intothewellsabyss

Jul 17, 20239 min read

Metallica / Guns N’ Roses Co-Headlining Tour

On this day (July 17) in 1992, exactly one year prior to the end of their “Use Your Illsusion Tour”, Guns N' Roses and Metallica began their co-headlining tour in Washington, D.C.

Metallica insisted they play first every night so they would be paid whether Guns N' Roses showed up or not. Axl had tried to get Nirvana to open.

So why did Nirvana turn down the Metallica-Guns N' Roses tour? Hammett recalled, “I had to make the phone call to Kurt [Cobain] to talk to him about the possibility of joining our tour and he just went on and on about how he just didn’t like what Guns N’ Roses stood for."

The guitarist added, "I said to him: ‘Just go out there and represent Nirvana – just play the show and then that’s it.' I pleaded with him, but he just wasn’t having it. So there you have it. It would have been great if Nirvana was part of that tour – but you know [the actual opening act] Faith No More were great as well.”

Background:

"When you have to get Guns N' Roses and Metallica on the same tour to sell tickets," Ronnie James Dio told WERS' Nasty Habits show, "it shows everyone that you have to put real big packaging together to make a difference."

On May 12, 1992, Metallica's drummer, Lars Ulrich, and Guns N' Roses' lead guitarist, Slash, held a press conference at the Gaslight in Los Angeles, California, to announce that both Metallica and Guns N' Roses would tour together that summer, starting in Washington, D.C., at RFK Stadium on July 17, 1992, where Metallica's opening song "Creeping Death" was recorded for their documentary “A Year and a Half in the Life of Metallica”.

On July 21, 1992, when Guns N' Roses was performing at the Pontiac Silverdome in Pontiac, Michigan, when the band was done performing their song "You Could Be Mine", Axl Rose vomited onstage and left soon afterwards, but returned to the stage and apologized to the audience for the poor performance, so the band performed the song again.

Blind Melon's lead vocalist, Shannon Hoon, joined Guns N' Roses onstage for the original version of their song "Don't Cry", on July 22, 1992, at the Hoosier Dome in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Transscipt of Review by Marc D. Allan in The Indianapolis Star:

July 24, 1992

MARC D. ALLAN

Guns N' Roses/Metallica

Opening band: Faith No More.

Where: Hoosier Dome.

When: Wednesday.

Ratings: Guns N' Roses 2 1/2; Metallica 3 1/2; Faith No More 1 1/2

"Metallica won the Wednesday night/Thursday morning hard-rock wars at the Hoosier Dome, demonstrating how to vent anger and frustration in music without victimizing the audience.

The titans of hard rock played a taut 140-minute set that burst with brilliant flurries of music and contained no attitude other than gratitude.

By contrast, Guns N' Roses played its usual waiting game, taking the stage at 11:55 p.m. Wednesday — nearly two hours after Metallica had cleared out. Over the next 2 1/2 hours, the audience would be lectured to, briefly walked out on and forced to suffer Guns N' Roses' foolishness.

While Metallica played for its fans, profusely thanking them for their fierce loyalty, Guns N' Roses taunted the audience. At 1:40 a.m., singer Axl Rose announced that the band would take a short break until the fans up front decided to stand.

"I didn't come here with the intention of you liking my (bleep) tonight," Rose sneered at one point.

When Guns N' Roses decided to shut up and play, it successfully defended its standing in the hard-rock pantheon. Compared with the group's previous central Indiana performance, this show found the members playing as a unit rather than a loose collection of talent held together by drummer Matt Sorum.

Double-Talkin' Jive featured guitarist Slash reeling off several intricately textured runs and also spotlighted the muscular trio created when its lead guitarist, drummer and bassist Duff McKagen jammed.

Slash and harmonica player Ted Andreadis teamed for a swampy version of Bad Obsession. Later, during his solo, Slash again played the blues in tandem with keyboardist Dizzy Reed, displaying as fine a combination of speed and tastefulness as any hard-rock fan will see.

Rose's sole shining moment came during Welcome to the Jungle, a bitter assault that found him at his snapping-turtle angriest.

When Rose puts his spleen into the music, he has few peers. But his spoken tirades about Indi-(bleeping)-ana and boxer Mike Tyson's rape conviction display an arrogance and petulance that may be cute on the gossip pages but have no place in a concert setting.

Metallica wouldn't even think of wasting its audience's time with petty ranting. It knows the crowd has come to hear its engines-racing brand of music, and there's no time to waste.

The group's stripped-down set eliminated nearly all solos and occasionally created a whiplash effect by going from one song directly into the next.

During Fade to Black, Shortest Straw and One, the band entered an attack mode where it shut out everything else and played with unparalleled intensity. With guitars blazing and drums bashing, the four members sounded more cohesive than ever.

Perhaps they were trying harder, too. Metallica usually plays before its own crowd, a hopelessly devoted throng that knows every word, every beat, every stop and start.

Here, in trying to win over Guns N' Roses fans, singer/guitarist James Hetfield spent some time trying to rally the crowd, estimated at 40,000. He shouldn't have to. Metallica may not have easily accessible melodies, but that's not what its fans want. They want action.

Metallica provided that in abundance.

Faith No More ended up the big loser in this three-band bill. A miserable sound mix killed any chance the band had of trying to put across some of the considerable humor and subtlety in its music."

Confined to a small portion of the stage and forced to play while sunlight kept the dome bright, the band worked hard. But as much as singer Mike Patton tried — climbing ladders, acting like a human pogo stick, even jumping into the audience — he likely generated more cries of "what?" than "wow!"

Axl's Response to MARC D. ALLAN Transcript:

W. AXL ROSE

2001 BARRINGTON #100

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 90025

GUNS N’ ROSES

July 24, 1992

MARK D. ALLAN, (USED TO BE THE NAME OF OUR TRAVEL AGENT, WE FIRED THEM)

"You don’t get it… Wait, that’s too easy… Maybe you don’t want to get it – or you’d have to face yourself and oh my God that’s just too scary. Maybe it’s impossible and it’s too late for you – you know, have someone stick a fork in your ass and turn you over you’re done. Indiana needs to wake up and hey if that takes a little taunting and 2 and half hours of music + a fireworks show + cartoon for a total of 2 hours and 50 minutes to wake up maybe 5% of a 48,000 plus crowd then so be it. I can also suffer your redneck, blind, narrow minded refuse about ranting – you nor anyone will ever dictate my actions, attitudes, comments, oratation, and musical performances on stage. Don’t kid yourself and act above, better than, or even comparable to me or G N’ R. If that were true there’d be no reason to censor my language in your basic Indiana attempt at journalism.

I came here to enrage… Thank you, you have helped me know I succeeded. I’ve made my inquiries, I am your Rock N’ Roll nightmare. And you… You’re just gonna sit on your wanna be ass and watch me, born a Hoosier, grow larger than you could ever imagine or ever be able to stop. That’s not to say I didn’t appreciate your anger, hostility and general ignorance. It shows me my so called “RANTS” are a much needed, missing piece in our puzzle of society.

stay away from microwaves-

Love Axl

(Signed, ‘W. Axl Rose’)

P.S. Oh, and it was never a battle O’ the bands, I imagined this thing, and everyone wins, as long as I show up to my own dream, that is!!!"

(𝙰𝚡𝚕 𝚁𝚘𝚜𝚎 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚂𝚑𝚊𝚗𝚗𝚘𝚗 𝙷𝚘𝚘𝚗)

On July 29, 1992, while Guns N' Roses was playing during the second show at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, Guns N' Roses frontman Axl Rose encountered severe pain in his throat, but he continued the show until he was hit in the genitals by a cigarette lighter thrown from the audience during "Knockin' on Heaven's Door", so Rose retreated backstage to regain his energy, while bassist Duff McKagan took over on vocals and then the show ended.

On July 30, 1992, while on break in New York City, Rose was diagnosed with severe damage to his vocal chords, and was told by doctors that he could not sing for at least a week, so three shows of the tour were rescheduled.

The most infamous event during the tour took place during a show on August 8, 1992, at Montreal's Olympic Stadium. Metallica frontman James Hetfield suffered second and third degree burns to the left half of his body, both arms and left hand after standing in the way of a pyrotechnics reaction during the opening of "Fade to Black".

Hetfield himself has said "There were extra pyro in addition to the original pyro and I got too close the original pyro." Metallica had to prematurely end their performance, but promised to return to the city for another show.

After a lengthy delay, during which the audience became increasingly upset and restless, Guns N' Roses took the stage. However, the shortened time between sets did not allow for adequate tuning of stage monitors, resulting in musicians not being able to hear themselves.

In addition, Rose claimed that his throat was hurt, causing the band to prematurely leave the stage themselves. The early departure led to a riot by audience members, reminiscent of the rioting that had occurred during a Guns N' Roses show near St. Louis, Missouri, one year earlier.

The aggrieved audience members took to the streets of Montreal, overturning cars, smashing windows, looting local stores, and setting fires. Local authorities were barely able to bring the riot under control. Footage from the debacle was later included in the 1992 documentary “A Year and a Half in the Life of Metallica”.

Six of the shows on the tour had to be rescheduled because of Hetfield's injury, and a show in Vancouver that was going to be held on August 17, 1992 at the British Columbia Place Stadium was cancelled.

The tour resumed in Phoenix, Arizona, at the Phoenix International Raceway on August 25, 1992, with Hetfield wearing a thick elbow-to-finger bandage and unable to play guitar until his arm was fully healed.

Former Metallica roadie, former Metallica guitar tech, and Metal Church guitarist John Marshall filled in for the rest of the tour on rhythm guitar, while Hetfield continued to sing.

Metallica's performance of "Nothing Else Matters" during their performance in Avondale was recorded for their documentary “A Year and a Half in the Life of Metallica”.

Faith No More lead guitarist Jim Martin joined Metallica onstage for their cover of the Misfits song "Last Caress" on September 5, 1992, at Texas Stadium in Irving, Texas.

(𝙵𝚊𝚒𝚝𝚑 𝙽𝚘 𝙼𝚘𝚛𝚎, 𝚕𝚒𝚟𝚎 𝚘𝚗 𝚂𝚎𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚖𝚋𝚎𝚛 𝟻, 𝟷𝟿𝟿𝟸 𝚊𝚝 𝚃𝚎𝚡𝚊𝚜 𝚂𝚝𝚊𝚍𝚒𝚞𝚖 𝚒𝚗 𝙸𝚛𝚟𝚒𝚗𝚐, 𝚃𝚎𝚡𝚊𝚜)

Faith No More left the tour on September 21, 1992, to fulfill prior touring commitments, so Body Count opened up the tour, starting in Kansas City, Missouri, at Arrowhead Stadium on September 17, 1992, and continued opening for the rest of the tour, along with Motörhead on the last three dates of the tour.

(𝙼𝚎𝚝𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚌𝚊 𝚊𝚝 𝙰𝚛𝚛𝚘𝚠𝚑𝚎𝚊𝚍 𝚂𝚝𝚊𝚍𝚒𝚞𝚖)

Motörhead opened for the show at the Los Angeles Coliseum in Los Angeles, California, on September 27, 1992, as Body Count was dropped from the bill for the Coliseum show.

Comedian Andrew Dice Clay opened for Guns N' Roses and introduced the band when they came onstage on October 3, 1992 at the Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena, California.

(𝙻𝚊𝚛𝚜, 𝙳𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝙼𝚞𝚜𝚝𝚊𝚒𝚗𝚎 (behind), 𝙰𝚡𝚕 𝚁𝚘𝚜𝚎 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝙻𝚎𝚖𝚖𝚢)

The tour was a big financial success for Metallica, but Guns N' Roses did not make as much. According to Slash, in his self-titled autobiography, the band lost about 80% of their earnings primarily due to Rose being extravagant in his spending, which included him funding expensive backstage theme parties at every show, as well as the band being fined heavily for their many late appearances. The tour also earned both bands a Metal Edge Readers' Choice Award in 1992, when it was voted "Best Concert Tour".