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Guns N’ Roses Demanding Millions To Reunite At Coachella

By Stacey Cole
Published on: 03:59 PST, Apr 14, 2016

The Guns N’ Roses reunion will become the highlight of this year’s Coachella, according to USA Today. This will be the band’s first major performance since their last gig on July 17, 1993. But how did the festival manage to get the band together?

It was the Coachella festival founder, Paul Tollett, who managed to book the reunion of Guns N’ Roses. Thanks to Tollett’s efforts, the band’s frontman, Axl Rose, will perform with original members Slash on lead guitar and Duff McKagan on bass for the first time in more than two decades.

Guns N’ Roses Coachella reunion is scheduled to take place on April 16 and April 23. Earlier this month, the band blew the dust from their musical instruments during a private show at Los Angeles’ Troubadour club, which included high-profile celebrities such as Chris Brown, Bradley Cooper, Jim Carrey, and others.

Apart from the Guns N’ Roses reunion, Coachella 2016 will also include a long-awaited reunion of LCD Soundsystem, who split more than five years ago, and Calvin Harris, Taylor Swift’s current boyfriend.

After Guns N’ Roses announced they would reunite at Coachella later this year, they also unveiled their “Not In This Life” tour. According to reports, the band has requested $3 million for each show on the tour, while their Coachella gig will cost even more than that.

One source claimed Guns N’ Roses had asked for $14 million for their two shows at the festival, but Goldenvoice Vice President Skip Paige later denied the rumors, telling people to “do the math.”

Given the fact that as many as 170 bands have been booked for the festival, and given the fact that Coachella 2015 exceeded $84 million, it would be reasonable if Guns N’ Roses received something around $5 million from Goldenvoice for their reunion.

The original lineup of Guns N’ Roses featured frontman Rose, lead guitar Slash, and McKagan on bass, as well as rhythm guitarist Izzy Stradlin and drummer Steven Adler. But the latter was expelled from the band for violating an agreement that stated the band’s members were not allowed to record songs while on drugs.

Even Slash, who is a recovering heroin addict, said in his autobiography that the incident with firing Adler was “kind of ridiculous and excessively harsh.” Adler sued Guns N’ Roses for terminating the contract with him and won $2.25 million on top of 15 percent of the royalties for the band’s recordings.

Stradlin, meanwhile, quit the band after Guns N’ Roses’ European tour in 1991. And since Rose owned a higher percentage of the band compared to other members of the band, he thought he had more creative control.

Rose went on to get keyboard player Dizzy Reed into Guns N’ Roses even though Slash had repeatedly voiced his wish to remain the only guitar player in the band. Reed is currently being accompanied by Chris Pittman on keys and Melissa Reese on synthesizer.

In 1995, nearly two years after Guns N’ Roses last major performance, Slash quit the band, blaming the inequity of a new ownership deal as well as Rose’s tendency to show up late for the band’s shows and rehearsals or not attending them at all. In 1996, it was McKagan’s turn to quit the band, which meant Rose was left with full ownership of Guns N’ Roses.

Guns N’ Roses has recently released an official video of their recent Troubadour concert on this year’s April Fools’ Day, according to Blabber Mouth. The private concert was attended by Bradley Cooper, Kate Hudson, Chris Brown, Lenny Kravitz, Jim Carrey, and a number of other high-profile celebs.

[Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images]

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