Recall the chaotic Guns N’ Roses and Metallica concert that ended in riots

Going to a concert means a lot to everyone who loves music. Not only does it represent seeing that band or artist that you love, it also means meeting together with thousands of people for a common taste. However, unfortunately live shows do not always end well and one of the clearest examples was a presentation that had the Guns N’ Roses as protagonists.

Some consider that the group commanded by Axl Rose, Slash and Duff McKagan is one of the most dangerous in historybecause they practically did what they wanted during the 80s and early 90s. But there was a pretty big incident that although it did not affect his career as such (because they continued to play together for a long time), lmarked you forever –because some wounded and a lot of violence were involved– and influenced their reputation with their fans and the music industry.

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In 1992, Guns N’ Roses and Metallica teamed up to put together one of the most powerful stadium tours of all time in the United States and Canada.. Both bands were going through one of the best moments of their career, because Axl Rose, Slash, Duff McKagan and company had released Wear Your Illusion a year befores and months before going on tour, James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, Kirk Hammett and Jason Newsted did the same with the famous black-album. So as you can see, everything was set for them to give some of the most epic performances in rock history.

On July 17 of that year they gave their first show in Washington, DC and everything looked great. As if it wasn’t enough to have the Guns and Metallica in the same place, during these dates they were accompanied by great opening acts such as Faith No More and Skid Row. However, things got out of control when they arrived in Montreal, as Several events happened that made them go from joy and euphoria to see these bandotas live to sadness and violence.

Recall the chaotic Guns N' Roses and Metallica concert that ended in riots
This was the poster for the Guns N’ Roses and Metallica concert in Montreal/Photo: Special

The concert started with a tragedy starring James Hetfield

For August 8, 1992, the tour had a stop at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal with more than 50 thousand attendees gone crazy. Metallica got on stage and people were having an amazing time listening to the band’s hits, but just as they were playing “Fade to Black” a tragedy occurred. In the middle of this roll, a pyrotechnics failure caused terrible second and third degree burns to James Hetfieldwhich caused him to be out of action for several months.

Imagine how bad the situation was that the frontman burned almost his entire arm (They even say that you could see the bone). In addition, the accident also affected her face, losing part of her hair. James was in shock and as expected, Lars, Kirk and Jason stopped the presentation to take Hetfield to the hospital. However, despite the disappointment of the public and the anger of some for stopping the concert, Guns N’ Roses still left to save the daybut let’s just say the grouping didn’t do much to improve the situation either.

The Guns (and especially Axl) didn’t do much to save the day.

Two hours after this tragedy with James Hetfield occurred, Axl Rose and company got on stage and started their show. Since they started this tour with Metallica, it was said that the lead singer of the Guns was not in a great moment to say, because he had complained of having problems with his voice. As if this wasn’t enough, by this date in Montreal, Slash had already warned the host that Rose wasn’t in the best condition, but either way, the guitarist promised that they would give a great concert that without knowing it, would end in a real disaster.

To give you an idea of ​​how things went, Guns N’ Roses played for 50 minutes but after nine songs and playing “Civil War”, the group left the stage just because. Axl said into the microphone: “this will be our last show for a long time” and without further ado, he got off. At that time, the band blamed the sound, as they were supposedly not heard through the monitors, They also mentioned that the public was not connecting and they also used Rose’s voice as a pretext.

The concert was a fiasco and people created chaos

However, despite the fact that Axl supposedly had bad vocal cords, The members of Metallica stated that after leaving fans hanging with their express presentation, they saw the Guns frontman pouring a glass of champagne and smoking, something that of course you can’t do if your voice isn’t at 100. But back to the audience and as you might expect, they were furious that the show was a complete flop, but how did they show their discontent? Well then causing a disturbance in the surroundings of the Montreal Olympic Stadium.

Of the almost 53 thousand attendees who were at the show, some 2,000 were involved in various violent acts. To give you an idea of ​​how things went, they broke lights and glass, clashed with the police and even destroyed a patrol car. This concert is remembered as one of the most infamous in the history of rock, because At least three police officers and ten of the people who entered the chaos were injured.

Guns N’ Roses and Metallica’s tour stopped for a few days and returned until August 25. James Hetfield returned to the tour to sing, since he could not play the guitar, although that task was left to John Marshall, a member of the Metal Church band. However, in order not to lose the habit, Axl and company’s reputation was on the ground after playing a few minutes in Montreal and the riots that took place in that city. Since then, each gang has gone their own way, but beyond the violence of that August 8, this show was the beginning of the end of the glory days of the Guns.

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Recall the chaotic Guns N’ Roses and Metallica concert that ended in riots