Guns N’ Roses rocked the first weekend of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival with the help of AC/DC guitarist Angus Young.
The reunited classic line-up of the hard rockers, Axl Rose, 54, Slash, 50, and Duff McKagan, 52, blew away fans at the music festival in Indio, California, with a greatest hits set. The band cam on stage to the ‘Looney Tunes’ theme and then opened their incendiary set with ‘It’s So Easy’.
They powered through a host of their best-loved tracks such as ‘Welcome To The Jungle’, ‘Sweet Child Of Mine’, ‘You Could Be Mine’, ‘November Rain’ and ‘Civil War’.
Although Axl was restricted to performing sitting down due to a fractured bone in his foot he still sang with incredible energy and was delighted to introduce special guest Angus to the crowd.The singer - who sat on the same throne Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl used to perform when he broke his leg last year - said: “Since I can’t run around for you, we’re gonna bring out a friend, put a little life into things for us...”
The fans erupted as Angus, 61, came on stage dressed in his trademark school uniform and the band then played AC/DC songs ‘Whole Lotta Rosie’ ‘Riff Raff’, two tracks that Guns N’ Roses used to regularly play live.
The collaboration follows the news that Axl is to replace AC/DC frontman Brian Johnson on the band’s ‘Rock or Bust’ world tour after Brian was forced to pull out due to hearing problems.
Guns N’ Roses closed their 25-track setlist with an encore of ‘Patience’, a cover of The Who’s ‘The Seeker’ and ‘Paradise City’. After the show, Axl took to Twitter to thank Dave for lending him his throne.
He tweeted: “HUGE THANK YOU to Dave Grohl for the use of his rock Throne! An amazing gesture! Words rn’t enough!! Makes all the difference up there! (sic)”
After next week’s Coachella performance and a pair of Guns N’ Roses gigs in Mexico City, Axl is set to join AC/DC in Europe for 10 shows before reuniting with Slash and Duff to begin their ‘Not in This Lifetime Tour’.
