our heads) as we tried to clear out of there.

I ended up hooking up with a chick that night (had the show gone on there was a good chance that would not have happened)...spent the next 2 years of my life with her, moved down to Florida with her and I'm still living here now....(not with her anymore) but I met the mother of my son here in Florida shortly after.

Moral of the story is, Axl not showing up that night literally changed my entire life.

Crazy when you think about it.   

[D-GenerationX]

How about having some people talk about the hundreds of awesome shows the band has had over the years lets find 5 people nobody has ever heard of to talk crap about gnr just to remind us GNR or more so Axl is Mr. Difficult to work with

You are swimming WAY upstream if you think you ever unring that bell.

Will never understand why some of you guys can't make your peace with that.

If you don't see him that way, who cares?  No??

[GNR4LIFEJD]

I know its crazy thinking on my part that someone ever talks about exactly  how great this band is/was together

[D-GenerationX]

I know its crazy thinking on my part that someone ever talks about exactly  how great this band is/was together

And people do.

But "man, that Axl Rose is crazy" is just so ingrained with the public.

Tell you what.  He goes out and kills this tour, with no nonsense, you'll start to see more retrospective pieces written about him.  There will be some "oh, that crazy Axl" but more "this guy was really great."

[Spirit]

I know its crazy thinking on my part that someone ever talks about exactly  how great this band is/was together

We can like it or not, but the fact that GN'R has a volatile factor to them can't be avoided.

The press surely like to emphasize more on this side of the band's history, and to some degree unfairly to the band I think. The band certainly did way way more good to music than bad. It's the sensationalist nature of the press though, that always seem to come back to the tired notion of a band completely out of control. It has some truth to it, but not nearly as much as they portray it.

I think GN'R just stands out as volatile compared to most other bands, they become very visible when looking for a band that has stories about such on and off-stage antics. To a certain degree it just means that most other bands have none of this "bad behavior" going on, while GN'R had some. "Some" then becomes "a lot" in relation to the norm.


As the upcoming shows are starting up, I can't wait to read the reviews. I hope they kill it.

[OscarAxl22]

Who gives a shit about a couple of articles highlighting some destruction that happened along the way? It wasnt that negative an article... and yes.. weve had heaps of articles lately where Axl has been nominated in the top 3 singers of all time and stuff like that...

dont be hypersensitive. 

[lostdream]

I know its crazy thinking on my part that someone ever talks about exactly  how great this band is/was together

They will show the world how HUGE they ARE! 😉💃

[WAR41]

I was at the Philly show in 2002. Just about every chair on the floor was thrown towards the stage (over our heads) as we tried to clear out of there.

I ended up hooking up with a chick that night (had the show gone on there was a good chance that would not have happened)...spent the next 2 years of my life with her, moved down to Florida with her and I'm still living here now....(not with her anymore) but I met the mother of my son here in Florida shortly after.

Moral of the story is, Axl not showing up that night literally changed my entire life.

Crazy when you think about it.   

That's a great story.  Do you ever talk to that chick anymore? 

[pilferk]

And people do.

But "man, that Axl Rose is crazy" is just so ingrained with the public.

Tell you what.  He goes out and kills this tour, with no nonsense, you'll start to see more retrospective pieces written about him.  There will be some "oh, that crazy Axl" but more "this guy was really great."

You think?

Because you just described the last...what...8 years of what he's been doing, generally speaking.

It's ALWAYS gonna be there. Even if they knock this tour out of the park.

[rebelhipi]

I was at the Philly show in 2002. Just about every chair on the floor was thrown towards the stage (over our heads) as we tried to clear out of there.

I ended up hooking up with a chick that night (had the show gone on there was a good chance that would not have happened)...spent the next 2 years of my life with her, moved down to Florida with her and I'm still living here now....(not with her anymore) but I met the mother of my son here in Florida shortly after.

Moral of the story is, Axl not showing up that night literally changed my entire life.

Crazy when you think about it.   

That's a great story.  Do you ever talk to that chick anymore? 

Life is full of surprises

[C0ma]

And people do.

But "man, that Axl Rose is crazy" is just so ingrained with the public.

Tell you what.  He goes out and kills this tour, with no nonsense, you'll start to see more retrospective pieces written about him.  There will be some "oh, that crazy Axl" but more "this guy was really great."

You think?

Because you just described the last...what...8 years of what he's been doing, generally speaking.

It's ALWAYS gonna be there. Even if they knock this tour out of the park.

It will always be there, but I still think there was a component of people that went in thinking he was an ass, but never get won over because they fail to also get past the fact that Slash and to a lesser point others from the past aren't next to him on stage.

I think if they crush these shows with the 'reformed' lineup then he gets an extra credibility bump that somehow having a 10 year clean touring record hasn't gotten him on his own.

[raindogs70]

GNR were a hot mess, they could get away with it at the time, but the UYI tour played into the band imploding. Slash and Duff numbed themselves and it became one big blur.

They all know there's a lot riding on Coachella and Vegas. The rehearsals must be going well to book a summer tour. I expect to see a few critics going "Axl was actually on time and there were no riots - how boring".



 

[The Wight Gunner]

I expect to see a few critics going "Axl was actually on time and there were no riots - how boring".



 

For sure if you are a 21st Century fan, but then again if you are promoter/venue/festival manager and you are reading that they are meeting their obligations without incident, then chances are they may be willing to take that punt on them being a part of that event, and that might be right on your doorstep