Friday, December 16, 2016

Guns 'N' Roses in 2017... Yes, Please!

Growing up as a kid, I was pretty well-behaved-as I have mentioned before in previous posts.  I was a kid who never got in trouble with the law, and I always followed the rules in the house.  Through the growing up years, I became a fan of rock music.  Music was helpful for me growing up.  I loved music.

So, here is this geeky kid that was well behaved, and loving rock music of the 1980s hair bands.  Now, I did not like heavy metal as a rule, instead I loved hard rock music.  For example, as legendary of a band that Metallica is, I didn't care for their early stuff, because I wasn't into the head banging music.  The music that I became to love, the music that struck the chord, was the music of Guns 'N' Roses.

"Appetite For Destruction" was Guns 'N' Roses debut album in 1987.  I was 9 going on 10 years old, and I loved it!  Along with myself, I think this is an album where many listeners will listen to every track on this album.  With the mega hits of "Welcome to the Jungle", "Paradise City", and the legendary "Sweet Child O'Mine", there were some other tracks that were popular masterpieces on this record.  There was "It's So Easy", "Mr. Brownstone", and "Rocket Queen".  They instantly became the kings of rock, and my new favorite band.

The next year, in 1988, they followed up Appetite with four new acoustic tracks and combined it with  four tracks from their minimally released "Live Like A Suicide" LP to release an album called "Lies".  The "Live Like A Suicide" LP is one of the most collectible records to be found as there wasn't many of them.  There are many that say that Guns 'N' Roses were responsible for putting acoustic music back on the map with the release of "Lies", and much of that talk began because of another mega hit called, "Patience".

Out of all the songs that I loved on Appetite, "Patience" may be my favorite song of all time.  It is close though as I go back and forth between "Patience" and "Sweet Child O'Mine".  While the kings of rock were leading the way, their track "One In A Million" brought some negative press to the band.

Fast forward to the present day.  Ever since GNR self destructed in the late 1990s due to many clashing egos, I always hoped that the original band would get back together.  That seemed impossible and only a dream for the past 20 years.  Finally, in early 2016, guitarist Slash admitted in an interview that he and Axl Rose were finally "cool" again.  This sparked the questions and also the rumors that a reunion was now finally possible.  In the spring of 2016, Axl Rose, Slash, and Duff McKagan, the original three members announced that they were reuniting for a stadium tour in the summer of 2016.  I was pumped, excited, and ready to shell out some serious money to go see this.  Then, after the tour stops were announced, I realized the closest venue was going to be Chicago.  This was disappointing.

Once the summer "Not In This Lifetime" tour came to a close, GNR announced some dates across the pond.  Fast forwarding to now, at the beginning of this month, Guns 'N' Roses again started putting up some random billboards across the United States and Canada.  Some of them said "Patience", and some of them said "Welcome To The Jungle".  One of those billboards ended up popping up in Minneapolis, which only meant it was a matter of time for an announcement.  A few days later, it was announced that GNR was going to be performing with the original trio on Saturday, July 30th, 2017 at the shiny and new U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis.  I am pumped and excited!  I never thought this day was going to come as it puts over 20 years of hope finally to sleep, and I am going!

Throughout all these years and how rock music has evolved, and in a lot of cases disappeared, Guns 'N' Roses is still my favorite band.  Their music opened me up to rock music and other great bands like Def Leppard, Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Stone Temple Pilots, and most recently Shinedown.  Whenever I hear that opening riff of "Sweet Child O'Mine", it sounds as fresh as the day it was debuted.  For some reason, much of "today's music" doesn't carry that timeless quality.

#GnFnR

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