Guns N' Roses guitarist hints at tour

Guns N' Roses guitarist Richard Fortus hinted in an interview with a St. Louis radio station earlier this week that a tour from the Axl Rose-led band is imminent. According to Blabbermouth.net, Fortus said on the program, "I've been in rehearsals with Guns for the last little bit here -- focusing more on that world right now . . . We, hopefully, will be announcing dates soon, I hope." Fortus added, "I don't know of any dates in the U.S. yet; I haven't heard any talk. I'm sure that we will . . . Right now that's not where the focus is; I know that we're gonna be probably announcing other dates first."

Rumors have been building about a Guns N' Roses tour for several months now, including one report that a co-headlining stadium trek with Van Halen was in the works for this summer.

The band did recently announce that guitarist and songwriter D.J. Ashba will join the lineup for its upcoming tour. Ashba has most recently been seen as part of Sixx A.M., the side project started by Motley Crue bassist Nikki Sixx.

Former Guns drummer Matt Sorum, who joined the group in 1990, told us that he doesn't think it's cool for Axl Rose to take his current band on the road under the Guns N' Roses name: [ Click to listen if you have a backstage pass] "I'm not saying I'm an original member, okay, but I understand the core of the band, which is Slash and Duff and probably Izzy. It's a shame, and you know what, this goes back to a Paul McCartney thing. Does he call himself the Beatles? Not saying we were as big as the Beatles, but -- does Sting call himself the Police? No. Does Jimmy Page and Robert Plant go out there calling themselves Led Zeppelin? Nope."

The latest Guns N' Roses album, Chinese Democracy, went on sale as a Best Buy exclusive last November after a 15-year wait. The disc has sold 575,000 copies since its release, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
Submit the above story to:

Del.icio.us   Digg   reddit   StumbleUpon   Facebook