1992.12.05 - Estadio River Plate, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Axl shows he has nothing to hide

BUENOS AIRES — Guns Ν’ Roses singer Axl Rose bared all in a Buenos Aires hotel lobby early Friday morning, shortly after the group arrived in the Argentine capital on the third leg of a troubled South America tour.

The Argentine news agency Telam reported Rose, wearing only a sheet round his waist, appeared in the lobby of the local Hyatt laughing and joking with two other members of the group.

Rose then took off the sheet and, completely naked, hugged a security guard, prompting raucous applause from his companions.

Earlier, Rose swore at a radio journalist who tried to interview him as the group left their private aircraft after landing at Ezeiza international airport.

Police spokesmen said a massive security operation involving 1,100 men was planned for the group’s performances yesterday and today. News reports have warned of possible violence at the concerts because of anti-Argentine statements which have allegedly been made by Rose.

Guns Ν’ Roses arrived from Chile, where 178 fans were arrested at its Wednesday-night concert after violence broke out among the audience, angered by the late start of the show. Rose walked off stage twice and threatened to cancel the concert as bottles and other objects showered the stage.

Two days earlier the group’s concert in Bogota, Colombia, was marred by violence as well, as thousands of fans who had not been able to buy tickets ran riot outside the stadium, wounding 20 policemen and damaging hundreds of cars and nearby shops.

Blackstar wrote:The Calgary Herald, December 6, 1992:

Axl shows he has nothing to hide

BUENOS AIRES — Guns Ν’ Roses singer Axl Rose bared all in a Buenos Aires hotel lobby early Friday morning, shortly after the group arrived in the Argentine capital on the third leg of a troubled South America tour.

The Argentine news agency Telam reported Rose, wearing only a sheet round his waist, appeared in the lobby of the local Hyatt laughing and joking with two other members of the group.

Rose then took off the sheet and, completely naked, hugged a security guard, prompting raucous applause from his companions.

[...]

Craig Duswalt wrote:
One night in Buenos Aires, Axl thought it would be a good idea to offer one of the members of the entourage a few hundred dollars cash to run naked in the streets outside the front of our hotel, in front of hundreds of screaming fans. Most people would think this would be enough to earn a few hundred dollars.

Not Axl.

After the naked man ran in the street, Axl wanted him to shake the hand of an Argentinean police officer.

I thought that whoever did this would experience, firsthand, Midnight Express. I personally wouldn’t do this in the United States, but to do it in a foreign county? Not a chance.

Gene Kirkland didn’t think it would be a problem.

Gene was one of the two photographers for Guns N’ Roses. He and Robert John basically documented the entire tour in pictures, taking thousands of shots during the three-year journey.

I’m not sure how much money Gene got paid on the road, but obviously he felt that it wouldn’t hurt to pick up some extra cash. But Gene was in negotiation mode. He wanted $1,000. Axl agreed, and the dare was on.

Gene agreed that for $1,000 he would walk outside the front of the hotel in a bath towel, toss aside the towel to reveal his nakedness, run over to a police officer, and shake his hand.

Simple.

Within seconds we all got on our walkie-talkies, and told everyone to come to the lobby immediately to watch Gene go to jail, because in my mind, if his did this, that’s exactly where he was going.

[...] Gene left the lobby, headed up to his room to get ready, and within minutes the band members and the entire entourage were in the lobby ready to witness Gene’s last hour of freedom.

The documentary crew came running down to the lobby; they had basically documented the entire tour to date, and they weren’t about to miss this fine piece of Guns N’ Roses lore.

The hundreds of fans lined up behind a metal fence barrier were also ready, anticipating that something “cool” was about to happen, even though they didn’t know what.

The elevator bell dinged, and Gene stepped out in the lobby wearing only a white bath towel and a tie. The tie was a great touch—class personified.

Axl flashed ten crisp, new $100 bills, and we were off to take our positions outside the front of the hotel.

I could tell that Gene was freaking out by the horrified look on his face, because I think reality had just set in, but it was too late to turn back. There were too many people watching.

Axl pointed to a police officer standing across the street and instructed Gene that that was the officer he was to shake hands with. Of course Axl chose the meanest looking one.

By then every one of us was advising Gene how to do this. As if it were rocket science. We told him a bunch of unnecessary crap: how to throw the towel off, to watch out for the curb, and to make sure the handshake was firm. We all just wanted to be part of it. This was fun for us, and especially fun for the band. Playing in front of 80,000 people? That happens every day. But having a guy in the entourage run naked through the streets of Buenos Aires? Now, that’s a great time.

Without notice, as if he had been shot out of a cannon, Gene was off. He pulled off his towel and ran naked across the hotel parking lot on a beeline to the pre-chosen police officer. He approached the officer, smiling the entire time, reached his hand out, and waited for a handshake.

The police officer didn’t really know what was happening for a second, but amazingly he reached out and shook hands with Gene.

I was in shock. The police officer actually shook hands with him. The officer started to smile, and for a split-second I thought Gene would be okay, that they wouldn’t throw his naked ass in jail.

Gene turned to us and smiled.

But that was only a fleeting moment, because about two seconds later, two police officers grabbed Gene, each taking hold of his upper arms, and proceeded to guide him up against the outside of the hotel wall. Gene dropped his towel, and the police officers made him spread his legs and put his two hands up on the wall.

We all laughed, because it was hysterical, but we all thought the same thing. Gene was going to jail. We didn’t know exactly how long a sentence is for running naked through the streets in Buenos Aires, but we all knew he wasn’t going to be free in the near future.

He was screwed. Then something weird happened. Obviously protocol at this point is to frisk the perpetrator, and they did. But he was naked.

What were they frisking?

And as they were “frisking” Gene, the police officers couldn’t hold it in any longer, and they started laughing.

Axl and Doug cracked up as well. The tension was broken.

But most of us still thought that this wasn’t going to end well, until Doug told us what was up.

Doug had paid off the police officers to fake arrest Gene and after a few moments set him free.

Only in Argentina.

The police officers were in on the ruse, and so were Axl and Doug, and maybe even a few others. I had thought for sure that Gene was going to jail. More amazing was that Gene had no idea that this was planned out. He thought, in a moment of insanity, that he would be allowed to walk over to a police officer in a foreign country, naked, and not get in trouble. When he was tossed up against the wall, reality set in and he said he thought to himself, I’m screwed.

But luckily it was all a setup.

Gene put his towel back on, adjusted his tie, grabbed the $1,000 from Axl, and headed back to the lobby bar. A richer man with a lesson learned.

Off their rockers

Members of the US rock band Guns N’ Roses, who recently played in Argentina, “need very serious and deep psychological therapy", said the Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Cardinal Antonio Quarracino, during his regular weekend television show. — AFP.

Tenso primer concierto en Argentina de Guns N’ Roses

Buenos Aires. Efe

Con la amenaza del Gobierno argentino de suspender la fundón en caso de que se produjeran desmanes y la vigilancia de más de dos mil policías, finalmente se presentó en Buenos Aires el grupo de rock estadounidense Guns N’ Roses.

Unos cuarenta y seis mil jóvenes asistieron al primer concierto del grupo en el estadio de fútbol de River Píate, pese al enrarecido clima que rodeó la llegada del grupo a Buenos Aires, después de dos agitadas actuaciones en Colombia y Chile, donde resultaron heridos varios espectadores. Axi Rose La llegada de la banda que lidera Axl Rose casi eclipsó a los importantes cambios de ministros que se produjeron durante los últimos días en el Gobierno. El propio presidente argentino, Carlos Ménem, no dejó de opinar el sábado al respecto al calificar de «forajidos» a los músicos estadounidenses y aconsejar a los jóvenes que no asistieran al recital: «Lo lógico hubiera sido prohibirlos -dijo Ménem-, pero ésto en el mundo, con toda seguridad, hubiera servido para que nos criticaran y nos tildaran de autoritarios».

El sábado, el secretario general de la Presidencia, Eduardo Bauzá, aseguró que si había incidentes en el primer recital se prohibiría el previsto para anoche (hora local). El primer concierto comenzó con una inmensa imagen en el telón, en la que se reproducían los escritos de algunos medios de prensa locales que atribuían al cantante del grupo, Axl Rose, haber quemado una bandera argentina y dicho que quemaría sus botas al irse del país, y sobre ese fondo había una franja que decía: «Mentiras”. A los miembros del grupo también se les acusa de «azuzar» a sus guardaespaldas contra los reporteros gráficos a su llegada a Buenos Aires y también en Santiago de Chile.

Al empezar el recital. Rose apareció en el escenario con la camiseta de la selección argentina de fútbol, y acto seguido interpretó «Welcome to the jungle», la primera canción de la noche.

Los momentos de mayor tensión se vivieron cuando dos piedras cayeron en el escenario, y el cantante y líder del grupo amenazó con suspender el concierto. Seguidamente, Rose llamó a su traductora y solicitó «calma» a los espectadores, ya que pretendía mantener «una fiesta en paz». Pese a su petición, después de la medianoche otra piedra chocó contra uno de los altavoces, por lo que Axl volvió a suspender durante unos minutos el concierto.

Tras solicitar que una cámara de televisión enfocara la piedra, Rose pidió al público que «si alguien observa que otro tira una como ésta, péguenle, porque puede lastimar a alguien».

Finalmente, durante dos horas y veinte minutos, el quinteto estadounidense pudo ofrecer gran parte de sus canciones más populares, entre ellas la versión de «Knockin’ on heaven’s door», de Bob Dylan; el «Live and let die», de Paul McCartney, y sus propios éxitos como «Don't cry» o «November rain».

Tension about the first Guns N’ Roses concert in Argentina

Buenos Aires. Efe

With the Argentinian government threatening to cancel the event in case of incidents and under the watch of more than 2,000 police, the U.S. rock group Guns N 'Roses finally performed in Buenos Aires.

About 46,000 young people attended the group's first concert at the River Plate football stadium, despite the tense climate surrounding the band's arrival in Buenos Aires, following two hectic performances in Colombia and Chile where several concertgoers were injured. The arrival of the Axl Rose led band almost overshadowed the important cabinet reshuffle of the Argentinian government that took place in the last days. The Argentinian president himself, Carlos Ménem, didn’t refrain from talking about it on Saturday, when he described the U.S. musicians as “outlaws" and advised young people not to attend the concert: "Prohibiting them [from playing here] would’ve been the logical thing for us to do," said Ménem, "but that would’ve certainly given rise to the world to criticize us and call us authoritarian.”

The Secretary General of the Presidency, Eduardo Bauzá, asserted on Saturday that if there were incidents at the first concert, the second one, scheduled for last night (local time), would be canceled. The first concert started with a big screen displaying local media reports, according to which singer Axl Rose had burnt an Argentine flag and said that the band would burn their boots before they left the country, and the word “Lies” shown in the background.  The members of the band have also been accused of "urging" their bodyguards against journalists and photographers upon their arrival in Buenos Aires, as well as in Santiago, Chile.

At the beginning of the show, Rose appeared on stage wearing the shirt of the Argentine football team, and then performed "Welcome to the Jungle", the first song of the night.

The biggest moments of tension during the night were when two stones were thrown at the stage, and the singer and band leader threatened to halt the show. Then Rose, through his interpreter, asked the crowd to “calm down” as he wanted the show to be "a peaceful party." Despite his request, another stone hit one of the speakers after midnight, so Axl stopped the concert for a few minutes.

After asking a television camera to focus on the stone, Rose told the audience, "If you see anyone throwing one like this, beat them up, because they could hurt someone.”

Eventually, during a show of two hours and twenty minutes, the U.S. quintet was able to perform many of their most popular songs, including their versions of Bob Dylan’s "Knockin' On Heaven's Door” and Paul McCartney’s "Live and let die" as well as their own hits like "Don’t cry" and "November Rain".

Blackstar wrote:
According to a story in Craig Duswalt's (Axl's personal assistant at the time) book, Gene Kirkland, one of the photographers in the Use Your Illusion tour, ran naked and shook the hand of an Argentine policeman as part of a -sort of- bet with Axl.
So, it's very likely that the story that was reported in Argentine media and picked by US media about Axl being naked at the lobby was false.

Craig Duswalt wrote:
...

[...]
When Cynthia [Tallaricco] got home she was met with two slaps across the face and a stern warning to stay away from the rock band’s weekend concert. “I’ll kill myself if you don’t let me go,” she shouted. Moments later she had done just that, shooting herself in the head with Tallarico’s .38 calibre revolver.

Finding her in a pool of blood, Tallarico turned the gun on himself and died instantly. Friends said that with their defiant anthems of revolt, Guns N’ Roses had been Cynthia’s only way of escaping an unhappy home dominated by a violent and authoritarian father and a mother suffering from schizophrenia. [...]