Rock n’ roll bad boys Guns N’ Roses return to Tel Aviv
The band, which was last in the country in 1993, will perform in July 2017
Jessica Steinberg, The Times of Israel's culture and lifestyles editor, covers the Sabra scene from south to north and back to the center
The reunited hard rock band Guns N’ Roses will arrive in Israel this summer to perform a concert on July 15, 2017, at Tel Aviv’s Yarkon Park.
Israeli promoter Guy Beser, part of the Bluestone Group, said on his Facebook page that he was “proud and excited to officially announce a concert from the reunited Guns N’ Roses” in Tel Aviv.
The promotion company is also handling the Aerosmith concert on May 17, 2017.
Guns N’ Roses will arrive in Israel as part of its “Not in This Lifetime” tour, a reunion for vocalist Axl Rose, guitarist Slash and bassist Duff McKagan, who haven’t played together for the last 23 years.
The band, which was founded in 1985 with its first studio album, 1987’s “Appetite for Destruction,” featuring the number-one single “Sweet Child O’ Mine,” was known for a new brand of hard rock and for hedonism reminiscent of the early Rolling Stones.
Their May 1993 concert in Tel Aviv was part of a major, two-year world tour following their 1991 twin albums, “Use Your Illusion I” and “Use Your Illusion II,” which sold a combined 35 million copies worldwide.
It was that tour which led to tremendous tensions in the band, following significant drug and alcohol abuse by members of the group. The band was last in Israel during the 1993 tour, although Axl Rose performed in Israel in 2012 with a different mix of band members.
There are accounts that comic Andrew Dice Clay — who is friends with all three musicians — was responsible for helping reunite the group.
You F’n brought it, Mexico City#NotInThisLifetime Latin America Tour #GnFnR pic.twitter.com/JOPvcN3xKc
— Guns N' Roses (@gunsnroses) December 2, 2016
As guitarist Slash told Aerosmith drummer Joey Kramer’s radio show in Boston, and reported in Rolling Stone Magazine, “Everybody’s getting along, everybody’s playing great. We were all pretty positive that that would never happen so it’s still sort of blowing our minds,” the guitarist added. “It seems so surreal to me, but everybody’s really getting along great and I think everybody’s come a long way and it’s all cool.”
Tickets for Guns N’ Roses will be available at Ticketmaster, *9964.
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