2017.10.11 - Madison Square Garden, New York, NY, USA

Pink Joined Guns N’ Roses at MSG For a Performance of ‘Patience’: Watch

That's some supergroup.

By Lars Brandle

Make no mistake, Pink can rock out with the best of them. And she did just that on Tuesday night (Oct. 11) when she joined Guns N’ Roses on stage at Madison Square Garden.

The pop superstar stepped up to the mic to smash out the third verse of GNR’s classic 1989 ballad “Patience” with Axl Rose, Slash and Co. in support. That’s some supergroup right there.

Guns N’ Roses’ Not In This Lifetime tour continues Thursday (Oct. 12) at New Jersey’s Prudential Center while Pink’s schedule is about to get real busy. Her seventh studio album Beautiful Trauma is due to drop Friday (Oct. 13) and she’ll hit the road early next year for a global tour in support.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Famers gave a shout-out to their special guest after the show. Pink took it all in her stride. “Oh. Yeah. Whatever. No problem,” was her mischievous response.

Guns N’ Roses Are Locked and Loaded for ‘Not in This Lifetime’

By Sachyn Mital

Guns N’ Roses’ “Not in this Lifetime” Tour offers what few people expected from the band, a reunion (of sorts). The band’s star is, and always has been, Axl Rose, but he’s fronted various band members in incarnations of the group since at least the early 2000s.

But in 2016, it was announced that guitarist Slash and bassist Duff McKagan would rejoin Rose on the road despite any past conflicts with Rose. Other original members, guitarist Izzy Stradlin and drummer Steven Adler, are not on this tour but Dizzy Reed, who was with the band since the ’90s, is here on keys as is Melissa Reese and also guitarist Richard Fortus.

At the first of three Madison Square Garden shows, Guns N’ Roses was pitch perfect over the course of a three-hour performance. With no opener, the band ripped into “It’s So Easy” and “Mr. Brownstone”, classics from Appetite for Destruction before dipping into the forgettable “Chinese Democracy” and then back to Appetite for “Welcome to the Jungle”. It was a powerful opening that had the audience riveted.

There were lulls in the show too — namely the Chinese Democracy tracks — but for a set this long, and being the first time seeing the band myself, I wasn’t concerned. What was notable was that, when Rose stepped off the stage at various points in the night, Slash and the other guitarists carried the evening. Rose often returned sporting a different colored flannel around his waist than he had left wearing.

While I had some hesitation towards seeing this classic group from my childhood on tour initially, given all the past issues with the band, I am genuinely pleased for having attended the show. Rose and Slash looked to be enjoying each other’s company on the road. And I was pretty happy with Pink’s surprise appearance for the last verse or so of “Patience”. But even without the personalities, Guns N’ Roses’ music gripped my attention like pangs of hunger. Even after three hours, I wanted more. More “Live and Let Die” (which I had heard Paul McCartney do in the same venue not so long ago, but with more pyrotechnics), more “Civil War”, more “Sweet Child o’ Mine” and more “Paradise City”. Let’s hope the band just holds together and can keep offering more.