The Not in This Lifetime... Tour was a concert tour by the American hard rock band Guns N' Roses, spanning from April 1, 2016, to November 2, 2019. It featured classic lineup members Axl Rose, Slash and Duff McKagan, marking the first time since the Use Your Illusion Tour in 1993 that the three performed together. After the previous tour in 2014, guitarists DJ Ashba & Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal, bassist Tommy Stinson and keyboardist Chris Pitman left Guns N' Roses, leaving the band with several open spots. Former members Slash and McKagan rejoined the band and Melissa Reese joined as keyboardist. The group embarked on a world tour that spanned all continents except Antarctica. They performed 175 shows making it their third longest tour ever, just behind the Use Your Illusion Tour and the Chinese Democracy Tour. The group welcomed former drummer Steven Adler to the stage for several shows as a guest spot, the first time he had played with the group since 1990. The tour has been a financial success, grossing over $584.2 million, making it the fourth-highest-grossing concert tour of all time. The tour was 2016's highest-earning per-city global concert tour as well as the fourth-highest-grossing overall that year. In 2017, the tour ranked as the second highest grossing worldwide tour. The tour was honored at the Billboard Live Music Awards in November 2017, winning Top Tour/Top Draw and being nominated for Top Boxscore.
Overview Background After their last tour ended in 2014, there was uncertainty surrounding the band, especially the guitarist situation. Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal had hinted during the last part of the tour that these would be his last shows with Guns N' Roses. However, after the tour ended, no official word on the situation was given from Guns N' Roses nor Thal himself. During several South American shows on the tour, Duff McKagan had filled in for bassist Tommy Stinson, who fulfilled previous commitments with his other band The Replacements. Stinson left the band due to personal issues after the tour, stating "I actually had to just start turning down tours because I was unable to tour.. my personal life was going to prevent me from doing... about five tours that they called me to do, and I just said I can't do 'em."
Almost a year after the tour ended, on May 7, 2015, Slash revealed in an interview on CBS This Morning that much of the tension that had existed between Axl and himself was gone, saying: "Well, we haven't really talked in a long time. But a lot of the tension that you were talking about has dissipated. We don't have all those issues anymore." When asked specifically about the chances of Guns N' Roses reuniting, he said: "I gotta be careful what I say there. I mean, if everybody wanted to do it and do it for the right reasons, you know, I think the fans would love it. I think it might be fun at some point to try and do that, but it just starts to get into a whole complex thing. But anyway, it's really between the guys in the band." This sparked the start of what would prove to be a long period of speculation on a reunion by both the fans and the media. Slash later revealed that he and Axl spoke via telephone in March 2015.
Suddenly, on July 27, 2015, the news broke that Guns N' Roses' co-lead guitarist, DJ Ashba, was leaving the band. He wrote a letter explaining that he was going to focus his work on his other group, Sixx:A.M., which he had formed with bassist Nikki Sixx and vocalist James Michael in 2007. At the same time he thanked Rose for the opportunity he was given by playing with Guns N' Roses and it seemed like they had left things on good terms. While this news story was picking up, it was at the same time confirmed by a representative of Guns N' Roses that Thal was officially out of the band. The leaving of both Ashba and Thal, combined with Slash's comments on a reunion only a couple months before, further fueled both media and fan speculation about a reunion being in the works.
Furthermore, on August 22, 2015, Slash stated to the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet that Axl and he had spoken recently. This was considered a big news story because it was common knowledge that the two of them had not spoken since he left the band in 1996. When asked about the re-connection with Rose, Slash commented "it was probably way overdue". Rumors of a reunited Guns N' Roses started to pick up more and more during late 2015. More reports came in claiming to have a confirmation that a reunion would happen, but no official statement was made during this period. One of the questions on people's minds was if this was going to be a full reunion of the "classic line-up" or if it would be just one or two people from that line-up returning to the band. Steven Adler (the drummer from Guns N' Roses' "classic line-up") admitted during a radio interview with Eddie Trunk that he had not heard anything from Guns N' Roses about a reunion. Classic-era member Izzy Stradlin later confirmed to Rolling Stone that he will have no involvement with the new lineup. Former drummer Matt Sorum stated he was not asked to be part of the reunion, while departed guitarist Ashba claimed he was asked by Rose to be a part of the lineup but had turned it down, citing his commitment to Sixx:A.M. Former rhythm guitarist Gilby Clarke turned down an invitation for a guest spot.Clarke Stradlin explained his absence on the tour stating "they didn't want to split the loot equally". Ultimately, Chinese Democracy-era members Richard Fortus and Frank Ferrer remained with the band to fill the rhythm guitarist and drummer slots respectively.
Announcement
In late December 2015, the Guns N' Roses website was updated, scrapping much of the content and displaying the classic Guns N' Roses bullet-logo. The logo had not been used in official promotion since the Use Your Illusion days. Then, on Christmas Day, a teaser trailer debuted before the new Star Wars movie. The 15-second video showed black and white shots of a concert audience with the opening words of "Welcome to the Jungle" played. No additional narration or text accompanied the trailer.
On December 29, 2015, Billboard reported that Slash was set to rejoin the band and a "reunited" lineup would headline Coachella 2016. Rose was set to appear on Jimmy Kimmel Live! the following week to talk about the future of the band, but his appearance was cancelled due to "unforeseen circumstances". Guns N' Roses were officially announced as the headliner of Coachella on January 4, 2016, with the press reporting Slash and Duff McKagan were rejoining the band. The Coachella festival then confirmed via press release that McKagan and Slash were rejoining. April concerts in Las Vegas and Mexico City were announced subsequently.
The full tour announcement came on April 1, 2016, when the band announced 20 cities as part of a North American leg of the tour dubbed "Not in This Lifetime...". The tour's name is a reference to a 2012 interview in which Rose, when asked about when a potential reunion would happen, responded "not in this lifetime." The reunion was billed as a "regrouping" by the band instead of a full reunion, since Slash and McKagan were filling empty spots in the existing band lineup. Additional dates in Chicago, New England, New York, and Los Angeles were announced on April 25 due to shows selling out. On May 18, Alice In Chains and Lenny Kravitz were announced as openers for select shows of the tour. Two weeks before the tour began, The Cult, Chris Stapleton, Billy Talent, and Skrillex were announced as additional openers for select shows. On June 30, Wolfmother and Tyler Bryant & the Shakedown were announced for several shows. Zakk Wylde was added as an additional opener to the band's show of August 15 in Glendale, Arizona.
Additional legs of the tour were announced throughout the year, including Latin American, Asian, and Oceanian legs. Babymetal was announced as openers for the Japanese shows in 2017. In late November, commercials started airing in the United States with footage from the tour with the tagline "They're back for more in 2017", teasing a return to North America. On December 5, the band announced 35 North American and European dates for 2017, including a return to St. Louis for the first time since the 1991 Riverport Riot.
On March 7, 2017, the band was announced as part of the 2017 edition of Rock in Rio, playing on September 23. A YouTube video was released promoting this announcement, revealing that the band would co-headline their day with The Who. This marked the fourth appearance by Guns N' Roses with the festival in Rio de Janeiro, with the second edition in 1991 being their first time there.
Notable events
While originally slated to commence in Las Vegas on April 8, 2016, a previously unannounced warmup gig at the Troubadour in Los Angeles took place on April 1, 2016. Rumors of the secret show had started the night before, and fans were starting to gather outside the old Tower Records building at Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood. Rumblings that a ticket sale for the show would take place there started a line of people that grew during the night and into the early morning of April 1. Then, during the morning, the announcement came that the rumors were true and tickets for the club show would go on sale at 12 pm at the Tower Records building. They charged a $10 "retro" ticket price for the show. Later in the evening, as the band took the stage at the Troubadour, it was revealed that Melissa Reese, who has previously worked with former drummer Bryan "Brain" Mantia on several projects, had replaced longtime second keyboardist Chris Pitman for the tour. Pitman quit the band two weeks before the tour began, he had previously publicly criticized the tour as a "nostalgia tour" and "a money grab" and later mentioned he "quit the oldies band". During the show at the Troubadour, Rose fell and broke his foot. For the following concerts, Rose was given Dave Grohl's customized throne that Grohl used to perform when he broke his leg at a concert. The band's first scheduled concerts with Slash and McKagan took place at the newly opened T-Mobile Arena on April 8 and 9, 2016. Alice in Chains were the opening act for the Las Vegas shows, while The Cult opened the first two shows outside the United States in Mexico City on April 19 and 20.
Former Skid Row singer Sebastian Bach joined the band on stage during the second of the two Las Vegas shows in April 2016, sharing the lead vocals with Rose on the song "My Michelle". Bach has guested on the same song in a similar fashion on many previous Guns N' Roses tours, but this was the first time performing it alongside the returned Slash and McKagan. Rose Tattoo singer Angry Anderson joined the band onstage to help them cover the Rose Tattoo song "Nice Boys" at their concert in Australia in February 2017. It was the first time that Anderson performed the song with Guns N' Roses since 2007.
On April 16, 2016, just hours before their performance at the Coachella Festival's first weekend was scheduled to start, the news broke that Rose would be joining AC/DC to fill in as the lead vocalist for the remaining dates of their Rock or Bust tour. Brian Johnson had to leave the group previously due to risk of hearing loss. During Guns N' Roses' show that night, AC/DC guitarist Angus Young guested with the band for performances of the AC/DC classics "Whole Lotta Rosie" and "Riff Raff", giving the audience an early preview of how the guitarist's sound and Rose's voice sounded together. Young joined the band for three more shows on the tour in early 2017, as well as a show in Germany in June and in The Netherlands in July.