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AXL ROSE FALLS ILL, ROCKS ON, PASSES OUT:
August 1, 2006
There was no cold November rain last weekend, but Axl Rose was under the weather anyway.
After being diagnosed Sunday morning with low blood pressure and low blood sugar, the Guns N’ Roses frontman ignored a doctor’s order to take it easy and took the stage at London’s Wembley Arena that night for the final show of the band’s 32-date European tour.
Actually, Rose responded with, “F— that, I have a show to do and I am not missing it.”
And he almost made it all the way through. Rose, 44, collapsed toward the end of the group’s two-hour set, after which former Skid Row frontman Sebastian Bach–who had jammed with the guys earlier in the evening on “My Michelle”–took over lead vocals on the last songs of the night, “Night Train” and “Paradise City.”
The revamped GNR had performed at Wembley Arena on Saturday and also performed a surprise gig at the more intimate Cuckoo Club from 4 a.m. to 5:30 a.m. Sunday. The audience at the smaller show was made up of people who had been rocking out earlier in the day at Wembley. While onstage Rose announced the names of the lucky few who got to attend the Cuckoo concert.
Despite the inauspicious ending–and a few other odd occurrences here and there–Rose seemed satisfied with GNR’s experience disseminating Chinese Democracy in Europe.
“I approached this last show with equal parts determination, obligation, responsibility and insanity. It was an amazing night. We have had an amazing tour and it has been fantastic for the band and I to experience this,” he said in a statement. “I want to thank everyone in Europe and the U.K. for inspiring us and for giving us the opportunity to play for them. We are now looking forward to the U.S. in September.”
So far, GNR is expected to headline KROQ’s Inland Invasion 2006 on Sept. 23. Other U.S. dates are still in the works.
Perhaps the fear of low blood sugar was what prompted Rose to allegedly take a bite out of a security guard’s leg in Stockholm the day after GNR played to a sold-out crowd in June. The singer spent the better part of a day in jail before paying a $5,500 fine and $1,360 in damages to the guard.
Last month Rose prompted the launch of quite a few projectiles after he kept a Newcastle, England, audience waiting for an hour and 15 minutes in the summer heat, according to Britain’s Daily Mirror, so that he could polish off a roast lamb dinner.
“Only a roast dinner would do,” Colin Revel, manager of Newcastle’s Metro Radio Arena, told the tabloid.
Reports that the band was driven off the stage by boos and flying bottles were later clarified by GNR.
“Getting hit wasn’t a big deal,” Rose said in a statement. “We stopped the song and gave a warning. We came back and started the song over and completed it. We then said goodnight. The house lights went down and I got hit a second time, in the mouth, by a solid object thrown by someone in the audience. After having warned the crowd that we would leave, and having played more than two hours, we left the stage and called it a night with the full support of everyone in the band, our guests and management.”
Hey, a guy’s gotta eat. Axl should know.
Courtesy of www.eonline.com