Not in This Lifetime... Tour

Background

After their last tour ended in 2014, there was some uncertainty surrounding the band, especially the guitarist situation. Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal had hinted during the last part of the tour that these would be his last shows with Guns N’ Roses. However, after the tour ended, no official word on the situation was given, neither from Guns N’ Roses nor Thal himself. During several South American shows on the tour, Duff McKagan had filled in for bassist Tommy Stinson, who fulfilled previous commitments with his other band The Replacements.

Almost a year after the tour ended, on May 7, 2015 Slash revealed in an interview on CBS This Morning that much of the tension that had existed between Axl and himself was gone, saying: "Well, we haven't really talked in a long time. But a lot of the tension that you were talking about has dissipated. We don't have all those issues anymore." When asked specifically about the chances of Guns N' Roses reuniting, he said: "I gotta be careful what I say there. I mean, if everybody wanted to do it and do it for the right reasons, you know, I think the fans would love it. I think it might be fun at some point to try and do that, but…it just starts to get into a whole complex thing. But anyway, it's really between the guys in the band." This sparked the start of what would prove to be a long period of speculation on the reunion subject by both the fans and the media.

Suddenly, on July 27, 2015 the news broke that Guns N’ Roses’ second lead guitarist, DJ Ashba, was leaving the band. He wrote a letter explaining that he was going to focus his work on his other group, Sixx:A.M., which he had formed with bassist Nikki Sixx and vocalist James Michael in 2007. At the same time he thanked Rose for the opportunity he was given by playing with Guns N’ Roses and it seemed like they had left things on good terms. While this news story was picking up, it was at the same time confirmed by a representative of Guns N' Roses that Thal was officially out of the band. The leaving of both Ashba and Thal, combined with Slash’s comments on a reunion only a couple months before, further fueled both the media’s and the fans’ speculation about a reunion being in the works.

Furthermore, on August 22, 2015, Slash stated to the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet, that Axl and he had spoken recently. This was considered a big news story because it was almost common knowledge that the two of them had not spoken together ever since he left the band in 1996. When asked about the re-connection with Rose, Slash commented "It was probably way overdue". Rumors of a reunited Guns N’ Roses started to pick up more and more during the fall of 2015. More reports came in claiming to have a confirmation that a reunion would happen, but no official statement was made during this period. One of the questions on people’s minds was if this was going to be a full reunion of the "classic line-up" or if it would be just one or two people from that line-up returning to the band. Steven Adler (the drummer from Guns N’ Roses’ "classic line-up") admitted during a radio interview with Eddie Trunk that he had not heard anything from Guns N’ Roses about a reunion. Classic-era member Izzy Stradlin later confirmed to Rolling Stone that he will have no involvement with the new lineup. Former drummer Matt Sorum stated he was not asked to be part of the reunion, while departed guitarist Ashba claimed he was asked by Rose to be a part of the lineup but had turned it down, citing his commitment to Sixx:A.M. Stradlin explained his absence on the tour stating "they didn't want to split the loot equally".

Announcement

In late December 2015, the Guns N' Roses website was updated, scrapping much of the content and displaying the classic Guns N' Roses bullet-logo. The logo had not been used in official promotion since the Use Your Illusion days. Then, on Christmas Day, a teaser trailer debuted before the new Star Wars movie. The 15-second video showed black and white shots of a concert audience with the opening words of "Welcome to the Jungle" played. No additional narration or text accompanied the trailer.

On December 29, 2015, Billboard reported that Slash was set to rejoin the band and a "reunited" lineup would headline Coachella 2016. Rose was set to appear on Jimmy Kimmel Live! the following week to talk about the future of the band, but his appearance was cancelled due to "unforeseen circumstances". Guns N' Roses were officially announced as the headliner of Coachella on January 4, 2016, with KROQ reporting Slash and Duff McKagan were rejoining the band. The Coachella festival then confirmed via press release that McKagan and Slash were rejoining. April concerts in Las Vegas and Mexico City were announced subsequently.

The full tour announcement came on April 1, 2016, when the band announced 20 cities as part of a North American leg of the tour dubbed "Not in This Lifetime...". The tour's name is a reference to a 2012 interview in which Rose, when asked about when a potential reunion would happen, responded "not in this lifetime." The reunion was billed as a "regrouping" by the band instead of a full reunion, since Slash and McKagan were filling empty spots in the existing band lineup. Additional dates in Chicago, New England, New York, and Los Angeles were announced on April 25 due to shows selling out. On May 18, Alice In Chains and Lenny Kravitz were announced as openers for select shows of the tour. Two weeks before the tour began, The Cult, Chris Stapleton, Billy Talent, and Skrillex were announced as additional openers for select shows. On June 30, Wolfmother and Tyler Bryant & The Shakedown were announced for several shows. Zakk Wylde was added as an additional opener to the band's August 15 show in Glendale, Arizona.

Additional legs of the tour were announced throughout the year, including a Latin American leg and a leg covering Asia and Oceania. Babymetal was announced as openers for the Japanese shows in 2017. In late November, commercials started airing in the United States with footage from the tour with the tagline "They're back for more in 2017", teasing a return to North America. On December 5, the band announced 35 North American and European dates for 2017, including a return to St. Louis for the first time since the 1991 Riverport Riot.

On March 7, 2017 the band was announced as part of the 2017 edition of Rock in Rio, playing on September 23. A YouTube video was released promoting this announcement, revealing that the band would co-headline their day with The Who. This marks the fourth appearance by Guns N' Roses with the festival in Rio de Janeiro, with the second edition in 1991 being their first time there.

Notable events

While originally slated to commence in Las Vegas on April 8, 2016, a previously unannounced warmup gig at the Troubadour in Los Angeles took place on April 1, 2016. Rumors of the secret show had started the night before, and fans were starting to gather outside the old Tower Records building at Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood. Rumblings that a ticket sale for the show would take place there started a line of people that grew during the night and into the early morning of April 1. Then, during the morning, the announcement came that the rumors were true and tickets for the club show would go on sale at 12 pm at the Tower Records building. They charged a $10 "retro" ticket price for the show. Later in the evening, as the band took the stage at the Troubadour, it was revealed that Melissa Reese, who has previously worked with former drummer Bryan "Brain" Mantia on several projects, had replaced longtime second keyboardist Chris Pitman for the tour. During the show at the Troubadour, Rose fell and broke his foot. For the following concerts, Rose was given Dave Grohl's customized throne that Grohl used to perform when he broke his leg at a concert.

The band's first scheduled concerts with Slash and McKagan took place at the newly opened T-Mobile Arena on April 8 and 9, 2016. Alice in Chains were the opening act for the Las Vegas shows, while The Cult opened the first two shows outside the United States in Mexico City on April 19 and 20.

Former Skid Row singer Sebastian Bach joined the band on stage during the second of the two Las Vegas shows in April 2016, sharing the lead vocals with Rose on the song "My Michelle". Bach has guested on the same song in a similar fashion on many previous Guns N' Roses tours, but this was the first time performing it alongside the returned Slash and McKagan. Rose Tattoo singer Angry Anderson joined the band onstage to help them cover the Rose Tattoo song "Nice Boys" at their concert in Australia in February 2017.

On April 16, 2016, just hours before their performance at the Coachella Festival's first weekend was scheduled to start, the news broke that Rose would be joining AC/DC to fill in as the lead vocalist for the remaining dates of their Rock or Bust tour. Brian Johnson had to leave the group previously due to risk of hearing loss. During Guns N' Roses' show that night, AC/DC guitarist Angus Young guested with the band for performances of the AC/DC classics "Whole Lotta Rosie" and "Riff Raff", giving the audience an early preview of how the guitarist's sound and Rose's voice sounded together. Young joined the band for three more shows on the tour in early 2017.

During the April 23 Coachella concert, McKagan had Prince's symbol featured on his bass guitar as a tribute, due to his death just days prior. Rose talked about them being fans of Prince, but did not have enough time to get together a song of his to perform in honor of him. Instead, they dedicated the whole concert to his memory.

Steven Adler joined the band on stage for the first time in 26 years during the July 6, 2016 concert in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he performed "Out Ta Get Me" and "My Michelle". The drummer's last performance with the band was at the Farm Aid concert on April 7, 1990 in Indianapolis, Indiana, although he did perform alongside Slash, McKagan, Sorum and Gilby Clarke during Guns N' Roses' induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012, with Rose being absent from the ceremony. Previously, Adler was rumored to take part in the surprise April 1, 2016 show at the Troubadour before back surgery forced him to cancel. Adler repeated his appearance at the July 9, 2016 concert in Nashville, Tennessee. Towards the end of the North American trek, once again the drummer sat behind the drum set when performing the same two songs at the second of the two Dodger Stadium shows in Los Angeles, California. During the Latin American leg, Adler joined the band for a song each of the two nights in Buenos Aires.

When the band and crew were traveling between Philadelphia and Toronto on July 15, 2016, they were stopped and detained at the Canadian border for having a gun on board their transportation. Rose revealed this while on stage in Toronto on July 16, saying "... so we weren’t exactly arrested, we were detained", and further remarked of the customs officers "They were very nice. They were very nice". He then jokingly added "They were very understanding. You know, it happens -- you can forget you had a f---in' gun". A band representative later confirmed the story while adding that the gun did not belong to any member of the band. During a show in Mexico on November 30, the band invited several fans onstage to smash a large Donald Trump piñata. Rose had previously altered lyrics to "Civil War" during a concert to reference Trump.

Guns N' Roses

Guest appearances

Concert broadcast and recordings

On April 8, 2016, before the first show at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Guns N' Roses posted a video in social media showing a recap of the event at the former Tower Records building and concert at the Troubadour in West Hollywood that took place a week earlier, on April 1. The three-minute video showed cuts from different songs played at the concert, as well as a time-lapse of the set-up of the Guns N' Roses museum that was temporarily placed inside the Tower Records building. Small snippets with comments from fans outside the museum was also featured in the clip.

The Coachella Festival had a live internet broadcast via YouTube of select performances during the first weekend of the festival. The Guns N' Roses concert was not shown in its entirety, but rather two songs from the set, namely "Welcome to the Jungle" and "November Rain". During the second weekend of the festival there was a 360° live feed from the festival, and again two songs from the Guns N' Roses set were selected for broadcast. This time they showed "November Rain" and "Knockin' on Heaven's Door".

Box Office

The first leg of the tour featured sold-out shows in West Hollywood, Las Vegas and Mexico City grossing a total of $15.5 million. In addition Guns N' Roses headlined one day each weekend of the Coachella Festival earning an unknown figure. On June 23, 2016 the second leg of the tour started, featuring stadiums in the United States as well as one show in Toronto, Canada. The box office numbers reported for the leg added up to $116.8 million, with twelve of the total 25 performances being sold-out shows. The Latin American leg yielded up to a total gross of $56.5 million with more than 565,000 tickets sold. They played 13 shows in 11 cities, selling out 8 of them. By the end of 2016 the band had played for over 1.8 million people and grossed $192 million. The 2017 European and North American legs of the tour sold one million tickets just 24 hours after going on sale in late 2016. The tour was the highest earning per-show concert tour in 2016, making $5.5 million per show, as well as the fourth highest grossing tour of 2016.

Additionally, the tour was the second highest grossing North American Tour (the highest grossing of any band) for 2016, grossing $130.8 million in North America. The shows at MetLife Stadium on July 23 and 24 were ranked as the 9th highest grossing of the year by Pollstar, earning a combined $11.2 million. The band also sold over 350,000 tickets in Australia and New Zealand.

Opening acts

Alice in Chains was the first band announced as an opening act on the tour. They played both of the Las Vegas shows in April 2016, while returning for select dates during the following summer leg of North America. Duff McKagan has ties with the band as he toured with the them in 2006 and also expressing interest in writing a biography on them. Another band with previous ties with Guns N’ Roses was selected for the Mexican dates in April – The Cult. As part of their Appetite for Destruction Tour, Guns N’ Roses opened for The Cult for a whole North American leg in August and September 1987. A later drummer of The Cult, Matt Sorum, would eventually join Guns N’ Roses in 1990 and stay until 1997. The Cult also returned to support the band during the summer of 2016.

Tyler Bryant & The Shakedown was selected for numerous dates both in North America and Singapore. Before opening for Guns N’ Roses they had been the opening band for AC/DC during the European leg of their Rock or Bust Tour in which Axl Rose served as the replacement singer. Chris Stapleton was a surprising selection as opener for the Nashville show, as Guns N’ Roses usually picks artists within the same music genre as themselves, though it proved a successful choice for the Tennessee audience. Wolfmother opened their first show on the tour on July 12 in Pittsburgh, and would continue to appear as a supporting act throughout the tour. The singer, Andrew Stockdale has a past working relationship with Slash, appearing on the 2010 single "By The Sword" from Slash’s first solo album.

Canadian punk rock band Billy Talent opened the only Canada date in Toronto during the summer North American leg of the tour. For the two double shows in Foxborough and East Rutherford, long-time friend of the band Lenny Kravitz was the supporting act. Slash has recorded with Kravitz in the past, noteably the first single from the album Mama Said, "Always On The Run". Kravitz has also appeared on stage with Guns N’ Roses before, during the June 6, 1992 Use Your Illusion Tour stop in Paris, France, where they played the single live. The guitarist/singer was also spotted in the audience of Guns N’ Roses’ April 1 surprise show at the Troubadour, where he said that he had re-connected with the band.

Another unusual choice as opening act was Skrillex, who performed in Houston, Texas on August 5. British band The Struts was handpicked to open the show in San Francisco on August 9. Similarly to Guns N' Roses, the band lists Queen and The Rolling Stones as influences on their music. At McKagan's homecoming show in Seattle on August 12, his daughter Grace's band The Pink Slips opened the event alongside Alice in Chains. Zakk Wylde has ties to Guns N' Roses back to 1995 when he was in the studio with the band. He was chosen as opener on the August 15 show. Wylde had also previously played as a guest with Guns N' Roses on stage back in 2011, where he also performed as an opening act with his band Black Label Society.

Stage design and show production

Planning and preparation for the tour started in January 2016. TAIT Towers was brought in by long time client production manager, Dale "Opie" Skjerset, to produce the stage and show itself. They have previously built and designed world tours with artists such as The Rolling Stones, Taylor Swift, U2 and Madonna. The set was designed by Phil Ealy, previously the light designer on the Use Your Illusion tour. They built a 71 ft. wide main stage including band risers, LED staircases made with P9 LED video tiles, LED fascia and amp stacks, and a self-climber piano lift used for Rose’s performance of “November Rain.” Additionally, they developed an 80 ft. automated video track truss system installed with power transmission units to automate Screenworks background video screens. TAIT Navigator, a proprietary automation platform, operated and controlled the self-climber piano lift as well as automated Screenworks’ video screens into variations of three to six columns.

The stage had staircases on each side as well as in the middle, leading up to the drum-kit. There was a walkway extending all the way around the drummer and two keyboardists, with staircases implemented into the riser, allowing the band members to freely move up amongst the keyboardists and the drummer during the show. At the center of the stage, there was a catwalk extending 28 ft. into the audience pit area hosting the self-climber piano lift. This catwalk was not assembled for the first seven shows as a result of Rose’s foot injury and he was subsequently forced to have a seat on the main stage instead. An extensive lighting rig was assembled in the center stage area which featured Atomic 3000 LED and MAC III AirFX fixtures by Martin. The band members wanted a stage show experience similar to their Use Your Illusion tour, with updated technology. Each side of the stage had big LED video screens, primarily used to show close-ups of the band during the show. Roughly 250 professional and local crew members (125 of each) were needed to set up the staging, speakers and video boards. The setup process took three days and more than 20 production trucks to transfer from each city. Additionally there were three fleets of 16 steel trucks each, carrying the skeleton of the stage, making them able to set up the basis of the stage in three different venues at any time.

Motion graphics agency Creative Works London were brought back to do the visuals package for the stage show after having worked on the 2014 tours of South America and the Las Vegas residency. The new footage and graphics included familiar elements associated with many of the songs, like animations of old-school TV sets with the band members’ skull drawings made famous by the cover of the Appetite For Destruction album. The TV sets were a throwback to the "Welcome to the Jungle" music video. "You Could Be Mine" graphics consisted of the band stylized as a resemblance to Terminators, influenced by the song having been used as the soundtrack on the Terminator 2 movie and original music video. Elements from the Chinese Democracy alternative art series were used in songs such as "Chinese Democracy" and "Catcher in the Rye". A set of changing backgrounds with rain and rose petals featured during "November Rain", whilst a black crow inspired from the official music video, was made to fly across the screens during "Don't Cry". Slash’s signature skull with a top-hat, smoking a cigarette, was displayed on the main screen during his solo performance of "The Godfather theme", with a similar skull graphic during Duff’s vocal performance. Pyrotechnics were used for a selection of the songs: "Welcome to the Jungle", "Live and Let Die", "Better", "November Rain" and "Paradise City" amongst a few more.

The intro to the show featured either the classic Guns N’ Roses bullet-logo made to look like a neon sign, blinking on the big screen on center stage, or an animated bullet-logo with the revolvers firing shots. The "Merrie Melodies" intro tune played, and then the whole venue went dark with the theme from The Equalizer playing over the PA system for a few minutes before the band then started the first song of the set. The show ended with a considerable amount of pyrotechnics on stage, and confetti was shot out over the crowd during the ending of "Paradise City". When they played outdoor venues, an extensive fireworks display was added.

Show overview

As this was a semi-reunion of the "classic line-up" of Guns N’ Roses, many were curious about which songs they would play at the concerts. Mainly if they would add songs from the Use Your Illusion albums to their setlist, and if they would continue to play songs from their latest release, the 2008 album Chinese Democracy – which Slash and McKagan were not a part of creating or recording. McKagan had previously performed songs from Chinese Democracy with Guns N' Roses in 2014, when he stepped in as a substitute for Tommy Stinson while he was busy playing shows with The Replacements.

After the first show – the surprise performance at the Troubadour – some questions were answered. They did bring back "Double Talkin’ Jive" from Use Your Illusion I, while they also played tracks from Chinese Democracy, "Chinese Democracy" and "Better". This development continued at the first arena-sized show at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas where they further extended the setlist with songs like "Coma" and "This I Love", where the former had not been performed by the band since 1993. "The Godfather theme", which used to be a staple Slash solo number during past tours, was also brought back into the set. A few shows into the first leg, during the second show in Mexico City, they debuted "There Was a Time", another song from the Chinese Democracy album. "Sorry" and "Catcher in the Rye" were later debuted during shows in July. It is also notable that Slash had altered some guitar parts of the songs from this album.

Core set

The band continued, as they had done in past tours, to keep the core set which included their most well-known songs. The core set largely consisted of songs from their debut album Appetite For Destruction, namely "Welcome to the Jungle", "It’s So Easy", "Nightrain", "Mr. Brownstone", "Paradise City", "Sweet Child o' Mine" and "Rocket Queen". The remaining core songs were tracks from the Use Your Illusion albums and Chinese Democracy. This included some of the aforementioned songs: the newly added "Double Talkin’ Jive", as well as "Chinese Democracy", "Better" and "This I Love". In addition, "Live and Let Die", "November Rain", "Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door", "Estranged", and "You Could Be Mine" were played at every concert (except "November Rain" and "Estranged", which were not played at the shorter club show at the Troubadour).

Opening songs

In all tours from 2001 and on, Guns N’ Roses had (with few exceptions) opened their show with either "Welcome to the Jungle" or "Chinese Democracy". For this tour, they changed things up and were now using the song "It’s So Easy" as the opening song. "Chinese Democracy" and "Welcome to the Jungle" took the number 3 and 4 spots in the set, with "Mr. Brownstone" being the second song played, as was common during their older tours.

Solo spots

In past tours, an extensive number of solo spots were a usual part of the setlist. They cut this down to a minimum, keeping the set quite tight with the performance of regular songs as the main focus. Slash did have a solo spot with "The Godfather theme", a guitar instrumental piece with the rest of the band backing up and functioning as a lead-in to "Sweet Child o' Mine". As a second new addition, Fortus and Slash were doing a guitar instrumental version of the Pink Floyd song "Wish You Were Here", which worked as a prelude to "November Rain". McKagan took the lead vocals during a regular spot in the set, singing a song from the Guns N' Roses punk cover album "The Spaghetti Incident?". From show to show, he alternated between "New Rose" – the debut single of the British punk rock group The Damned, "Raw Power" – a song by Iggy Pop and the Stooges which he had previously performed at some of the Guns N' Roses shows in 2014, and "Attitude" – a Misfits song he played regularly on the Use Your Illusion Tour and in 2014.

Encore

The band ended their concerts with the song "Paradise City", but the total length of the encore set varied. The songs included in this set, with the exception of "Paradise City", were different ones from show to show, including "The Seeker", "Patience", "Don't Cry", "Yesterdays", "Used To Love Her", "Catcher In The Rye" and "Sorry" in various combinations.