2002.12.11 - New York Daily News - GN'R's Tour: Roadkill?

GNR's tour: Roadkill?

By ISAAC GUZMAN
DAILY NEWS FEATURE WRITER

Guns N' Roses fans waited nearly a decade to see the mega-platinum metalheads go on tour again. But they didn't have to wait long for the group to implode for the second time in its tumultuous career.

First the band canceled the tour's opening date in Vancouver last month, resulting in a melee fueled by disappointed fans with an appetite for destruction. Then on Friday, just one day after a successful show at the Garden, mercurial singer Axl Rose failed to show up for the band's concert at Philadelphia's First Union Center.

Fans in Philly weren't quite as upset as their Canadian counterparts. The uncertainty now shifts to Tampa Bay, where GNR is scheduled to play Friday. Yesterday, promoter Clear Channel officially scratched tonight's show in Greenville, S.C., but nobody knows what will happen over the weekend.

"There's been rumblings, but we haven't heard anything official," says Jay Prebble, spokesman for Tampa Bay's St. Pete Times Forum. Even though CKY, the opening act, says on its Web site that it's been told the tour is canceled - it describes events as "freakishly expected" - the Forum says it's continuing to act as if Guns N' Roses is going to show up.

GNR plans to make some kind of statement today, says Interscope Records rep Terry Wang. But she doesn't know if the whole tour - due to end Jan. 3 in Los Angeles - will be scrapped, if the band will regroup and play a few dates or if, as some rumors have it, Rose is finally going to put the long-struggling GNR out of its misery.

The lack of information may be the result of a legal showdown between the band and Clear Channel, says Gary Bongiovanni, editor of Pollstar magazine, which covers the concert business. Whoever officially pulls the plug could end up owing a lot of money.

As for why Rose would mount a major tour only to flake out a month later, Bongiovanni says: "I don't think even Axl's psychiatrist has figured that one out."