Guns N' Roses: 13 Notorious Incidents You Won't Believe

11. Montreal '92 Riot

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k57_zRGPkvw Riots and Guns N' Roses became synonymous in the 90s and early 2000s. It almost seemed to be a GN'R tradition: start a show really late (usually presumed to be the fault of frontman Axl Rose), and have it lead to the annoyed crowd bursting into a riot. However, Montreal was a special case. For starters, it was part of a huge tour that saw Guns N' Roses and Metallica touring together; the biggest to be had in the early 1990s. Second, it's the show that had Metallica frontman James Hetfield suffered burns when some pyro went haywire, cutting Metallica's set short. Already agitated at the shortened set, things were made much, much worse when Guns skipped out early. Why? It took two hours for the band to take the stage after Hetfield's injury. Slash had actually warned the Montreal Gazette in advance that Axl Rose had a hole in his vocal chords. In fact, Rose (who has had throat surgeries during his career) had taken time off to deal with throat issues. Meanwhile, the venue was suffering from severe sound problems. Neither Rose nor Duff (who sang backup) could hear themselves. Under an hour into their set (the New York Times clocked it at 55 minutes) the band had a huddle and opted to cut the show short. The resulting riot cost over half a million dollars in damages. Police showed up in riot gear and used tear gas to subdue protesters, numbered at about 2,000 out of an estimated 53,000 in attendance. Amazingly, no one was killed or seriously injured, with about a dozen or so injuries reported including both rioters and police. The band did not return to Montreal until 2010.