GnR Reunion: Slash, Axl Rose To Play As Guns N’ Roses At Coachella 2016, Stadium Tour Possible

Axl Rose, Slash, and Guns N’ Roses will be reunited for the first time since 1993 in Indio, California, at the 2016 Coachella Music & Arts Festival, according to Billboard. The festival featuring GnR is scheduled to be held over two weekends, April 15 to 17 and April 22 to 24.

According to reports, Slash, Axl, and Guns N’ Roses are “negotiating with promoters” for a major tour including 25 performances at stadium venues in 2016. Guns N’ Roses is said to be expected to be one of the first bands to appear at the newly constructed Las Vegas Arena, which is scheduled to open to the public on April 6.

Founding Guns N’ Roses member Slash left the band in 1996, and by the end of the 1990s all of the original members were gone, except for Axl Rose. GnR has remained active. The band’s most recent tour focusing on South America and Las Vegas was said to have grossed $15.2 million.

By contrast, the reunited band is asking for a reported $3 million per show for a 2016 Guns N’ Roses tour. Tickets are seen with prices as high as $275.

Rumors have been swirling that a GnR reunion was in the works over recent weeks, as reported by the Inquisitr. A Guns N’ Roses teaser appeared at Star Wars: The Force Awakens screenings, tipping astute fans that something was being planned.

Something that had been a huge barrier to a GnR reunion was a longstanding feud between Rose and Slash, which appears have been patched up.

“We don’t have all those issues anymore,” GnR co-founder Slash was quoted by Billboard about the guitarist’s relationship with Axl Rose, earlier in 2015. “There’s not a lot of controversy. It’s something that’s more perpetuated by the media than anything.”

Slash’s comments were seen to open the door for a future collaboration with Rose. The two rock legends appear to have put their differences aside and committed to performing as Guns N’ Roses for at least one more tour. There has been no word on whether fans might expect to see new studio work from the pair in the future.

Past acts to perform at the Coachella festival include Steely Dan, Rage Against The Machine, My Bloody Valentine, Outkast, AC/DC, and Pulp. At the Coachella festival in 2012, Tupac Shakur was brought back to life for a performance via hologram, as reported by CBS. In 2014, Coachella attracted close to 200,000 visitors and generated $84.2 million in sales.

Guns N’ Roses’ Appetite for Destruction album was “the biggest selling debut in U.S. history.” It sold 18 million copies. “Sweet Child O’ Mine” from the album reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. Appetite for Destruction spent 5 weeks in the No. 1 spot on the Billboard 200 album chart. The last GnR album was Chinese Democracy, released in 2008. The band has sold a reported 44.5 million albums.

Former Guns N’ Roses bassist Duff McKagan joined GnR for a number of shows in 2014. At the time, the bassist was quoted as saying that he did it to “help Axl out,” as reported by Billboard. It was reported that Ron Thal and DJ Ashba exited the group earlier in 2015.

There has been no official word on whether McKagan will be part of the new tour, but some have speculated that recent tweets may indicate that he knows something about the 2016 Guns And Roses tour, according to LoudWire. The publication feels that there may be a connection between Duff McKagain’s LMAF tattoo, tweet, and the Gun N’ Roses Use Your Illusion tour, which started in January 1991 and ended in July 1993. There may also be a connection to the video from 1991’s “Yesterdays.”

LAMF pic.twitter.com/NvvlhUOOtf

— Duff McKagan (@DuffMcKagan) December 28, 2015

https://vimeo.com/39995035

[Photo by Dave Kotinsky/Getty Images — Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images]