Axl Rose isn't "Knockin' On Heaven's Door," but he did have to cut a show short
Aux News Guns N Roses
Guns N’ Roses singer Axl Rose isn’t the man he was “Yesterdays.” In the band’s prime in the ‘80s and ‘90s, the frontman for the hard-rock legends would be hard-pressed to complete an entire show, and as temper tantrums and riots maligned Rose’s reputation, G ‘N’ R tickets were a risky buy. It was like investing in a Lauryn Hill ticket in 2018: It’ll probably be great—if they show up.
But present-day Axl is a different animal. He’s been the picture of professionalism and “Patience” on the multi-year “Not In This Lifetime” tour, which began with warm-up dates in April 2016 and has two dates remaining in South Africa and Hawaii. So, when he left the stage early Sunday night in in the UAE’s “Paradise City,” Abu Dhabi, you might expect him to be suffering from a temporary relapse to his old Axl ways.
“Not so,” say his bandmates, who cut through the internet’s “Double Talkin’ Jive” and explained via Twitter that Rose was “severely ill” but still able to power through 20 songs of their planned 28-song set.
“So they’ve got me on IVs and a bunch of injections because I got sick today,” Rose, 56, said at the concert, as captured in an attendee’s video. “I’ve been throwing up for about the last five hours. So instead of cancel, I’m gonna do the best show we can for you.”
But “Don’t Cry.” Axl has good reason to heal up, and quick. Besides finishing up the Guns ‘N’ Roses tour, there are rumblings that he’ll be back behind the mic for AC/DC. Rose has sporadically loaned his services to the band as touring singer in recent years, after Brian Johnson was forced to retire from performing due to hearing loss. Earlier this year, after reports that the partnership between AC/DC principle songwriter/perpetual naughty schoolboy Angus Young and Rose would continue, Rose Tattoo frontman Angry Anderson confirmed that the pair are currently writing new material together.
No word yet on what caused Rose’s ailment; a Spaghetti Incident has not been ruled out. Axl, as well as fans in the front row, must just be glad it was “November Rain” and not “Mr. Brownstone,” if you catch our drift.
74 Comments
Rose, 56…Jesus.
Not god.Zod.
Rod & Tod?
I’m not even sure if I feel like he should be younger or older.
33!
No shit, way to bury the lede here. I’m fucking old.
DO YOU KNOW WHERE YOU ARE? YOU’RE MIDDLE AGED, BABY! YERR GONNA DIIIIIIEEEEEEEEE!
Based on your screen name, you’re dead.
To be fair, you can’t get much older than “dead”.
Too true. Point and match.
Jesus: 33.
Yeah. We’re old.
Yet still 72 years younger than Keith Richards.
Axl Rose isn’t “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door,” but he did have to cut a show short Hopefully he isn’t dancing with Mr. Brownstone
Maybe your momma is dancing with Mr brownstone whom has about ten inches of brown dick down her old stem burnt throat you little disrespectful sorry fuck
Someone didn’t finish the article!
Actually, he never did. Axl is very anti-drug. That was all Slash and Duff and was the main reason for the band’s breakup.
One: Please stop trying to show you’re a hip, swingin’ card by trying to put the band’s song titles into the text of the article at every opportunity. It’s not working.
Two: This band sucks. They always have. They had some cool songs but so did Poison and Motley Crue, and Poison and Motley Crue still suck.Three: A singer showing up to do his fucking job shouldn’t be remarkable and the fact that it is speaks volumes about Mr. Rose.-An Anonymous Nerd
One: you’re not anonymous, you are Nerd11135, we know you, nerd.
Two: you are otherwise correct, carry on
I was going to write a researched, thought-out piece for this fine internet periodical, but then I woke up from that particular coma and realized it’s so easy to just crowbar song titles wherever convenient. If you feel like you’re right next door to hell, don’t damn me; you ain’t the first! If you think I’ll stop beating this dead horse, you’re crazy!
I could “tolerate” a couple early Crue tunes, but Poison had no cool songs. Have you ever done the Unskinny Bop?
Have you ever done the Unskinny Bop?Sure, but we just called it the Fat Bop.
What’s got you so jumpy?
Once. It was so-so.
Damn you for all eternity for reminding me of this song’s existence.Worst earworm ever.
Honestly what pisses me off most is that it makes it look like it’s “their” song or something. By default “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” will always “be” the Dylan version, specifically because (besides being the original) that version is what plays over Slim Pickens’ death scene in Pat Garrrett and Billy the Kid – maybe the best death scene in the Western genre, one of the top five at the very least.
Four: you’re wrong. A comparison to Poison or Motley Crue is proof that you never actually listened to GnR as both musically and lyrically they have nothing in common. Early GnR is some great shit. Post super-famous GnR… not as much. Any of it is better than Poison or Motley Crue.
No, he’s right. G’N’R is the slightly grittier but really just as fucking stupid and lame hair metal bands he described. It’s slightly better than Poison or Motley Crue, but in the way that Cancer and Gonorrhea is slightly better than CancerAids.I’ll say this: Steven Adler had a great fucking swing that made them slightly less horrible than the bands you named, all of which ended when they tossed the poor SOB out of the band and replaced him with the technically more proficient but plodding Matt Sorum.
AR negates anything great that G-N-R did. I feel bad for Slash.
This reference-loading is the most annoying way to write an article about any topic.
It’s more fun to do on social media and have friends add on in the replies and comments. Anyway, playing in the UAE sounds like it’s always sweltering hot, so 20 songs seems like plenty for an aging rock star. I also assume most big concerts are outdoors in the Middle East so forgive my not factoring in air conditioning.
Please- no comparison between GNR and those two stupid hair bands. Retard. Let’s see you run all over a stage and sing when you are in your late fifties and sick to boot
Dave Grohl did it better
More like anonymous troll
Not that it matters, but I found the overloaded references to song titles as a post-modern so bad its ironic/funny nod to old style celebrity/gossip writing.
I don’t know, I usually call out sick when I’ve been throwing up.
I don’t know, I usually call out sick when I’ve been throwing up.
Well, well, well.. you seem like a twat.
This article seemed like it was shooting for “hip” to you?
Is this you?
Uh oh, someone didn’t get their tickets to Nickelback!
One: I couldn’t agree more. Two & three: “opinions are like assholes….”.
Guns n’ Roses is a band in the class of the greats like Zeppelin, Boston, Stones, Aerosmith and AC/DC. They were a remarkable band and the shows I saw were the best money I have ever spent on a rock show. These guys were geniuses and made some of the best music ever.
Umm…..No.
First of all I take issue with your list. Boston? Really? ACDC? All of their songs sounds the same with minor variations. The Rolling Stones? Always have been overrated — little if anything they did that the Beatles didn’t. Aerosmith has great style and that goes a long way so I’ll give you that even though a lot of critics wouldn’t. Led Zeppelin, together with some other bands of that era, initiated or created a genre of music. Not a claim G’n’R’ can make.Seriously. Come on now. Let us take their most-iconic songs. Compare “Sweet Child O’Mine” (hey baby I really wanna fuck you) to “Stairway to Heaven” (a far more poetic anthem that some might see as mysterious, even though I see it as random).
-An Anonymous Nerd
1) No arguments here.2) Just…no. GnR is infinitely better than any of the other bands you mention, and is pretty much the only rock band from that time with staying power. While they were always lumped in with the “hair metal” bands in the 80s, it was never appropriate. They were kind of their own mini-genre. And Dead Horse/Coma are the best back-to-back songs on any rock album in history—fight me.
3) I agree that their behavior in their heyday was trash, but the fact that they’re as old as they are and are reliably knocking long-ass shows out of the park is still pretty impressive. I saw them on the first leg of the tour and could not believe how good they were.
Nah. Sorry. “Dead Horse” is a good song to be sure (“I’m a son of a gun, and a gun of a son, that brought back the devil in me….”), but so is “Home Sweet Home” when someone else is singing it.-An Anonymous Nerd
Home Sweet Home happens to be the *only* good Motley Crue song. I would have to go back and do the math, but off the top of my head, I would guess that 75% of GnR’s songs are good, and at least a dozen would be considered “iconic”. GnR were the Zeppelin of their generation, and there’s nobody else close.
For “Home Sweet Home” I would say it’s one of the ten. Maybe ten. Maybe closer to five. I can think of at least three off-hand.
As to Guns’N’Roses……75% of all their songs? No. Have you even heard the overly-layered “Chinese Democracy” album, the shlocky, Donald Trump racism of “One in a Million,” or the obscenity that is “Get in the Ring?” Those were the rule — “Welcome to the Jungle” and “Don’t Cry (alt lyrics)” were the fortunate exceptions.
Led Zeppelin may have stolen their best songs from Black artists (“Nobody’s Fault But Mine” is a totally unattributed cover song, no way around it) but they undeniably did something new with their stolen material.
G’n’R wrote some cool songs but that’s about it.MTV made the comparison you’re making repeatedly at the time and I didn’t buy it then either.
-An Anonymous Nerd
56? By the looks of him, I’m guessing he wasn’t planning on living so long. He should have done things differently.Look at Keith Richards, he must have died a few times in the last years and Death keeps pushing him back because he doesn’t want to deal with him.
By now the reaper just looks at him and says, “Too late, you had your chance. Leave me alone.”
Nice hat, though.
That’s clearly a picture of Philip Seymour Hoffman as Lester Bangs.
2 guys who checked out early.P.S.-Detroit Sucks.
Deep cut.
It’s hard to hold a gander, in the cold November Pain
I’m glad Axl has cleaned up his act lately, but I still think he was the wrong choice for AC/DC. He doesn’t do the band justice, and he ruins otherwise good performances with his mediocre-at-best singing.
Axl did 2 hours and 16 songs despite a bad stomach virus. Still, I give him credit for at least trying to give the people a good show. I’d rather have someone ill and pull maybe a 90-minute/2 hour set than some lame teen idol who cancelled a show because he got a cold. Boo-hoo!
Sorry, no. All I can see is my grandpa wearing board shirts with his toupee on singing a Nine Inch Nails medley.
Somebody bet that you couldn’t put all their titles in an article, right?
This has got to be the worst application of the “song title pun injection” thing that I’ve ever read.
Anyone that can say they have been throwing up for the last 5 hours…hasn’t been.Or has-been.You decide.I cannot stand Axl Fucking Rose.
I get it about the writer’s intention to put the song names in the article, one or two might have been okay, but he went a little overboard. I do however disagree with your comparison of G n’R to the likes of Poison and Motley Crue. Axl is a much better lyricist than any of Motley or Poison. I think they were well ahead of them and they are one of my favorite bands!
The only version of “Knockin on Heaven’s Door” is the one played by Tom Ellis on LUCIFER.
RIP, Father Frank.
fuck you axl. why didn’t you have this attitude during the Metallica tour?? ass fuck
I bet this was hilarious when you published the original version in 1998.
I’m glad my blood glucose levels are good, because my pun levels just went way the hell up.
Kudos to a band who is playing the same setlist from 1992 with a few added bullshit Chinese Democracy songs no one wants to hear. I saw them back in the day and I can say it was completely meh. Slash does the same Godfather bullshit solo. The only thrill of the night was hoping Rose would snap and there would be a riot.
GNR and Axl Rose are easy targets, so I’ll be the one person in the comments defending them.I love GNR. Axl’s been on really good behavior. They put on an amazing show.
Saw them at the Meadowlands and MSG during this tour. If you close your eyes its 1991 again. They are that awesome.
who fuck listen to GnR STILL? yer DAD?
“Severely Ill” is my favorite GnR song.