Sunday, April 15th 2012

News:  Guns N' Roses

Watch: Guns N’ Roses’ Semi-Reunion At The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame

By Fernando Scoczynski Filho

As quickly as their induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame was announced, rumors of a Guns N’ Roses original line-up reunion began to spread. After much speculation from all parties involved, the matter was only finally resolved when lead singer (and only original member still in the group) Axl Rose politely declined his induction. This left the path clear for a performance by the classic line-up of Slash, Steven Adler and Duff McKagan, as well as later GNR members Gilby Clarke and Matt Sorum, who all apparently get well enough with each other to play a few songs. And so, they did.

After a lengthy induction speech by Green Day singer/guitarist Billy Joe Armstrong (Blabbermouth has the full transcript) and short speeches by each GNR member, the band took the stage for three songs: Mr. Brownstone, Sweet Child O’ Mine and Paradise City - with original drummer Steven Adler playing on the last two, and Matt Sorum on the first. As for the vocal duties, they were handled by Myles Kennedy, who sang on Slash’s solo debut, and went on to tour with him. The (perhaps unsurprisingly) solid performances can be found below, with Mr. Kennedy arguably hitting some of the highs that Axl no longer can:

Mr. Brownstone

Sweet Child O’ Mine

Paradise City

Of course, this performance will generate a few “what’s next” questions, but the answers seem obvious enough. For Axl, his incarnation of GNR is doing pretty well, and likely won’t stop or change any time soon. Slash, Duff and Adler all have solo projects moving along – which won’t stop them from getting asked about the possibility of touring with Myles Kennedy.

But it’s Matt Sorum’s comment on the matter that we appreciate the most, as he went to twitter after the Hall of Fame induction, and said:  ”From today forward I will not be commenting on Guns N Roses. Or making any remarks about the future. Thank you to all the fans. The legacy continues without my commentary. Matt Sorum Former member of GNR.” Indeed, it would be nice to finally put an end to the tirade of rumors and speculation.

Picture via Rolling Stone.