The feud between Guns N’ Roses and Metallica: “There were so many problems”
Guns N’ Roses are a band that splits opinions in the rock community. While they can play Wembley Stadium or headline Glastonbury Festival, demonstrating their widespread appeal, they also have their detractors, which extends to fellow bands.
Frontman Axl Rose is a particularly divisive figure who has rubbed many people the wrong way over the years. Notably, Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain was highly critical of Guns N’ Roses, culminating in a backstage altercation at the MTV Awards in 1992. Furthermore, Chris Cornell once spoke dismissively of Rose, labelling him an “obstacle” that prevented him from admiring Guns N’ Roses.
Guns N’ Roses are now elder rock ‘n’ roll statesmen, with their wild shenanigans firmly behind them. Nevertheless, they constantly created chaos during their hell-raising peak and held a notorious reputation. Metallica have never been angels, either. Therefore, when the two titans of rock hit the road together, it should have been a moment to remember, but it was a nightmare.
The two bands toured with each other in 1992 for a string of dates that took them to stadiums across North America. According to Guns N’ Roses’ former drummer Matt Sorum, the jaunt was far from plain sailing. In a 2019 interview with The Desert Sun, he discussed the harmful competitive spirit between the two bands: “Axl’s intention was to rule the world and wasn’t afraid to say it. Then Lars Ulrich came along, and he wanted to rule the world. We were like, ‘You’re going to have to open for us because we rule the world.’ They were very competitive with us.”
Although the competitive spirit that both bands possessed should have led to them bringing their A-games to assert their superiority, they could not leave this rivalry on the stage and bond over beers afterwards.
Rose clearly held a grudge from the tour and made his opinion on Metallica abundantly clear many years later. During a light-hearted Q&A session, in response to a question about cartoons, the Guns N’ Roses singer said: “My favourite cartoon characters are Metallica and Slash”.
While the issues between the two bands stemmed from their initial tour together in the early 1990s, the public was unaware that such rivalry existed until Rose’s comment, which led to the airing of the dirty laundry.
Soon afterwards, Rose’s comments were recited to James Hetfield during an interview, and the Metallica frontman responded by saying: “(Guns N Roses) are a different type of band – and I use the word ‘band’ loosely. It’s a guy and some other guys.” To further contextualise his comments, Slash and Duff McKagan had temporarily left Guns N’ Roses at this stage, meaning Axl Rose was the only one still standing from the original line-up.
Furthermore, in an interview with Kerrang, Metallica’s Kirk Hammett implied Rose was the root of their problem with the tour. Hammett revealed: “That tour was very stressful because there were so many problems. At that point in time you never really knew if Axl felt like he was going to play the show or not, or if he was going to be on time or not, or if there was going to be an issue with the actual show or not. And that kind of drove everyone crazy”.
When Rose initially commented about Metallica in a derogatory manner, Guns N’ Roses were still regularly cancelling shows or turning up several hours late. Furthermore, he may have been slightly bitter at the trajectory of Metallica compared with his own band, who had slipped away from cultural relevance.
However, while the 2000s was a difficult decade for Guns N’ Roses, the return of Slash and McKagan in 2016 has led to them undertaking a decade-long victory lap. Apart from the occasional show cancellation due to illness, they have largely steered clear of controversy, and Rose has seemingly grown up compared to the version of himself that Metallica endured on tour. Nevertheless, don’t expect the two bands to hit the road together anytime soon.
