30 People Arrested At A Guns N’ Roses Concert In New Jersey

Guns N’ Roses are just as rabble rousing now as they were back in their heyday. At least 30 people were arrested — and two New Jersey state troopers were assaulted — at their concert at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey last night.

Fox News has confirmed that New Jersey native Kimberly Goodman, 30, was one of 30 people arrested at the Guns N’ Roses concert in East Rutherford, NJ. Goodman faces serious charges — perhaps more so than any other person who was arrested because she assaulted two police officers. While Fox couldn’t confirm if Goodman had an attorney, other people who were arrested at the concert in New Jersey faced charges for everything from simple assault to harassment to “open lewdness.” They all carry a variety of prison terms, though it’s unclear if anyone who was arrested is truly facing the threat of an extended jail sentence (though it’s safe to say that Goodman is certainly looking at some prison time).

That was something #NY… Next up #Atlanta #NotInThisLifetime Tour #GnFnR https://t.co/taDhf3cdj9 pic.twitter.com/w0ALSCGszo

— Guns N’ Roses (@gunsnroses) July 25, 2016

The next Guns N’ Roses concert, according to the band’s official Twitter page, will take place tomorrow night in Atlanta, GA. The tour called “Not in this Lifetime Tour,” is the first time the original Guns N’ Roses lineup has been playing at a Guns N’ Roses concert since they originally disbanded in the 1990s, according to Business Insider. Prior to this tour, different incarnations of the band would play small concert halls — usually with just William “Axl” Rose, the infamous lead singer, in the lineup — which would draw down much consternation from both fans and other original band members alike, who would waste no time in pointing out that they would be willing to pay premium prices to see a Guns N’ Roses concert with the original lineup perform, rather than waste their money on what would be seen as “parodies” of the original lineup.

“Welcome to the Jungle,” from the Guns N’ Roses debut album Appetite for Destruction, is one of the band’s best-known and best-loved songs. This was one of many songs that were playing when at least 30 people were arrested at a Guns N’ Roses concert in East Rutherford, NJ.

Since they’ve recently re-formed, the band has been making headlines for a variety of reasons, but this is the first time in a long time that people have been arrested at a Guns N’ Roses concert. The last time that happened was back in 1991, during an infamous incident at a Guns N’ Roses concert to support the Use Your Illusion double album set. At that time, according to an article archived at Here Today, Gone to Hell, concert footage was being captured by an amateur cinematographer named Robert John, and this didn’t sit well with the temperamental Axl. In response, Axl jumped off the stage and insulted — then assaulted — John, after which he stomped off the stage & took the rest of the band with him. This lead to riots, with at least four people injured, and the St. Louis police putting a warrant out for Axl’s arrest. It took St. Louis police a year to arrest Rose in connection with the incident, and the band responded by hiding a “secret” message in the liner notes of subsequent re-releases of Use Your Illusion: a line that simply reads, “f–k you, St. Louis!”

The band has calmed down significantly since those days, of course — thanks to a combination of age, parenthood, and rock’n’roll losing its rabble-rousing backbone. While there’s no telling if a future Guns N’ Roses concert will result in an arrest — or 30 — one can definitely say that seeing the crowd lose its mind, and even lose its freedom for a short while, in the name of rock’n’roll brought back some rather interesting memories, and the hope that a Guns N’ Roses concert is a sign of things to come for the future of rock’n’roll.

[Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images for Coachella]