If you were in attendance at Guns N’ Roses’ first reunion show at the Troubadour on April 1, 2016, you witnessed history.
A fan has shared the story of how he managed to sneak into the show without paying for it, and he captured footage as proof.
In early January 2016, Guns N’ Roses were confirmed as one of the headliners for both weekends of that year’s Coachella music festival in mid-April.
Shortly after, they’d announced two performances scheduled for April 8 and 9 at the T-Mobile Arena Stage in Las Vegas, Nev.
These were the first shows that would see Axl Rose joined by both Slash and Duff McKagan onstage in 23 years, so the demand was incredibly high.
But on April 1, they played a surprise show at the 500 person-capacity Troubadour in Los Angeles. It hadn’t officially been announced, but many fans speculated that it was going to take place, including the aforementioned individual, who shared his story on Reddit.
“You pretty much had to know tickets would go on sale before it was announced,” he wrote, adding that his friend Tom tipped him off to the performance.
He drove by the venue during the afternoon that day and noticed that the venue’s stage crew were wearing all black, and went back to his apartment to see what he could come up with.
“I happen to be living with a Stage 5 hoarder at the time — one of those one-path-through-the-apartment kind of hoarders.
One of the things he had was a bunch of sandbags. From my days of doing stage crew in college, I know sandbags are sometimes needed to keep the sound monitors in place,” he continued.
The fan dressed in all-black and brought some sandbags with him to the venue. He parked in a lot behind the venue, grabbed the sandbags and headed toward the back door.
Sure enough, no one questioned him, and he found himself inside the venue, but needed to hide for a few hours until the show started.
So he stayed in the men’s bathroom, and managed to record a few clips of the band sound checking — one of which was “Live and Let Die.”
“I sat in that stall until 10:15pm. when I got out, I was in — what an environment. The energy was WILD,” he recalled. “Now, phones were strictly forbidden.
Upon entry, you had to place your phone in this protective case that can only be opened with some special magnet or something. I didn’t have that problem, but I held off on video for a few songs as to not risk anything stupid.”
Hollywood Rose was an early band in the Guns N’ Roses story. The group was formed in 1983 by guitarist Chris Weber, Izzy Stradlin and Axl Rose.
Along with several revolving bass players and drummer Johnny Kreis, the band recorded a few demos together and played some smaller shows.
Internal problems led to Road Crew’s Slash and Steven Adler coming in on the guitar and drums, respectively. Though Stradlin left for a bit, the introduction of Rose and Slash ultimately determined what would become Guns N’ Roses’ future.
Hollywood Rose eventually dissolved, and Los Angeles guitarist Tracii Guns was looking for a vocalist for his band L.A. Guns.
Axl Rose and Izzy Stradlin joined him in 1985, and they went on to combine their names to become Guns N’ Roses. Duff McKagan, who had recently played in Road Crew, was hired on bass.
Prior to a show, Guns and drummer Rob Gardner quit the band, leaving Rose, Stradlin and McKagan without a lead guitarist and a drummer.
They called up Slash and Adler, whom they’d previously played with in Hollywood Rose and Road Crew, and the official lineup was finally complete.
“The moment that we fuckin’ slammed into our first chord, there was something. And we all knew it,” McKagan later recalled, adding that Rose was the final element to click the second he started singing.