Tuesday, FEBRUARY 23
THE 'SKIN And Bones' leg of the 'Use Your Illusion' world tour kicks off at the 17,000-seater Frank Erwin Centre in Austin, Texas. It sees the Gunners back down to their core of six members, and features an acoustic section in the middle of the set. This tour is expected to run for 26 dates in the US.
Friday, FEBRUARY 26 - Thursday, MARCH 4
DESPITE THE first two dates of the stripped-down tour passing without a hitch, the next four in Ohio, North Carolina, New York and Rhode Island have to be canceled owing to adverse weather conditions. They are rescheduled for mid-April and early May. The rest of the tour takes place without incident. Almost…
Monday, APRIL 12
AXL VISITS a basketball game with the Detroit Pistons. Several cops sits with him to assure his safety.
Tuesday, APRIL 13
GUNS PLAYS at the Palace of Auburn Hills in Detroit, MI. They come on stage in time and they were all in a good mode. Axl talks about the cops of Michigan being nice to him and the band.
Thursday, APRIL 15
GUNS ARE forced to cancel their show at the 17,000-seater Omni in Atlanta. During the band's last appearance there in '87, Axl had been arrested for a scuffle with a security guy who'd been spotted beating up the band's friends in the audience. With Axl on parole for previous offenses and the refusal of the mayor's office to show goodwill, manager Doug Goldstein pulls the show.
"I'm not willing to be a sitting duck for the police" claims Axl. "I'm familiar with that experience."
Thursday, APRIL 29
GILBY CLARKE breaks his left wrist in a motorcycling accident, while practicing for a celebrity race in honor of the TJ Martell Foundation for leukemia, cancer and AIDS research.
Clarke is taken to hospital and is diagnosed as having no nerve or muscle damage. The next four shows have to be canceled, all of which are rescheduled from the East Coast leg of the tour.
The forthcoming European shows, set to kick off on May 22, are initially put in jeopardy, but in a bizarre twist of fate, Axl calls ex-Gunner Izzy Stradlin' - now Stradlin without an apostrophe! - who steps in for the first five shows.
"Izzy and I grew up together and we're like a family in a lot of ways - including having our differences," comments Axl.
