Rolling Stone have a new article on 15 Legendary Tours That Never Were, and one of the tours is a 1991 Guns N’ Roses and N.W.A. tour.
On the cusp of the Nineties, there were no two groups more embattled or controversial than Guns N’ Roses and N.W.A, so it made perfect sense that Hollywood’s biggest rock band and Compton’s finest rap ensemble would see each other as kindred spirits.
Axl Rose made it a point of wearing an N.W.A cap onstage and in videos, while N.W.A’s “Appetite for Destruction” – from their 1991 album Niggaz4Life – was partly inspired by the GN’R album of the same name. The two groups even socialized a bit, hanging out together at backyard barbecues and at GN’R’s L.A. Forum shows in the summer of 1991, and the idea of doing concerts together was briefly raised.
“We were supposed to do a couple of shows with them, but our manager got too greedy,” N.W.A’s DJ Yella told Rolling Stone in 2016. “They wanted to give us $25,000 for 10 minutes, but our management wanted $50,000 so it didn’t work.” Given the wide swath of devastation that both groups left in their respective wakes while on tour, one can only imagine the insanity that would have resulted from pairing them together on the road.
