After months of rumors and speculation, it was confirmed last night that Guns N’ Roses would headline this year’s Coachella festival. However, now we know for sure that Axl Rose will indeed be joined by Slash and Duff McKagan onstage.
Granted, both Slash and McKagan pretty much confirmed this with (not so) subtle posts on their respected socials. However, the GN’R camp officially announced the guitarist and bassist’s involvement with an official press release. “Upholding a three-decade tradition of breaking ground, creating trends, and forever changing the face of rock n’ roll, Guns N’ Roses announce the most significant and anxiously awaited musical event of this century” the press release boasts. “Founder Axl Rose and former members Slash and Duff McKagan will regroup to headline the Coachella Music And Arts Festival (April 15-17 & April 22-24) — as announced last night!”
As exciting as it may be to finally have “confirmation”, this still leaves these questions unanswered:
-Who else is playing in GN’R? Chris Pitman (who’s been in the band since 1998) confirmed that he was still in the band via Facebook and Twitter (that, or no one told him he’s out). And while everyone has been hoping original members Izzy Stradlin and Steven Adler would be partaking in this reunion (or at least their replacements Gilby Clarke and Matt Sorum), many sources have been claiming that the rest of the band will be rounded out by more recent members Richard Fortus and Frank Ferrer, along with longtime keyboardist Dizzy Reed and Pitman. However, the press release makes no mention of who else will be joining Rose, McKagan and Slash onstage.
-Can we expect more dates to be announced, or is this a one off reunion? It’s easy to assume the former, given how the teaser video shown in movie theaters seem to be teasing bigger plans (and there’s certainly plenty of money to be made by a full reunion tour). However, the press release only mentions Coachella, and gives no indication of the band’s plans after the festival.
Regardless, we’ll probably get a lot more updates from the Guns N’ Roses camp leading up to Coachella (or we can at least hope so). For now, we can enjoy knowing that Axl Rose and Slash will definitely (well, for now, at least) be appearing onstage together, an event many fans never thought would ever happen.
