Sources: Will Reunite for Coachella, Possible Stadium Tour
by Ray Waddell, Billboard.com Dec. 29 2015 4:11 PM.
Guns N Roses Perform Live At Rock In Rio II on Jan. 15 1991. Ke.Mazur/WireImage
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Guns N’ Roses, with founding members Axl Rose and Slash, will headline the Coachella Music & Arts Festival in Indio, Calif., set for April 15-17 and April 22-24, according to multiple sources. The reunited band is also negotiating with promoters to play as many as 25 football stadiums in North America in the summer of 2016, and is scheduled to be one of the first acts to play the new Las Vegas Arena, set to open April 6. Guns N’ Roses is said to be asking as much as $3 million per show, with tickets topping out in the $250-$275 range.
The last show Axl Rose and Slash played together was on July 17, 1993 at River Plate Stadium in Buenos Aires. Guns N’ Roses’ most recent tour, which only included Axl Rose from the original lineup, took place primarily in South America and The Joint in Las Vegas, grossing $15.2 million.
Representatives for the band, as well as Coachella producer Paul Tollett and agent Ken Fermaglich at United Talent Agency, could not be reached for comment. Executives at AEG, which will operate the new Vegas arena, also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The band’s first album, Appetite for Destruction, is the biggest-selling debut in U.S. history, with 18 million sold. It spent five weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart, and launched the No. 1 Billboard Hot 100 single “Sweet Child O’ Mine.” They have sold 44.5 million albums total in the U.S., according to the Recording Industry Association of America.
Billboard’s confirmation comes on the heels of two rumor-inducing hints dropped over the past week….
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By most accounts, Slash is a good dude and I’d be happy to see him pocket some hefty cash for this project. But Axl has more than proven himself to be a jerk whose serial last-second cancellation of concerts has provoked riots by and multiple injuries to furious ticket buyers. For that reason, I’ll certainly give the concert a pass if it hits Vancouver. But I doubt many sadder-but-wiser fans will do likewise.