Earlier this month, a Philadelphia culture and event website wrote up a review of a Guns N’ Roses show at the Wells Fargo Center in town. The show was part of the seemingly interminable “Not In This Lifetime” tour that GNR embarked on in 2016, and it seems to have been reviewed favorably. But one line in the write-up stood out in particular. The article claimed that beloved and enigmatic front man Axl Rose is arguably the last of the rock stars.
That’s a pretty bold statement that will get a lot of fans up in arms. Some will point to other classic and hard rockers from the ‘80s and ‘90s who also seem to pop back up from time to time, like the boys from Metallica. Others will look to softer wings of the rock universe where, for instance, Bono and U2 still seem to be going strong. And others will point to more modern rock groups like the Foo Fighters (Dave Grohl certainly has an argument as a bona fide rock star) or even Kings Of Leon. But even people making these arguments probably understand that the term “rock star” doesn’t just refer to the leading man in a rock group. By the popular connotation of a high-energy, long-haired, powerful personality out in front of a loud band with legions of followers, Rose really is one of very few active musicians who fits.
What’s amazing is how silly this would have sounded just two years ago. GNR’s “Appetite For Democracy” tour wrapped up in 2014, and the group hasn’t put out an album since 2008’s “Chinese Democracy,” which actually received great reviews. A Rolling Stone critic called it a great, audacious, unhinged and uncompromising hard-rock record, which is pretty much an ideal review for music in this genre. Even so, however, that album is now almost 10 years old, and throughout 2015 it would have been fair to wonder if we’d more or less seen the last of this fractured and aging group.
Then a few hints of a revival started trickling out. One actually came in the form of a video game on the internet. It sounds somewhat silly if you’re not into the genre, but online casino platforms have long sought to attract player bases by tapping into elements of pop culture and entertainment. And this is how Guns N’ Roses came to be among the games based on licensed properties at some of these sites. Still, this didn’t seem to promise a comeback. The game was as lot reel that doubled as a tribute to the band’s greatest hits, but it was designed alongside similar titles for Jimi Hendrix and Motorhead.
The real indication of a comeback came in the form of a movie trailer – or at least, a trailer during a movie. Guns N’ Roses basically teased its tour without any specific information for select audiences viewing Star Wars: The Force Awakens late in 2015. Even then, however, few could have imagined the Coachella appearance that reunited Rose and Slash, and kicked off the tour that’s still going on today.
Now, the assertion that Axl Rose is the last of the rock stars actually seems somewhat valid. Again, there are others with arguments depending on how you view the term. But Rose has fully revived Guns N’ Roses. And if you haven’t been buying it for the last year or so consider some of the numbers from the summer leg of the 2017 tour. Recent reports indicate that the band roped in $55 million in seven weeks from tour events.
Those are superstar numbers, and indicate that this is far more than a nostalgia tour. Impossibly, GNR seems to be one of the biggest names in music once again, and that’s without even releasing any new material yet. If this keeps up we may need to reconsider how we frame Axl Rose in discussions of the all-time greats.