Guns N’ Roses are currently on tour across Australia, and on the second date of the run – last Thursday (November 24), when they played the Gold Coast’s Metricon Stadium – they added a particularly special cover to the setlist: ‘Whole Lotta Rosie’ by AC/DC.
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The song itself has been covered by Guns N’ Roses some 156 times – including at the subsequent Sydney date of their current tour – with a recording of it featured on the band’s eponymous 1988 EP. Thursday’s show, however, marked the first time they’d played it live since 2018.
It’s especially significant given the band’s relationship with AC/DC: in 2016, Guns N’ Roses frontman Axl Rose joined AC/DC as their lead singer, filling in for Brian Johnson on that year’s ‘Rock Or Bust’ tour. The following year, AC/DC’s Angus Young joined Guns N’ Roses in Sydney to perform both ‘Whole Lotta Roses’ and ‘Riff Raff’.
Elsewhere on their Australian tour – which will continue in Adelaide tomorrow (November 29) – Guns N’ Roses have performed covers of ‘Wichita Lineman’ by Jimmy Webb, ‘Live And Let Die’ by Wings, ‘I Wanna Be Your Dog’ by The Stooges (with bassist Duff McKagan taking over Rose on vocals), ‘Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door’ by Bob Dylan, and ‘Slither’ by Slash’s own (now-defunct) side project Velvet Revolver.
Have a look at footage of the ‘Whole Lotta Rosie’ cover below, then see Guns N’ Roses’ full setlist from the Gold Coast show (via setlist.fm):
1. ‘It’s So Easy’
2. ‘Mr Brownstone’
3. ‘Chinese Democracy’
4. ‘Slither’ (Velvet Revolver cover)
5. ‘Better’
6. ‘Welcome To The Jungle’ (inc. sample of ‘Rumble’ by Link Wray)
7. ‘Reckless Life’
8. ‘Double Talkin’ Jive’
9. ‘Live And Let Die’ (Wings cover)
10. ‘Estranged’
11. ‘Shadow Of Your Love’
12. ‘Rocket Queen’
13. ‘Whole Lotta Rosie’ (AC/DC cover)
14. ‘You Could Be Mine’ (followed by guitar solo from Slash)
15. ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’
16. ‘Wichita Lineman’ (Jimmy Webb cover)
17. ‘I Wanna Be Your Dog’ (The Stooges cover, w/ Duff McKagan on vocals)
18. ‘Absurd’
19. ‘Hard Skool’
20. ‘November Rain’
21. ‘Civil War’ (inc. sample of ‘Machine Gun’ by Jimi Hendrix)
22. ‘Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door’ (Bob Dylan cover)
23. ‘Nightrain’
24. ‘Coma’
25. ‘Patience’ (inc. sample of ‘Blackbird’ by The Beatles)
26. ‘Don’t Cry’
27. ‘Paradise City’
‘Whole Lotta Rosie’ first appeared on AC/DC’s fourth album, ‘Let There Be Rock’, in 1977. It’s not the first of their songs to be covered by Guns N’ Roses, though. Earlier this year, for example, they performed ‘Walk All Over You’ and ‘You’re Crazy’ in Portugal, then ‘Back In Black’ in Spain.
Following tomorrow night’s show in Adelaide, Guns N’ Roses will end their Australian tour in Melbourne – where they’ll play this Saturday (December 3) – before taking to New Zealand for shows in Wellington and Auckland. See here for more details on all of the band’s upcoming shows.
Over the first few nights of the tour, the band reportedly faced issues with concertgoers flying drones during the show. Yesterday (November 27) saw Rose issue a statement to their fans attending upcoming shows, asking them to “[play with their] toys somewhere else”.
Earlier this month, the band released a “super deluxe” box set edition of their two ‘Use Your Illusion’ albums, featuring 63 previously unreleased tracks. One of those – a ‘2022 version’ of ‘November Rain’ featuring a 50-piece orchestra – was released as a single.
Meanwhile, Slash has continued teasing a follow-up to last year’s ‘Hard Skool’ EP, saying in January that Guns N’ Roses plan to release an “entire record’s worth” of new material, then in February that new music would arrive before the band went on tour in June (it did not), and then in October that their next release will be “epic”.
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