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January, 1991 - In early January, the band rehearse at the Long Beach Arena in California for their upcoming shows in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
January 19th, 1991 - The band members are rehearsing at a small rehearsal place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
January 20th, 1991 - Matt Sorum and Dizzy Reed made their concert debuts for GN'R at the Rock In Rio II festival held at the Estadio do Maracana in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Three minutes before Matt goes onstage in front of 140.000 people, they tell him that he's gotta do a drum solo. And he pulled it off!

First live performance of Pretty Tied Up (which is the first song of the set), Double Talkin' Jive, You Could Be Mine, Dead Horse and Estranged.

January 22nd, 1991 - Matt goes to Corcovado to see the statue of Christ the Redeemer.
January 23rd, 1991 - Second Rock In Rio II show at the Estadio do Maracana, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Live debut of Bad Apples.

The band played on two nights to a total of 260.000 people.

January 24th, 1991 - Slash is on the cover of Rolling Stone #596. Inside Guns N' Roses - Slash on Axl Rose, drugs and the next album.
May, 1991 - Alan Niven was fired. Doug Goldstein became GN'R's new manager.
May 9th, 1991 - The first of three warm-up shows before the tour. The first one is in San Francisco, CA at the Warfield Theatre. Bad Obsession, Live And Let Die and Dust N' Bones are performed live for the first time.
May 11th, 1991 - The second warm-up show is in Los Angeles, CA at the Pantages Theatre. The first song of the set is Right Next Door to Hell, which makes its live premiere. Also making its live premiere are 14 Years and You Ain't The First. The latter features Shannon Hoon. He also guests on Don't Cry.
May 16th, 1991 - The last warm-up show before the Use Your Illusion tour is in New York City, NY at the Ritz. Shannon Hoon guests on You Ain't The First and Don't Cry. Axl injured his foot during the show and has to wear a brace for the start of the upcoming tour. Footage for the You Could Be Mine video was shot at this show. Video of the show is released as part of the Use Your Illusion Super Deluxe box set on November 11th, 2022.
May 16th, 1991 - It's announced in the local newspapers that Guns N' Roses will play their first shows in Scandinavia in August. The show in Stockholm, Sweden will be on August 16th. The band will also play in Helsinki and Copenhagen as well as Germany and London, UK.
May 20th, 1991 - Tickets for the first GN'R show in Finland go on sale. The tickets to the show in Helsinki at the Jäähalli sell out quickly and a second show is added for the following day (August 14th).
May 24th, 1991 - Guns N' Roses kicked off their first ever world tour as headliners in East Troy, WI at the Alpine Valley Music Theatre. Skid Row opened the shows.
May 25th, 1991 - Second show at Alpine Valley Music Theatre in East Troy, WI.
May 28th, 1991 - First of two shows in Noblesville, IN at the Deer Creek Music Center.
May 29th, 1991 - Second show at the Deer Creek Music Center in Noblesville, IN. The first live performance of November Rain happens in Axl's home state.
June 1st, 1991 - Show in Grove City, OH at the Capital Music Center.
June 2nd, 1991 - GN'R plays at the Toledo Speedway in Toledo, OH.
June 4th, 1991 - Another Ohio show. This one is in Richfield at the Richfield Coliseum. The first song of the set is Coma, which is performed for the first time.
June 5th, 1991 - Second Richfield, OH show at the Richfield Coliseum.
June 7th, 1991 - First Canadian show of the tour at the CNE Grandstand in Toronto, ON. The band performs You're Crazy and has Sebastian Bach from the opening act, Skid Row, share lead vocals with Axl.
June 8th, 1991 - Second show at the CNE Grandstand in Toronto, ON. You're Crazy is performed with Sebastian Bach.
June 10th, 1991 - The chant, heard on Get In The Ring on Use Your Illusion II, was recorded at a show at the Performing Arts Center in Saratoga Springs, NY.
June 11th, 1991 - GN'R plays the Hersheypark Stadium in Hershey, PA.
June 13th, 1991 - Show at the Spectrum in Philadelphia, PA. The band was originally scheduled to play at the Pocono Downs Racetrack in Wilkes-Barre, PA but the show was canceled by the organizer and it was moved to Philadelphia.
June 15th, 1991 - A show at the Lake Compounce Festival Park in Bristol, CT was postponed to September.
June 17th, 1991 - During a show in Uniondale, NY, Axl apologizes for being late.

"Yeah, I know it sucks...If you got any real complaints, you could do me a favor though. You could write a little letter on how much that sucked and send it to Geffen Records..... Tell those people to get the fuck out of my ass."

Later on he commented on the forthcoming Use Your Illusion record "The new record will be delayed again. Geffen Records decided they wanted to change the contract and I'm deciding fuck you. And since I don't have time to do both go back there and argue and bitch with them or be on tour, I guess we'll just be on tour and have a good time and fuck them. It's a shame but... So we'll play a lot of the new shit tonight and it really doesn't matter does it?".

During Patience Axl tells the crowd to beat the living fuck out of anybody who throws something at the stage. He also says that he won't throw anything back into the crowd, he'll leave.

June 19th, 1991 - The official premiere of the You Could Be Mine video on MTV. The song had debuted on radio the day before.
June 19th, 1991 - GN'R plays at the Capital Centre in Landover, MD.
June 20th, 1991 - Second show in Landover, MD at the Capital Centre.
June 21st, 1991 - The first single from the forthcoming Use Your Illusion I and II albums is released in the UK. The song is called You Could Be Mine and it's also featured in the new Terminator 2: Judgement Day movie. The singe peaks at #3 in the UK, and features Civil War as the B-side.
June 22nd, 1991 - Show at the Hampton Coliseum in Hampton, VA.
June 23rd, 1991 - Tonight's show is in Charlotte, NC at the Charlotte Coliseum.
June 25th, 1991 - You Could Be Mine, the first single from the forthcoming Use Your Illusion albums, is released in the US.
June 25th, 1991 - Another show in North Carolina. At the Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro.
June 26th, 1991 - A show at the Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville, TN.
June 29th, 1991 - GN'R visits Lexington, KY for a show at the Rupp Arena.
June 30th, 1991 - The last show of the month is at the Birmingham Race Course in Birmingham, AL.
July, 1991 - "You Could Be Mine" is released in the UK in July.

It also appeared in the movie Terminator 2 and Arnold Schwarzenegger appeared in the video

July 2nd, 1991 - While the band played Riverport Amphitheatre in Maryland Heights just outside of St. Louis, MO, Axl spotted someone who had been causing problems in the crowd, taking pictures. During Rocket Queen, Axl calls out to security to get the camera ("Hey, take that! Take that! Now, get that guy and take that!"). But security didn't respond to Axl's request, so he told them "I'll take it, goddamn it!" and jumped into the crowd. When he returned to the stage he complained about the security ("Well, thanks to the lame-ass security, I'm going home") and left the stage. The rest of the band followed.

After this a riot broke out. GN'R wanted to continue the show, but they were advised not to. The band lost their equipment and Axl was charged for inciting a riot.

July 8th, 1991 - The tour continues with a show at the Starplex Amphitheatre in Dallas, TX. Even before the band starts the first song, Perfect Crime, Axl warns the crowd that if they keep throwing things, they'll leave.
July 9th, 1991 - Second show at the Starplex Amphitheatre in Dallas, TX.
July 11th, 1991 - Show in Denver, CO at the McNichols Sports Arena.
July 12th, 1991 - Another Colorado show at the Starplex Amphitheatre in Englewood.
July 13th, 1991 - GN'R plays in Utah at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City.
July 13th, 1991 - The first single from the forthcoming Use Your Illusion I & II albums, You Could Be Mine enters the Billboard Hot 100 at #64.
July 16th, 1991 - First of two shows in Tacoma, WA at the Tacoma Dome.
July 17th, 1991 - Second Washington state show at the Tacoma Dome.
July 19th, 1991 - GN'R returns to California for the first of two shows at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View.
July 20th, 1991 - Second Shoreline Amphitheatre show in Mountain View, CA.
July 20th, 1991 - you Could Be Mine gains 27 places on the chart and is at #37 on this week's Billboard Hot 100.
July 23rd, 1991 - Show at Sacramento's ARCO Arena.
July 25th, 1991 - Show in Costa Mesa, CA at the Pacific Amphitheatre.
July 27th, 1991 - You Could Be Mine is at #34 on the US singles chart.
July 29th, 1991 - During the show at the Great Western Forum in Inglewood, CA, Axl mentions how Slash and himself finished the record yesterday. "The motherfucker is done".
July 30th, 1991 - Second show at the Great Western Forum in Inglewood, CA.
August 2nd, 1991 - Another show at the Great Western Forum in Inglewood, CA.
August 3rd, 1991 - The band plays at the Great Western Forum in Inglewood, CA. This show was the longest one on the whole Use Your Illusion world tour. According to Duff it was three hours, 36 minutes and 19 seconds long. The show starts with Sid Vicious' version of "My Way" as an intro, Perfect Crime is the first song and Paradise City ends the set.

"Double Talkin' Jive" is dedicated to "some asshole at CBS News who likes to call me a punk".

Shannon Hoon makes guest appearances on Don't Cry and You Ain't The First. Sebastian Bach joins the band for You're Crazy.

August 3rd, 1991 - #31 is the position this week for You Could Be Mine.
August 10th, 1991 - You Could Be Mine is now at #29 on the US singles chart. This is the single's peak position.
August 11th, 1991 - Guns N' Roses arrive in Helsinki, Finland. The band arrive by plane, using a chartered Boeing 727.
August 12th, 1991 - Duff, Slash, Matt, Dizzy and Skid Row spend the night at the Tavastia club in Helsinki where the Black Crowes were performing that evening.
August 13th, 1991 - The "Get In The Ring Motherfucker" tour comes to Europe. The first two shows are held at the Jäähalli in Helsinki, Finland. Again Skid Row opens for GN'R.

An hour in to the show, as the band launch into Welcome To The Jungle, Axl leaves the stage. The rest of the band plays an instrumental version of the song and continue the set with 14 Years, a drum solo and a guitar solo. After 25 minutes, Axl returned.

August 14th, 1991 - Second sold out show in Helsinki.
August 16th, 1991 - GN'R performs at a sold out Globen in Stockholm, Sweden. It took the band four hours to sell 13000 tickets to this show.

And yes, Guns N' Roses was front-page news. A photographer from the Swedish newspaper, Expressen, took photographs (without permission) of the band while they were in the Daily News club. GN'R's bodyguards tried to stop the photographer, but they failed. The "prohibited" photo made it onto Expressen's first page! Expressen gave the shows five out of five.

August 17th, 1991 - Second sold-out show in Stockholm.

At around nine o'clock, Axl comes out of the elevator at the Sheraton Hotel, but instead of going to the car that's waiting for him, he goes and plays roulette for 1.5 hours. After that he goes back up to his room. Five minutes later he comes back down and goes to the car. On the way to the venue, he tells the driver to stop. There was a festival in Stockholm called Vattenfestivalen and Axl wanted to see the fireworks.

The show starts after eleven o'clock.

During "Knockin' On Heaven's Door", Axl says "Now on this one maybe you people that have been falling asleep the whole fuckin' show, on your feet up here could sing along too.... If you're bored, you should've saved your money and gone and seen the fireworks tonight."

August 19th, 1991 - Show in Copenhagen, Denmark. The show went fine until somebody threw a firecracker onstage. Axl told the audience that they wouldn't continue the show until the idiot who did it turned himself in. After a 15-minute break the show continued.
August 20th, 1991 - The band, minus Axl, lands in Oslo, Norway for the following day's show.

Izzy tells the Swedish production manager that there's a little problem. Nobody knows where Axl is.

The rest of the band checks in at Grand Hotel.

Later in the evening Axl's assistant calls and says they're in Paris, France.

August 21st, 1991 - At around five or six o'clock in the morning, Axl's assistant calls the hotel to tell them that Axl won't make it for tonight's show. The show at Spektrum in Oslo, Norway is cancelled.
August 24th, 1991 - GN'R plays in Mannheim, Germany. This show included Nine Inch Nails and Skid Row as openers.

GN'R sold 38000 tickets in two days. They sold tickets faster than Madonna and The Rolling Stones had done the year before.

August 31st, 1991 - After shows in Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Germany (the show in Oslo, Norway was cancelled) GN'R plays a show at Wembley Stadium in London, England.

The 72000 tickets were sold out in record breaking time. No artist had sold out the venue this fast before GN'R.

Double Talkin' Jive is dedicated to Sky magazine, Time Out magazine and "something I respected years ago but now I'd rather wipe my ass with it, Kerrang! magazine....."

This was Izzy's last show as a member of GN'R.

Before the show the band had an poster-ad campaign in London which read: Guns N' F____g Roses, Wembley F____g Stadium, Sold F____g Out

During the tour, the band went to Ibiza, Spain for a holiday.

September 3rd, 1991 - Geffen Records releases the new Guns N' Roses single, Don't Cry, in the USA.
September 5th, 1991 - GN'R's performance of "Live And Let Die" is shown on the MTV Video Music Awards show. The performance was taken from the show in London, England.
September 16th, 1991 - Use Your Illusion I and II are released in Europe.

The albums debuted at number one and number two on the Billboard charts. They marked the first time a major contemporary rock artist had released two separate albums on the same day.

September 17th, 1991 - US release of the Use Your Illusion albums.
September 21st, 1991 - UK release of the Don't Cry single. The B-side features the Alt. Lyrics version from Use Your Illusion II. The single peaks at #8 on the UK chart.
September 21st, 1991 - Don't Cry enters the Billboard Hot 100 at #76.
September 28th, 1991 - The Don't Cry single is now at #42 on the Billboard Hot 100.
September 28th, 1991 - The show in in Bristol, CT at the Lake Compounce Festival Park was canceled due to the promoter not paying the band for a previous show. In July, Laurie Soriano, a Los Angeles-based attorney for Guns N' Roses, said that the band would not play at Lake Compounce unless the band was paid the money they were owed for a June 11th performance at Hersheypark Stadium.
October, 1991 - Steven Adler launched a lawsuit against the band. He claimed that GN'R were responsible for his drug addiction.
October 2nd, 1991 - Duff was backstage at a Pearl Jam show in Los Angeles. After the show, Pearl Jam went over to Duff's house.
October 5th, 1991 - Use Your Illusion II enter the Billboard 200 album chart at #1 The album spends the next two weeks at the top of the chart. Use Your Illusion I enters the chart at #2.
October 5th, 1991 - Guns N' Roses' latest single, Don't Cry is at #33 on the Billboard Hot 100.
October 6th, 1991 - Duff performs Man In The Box with Alice In Chains at the RIP magazine fifth anniversary show at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles, CA.
October 12th, 1991 - Don't Cry is at #28 this week.
October 19th, 1991 - Don't Cry climbs to #21 on the Billboard Hot 100.
October 20th, 1991 - The music video for Don't Cry has its premiere. It's the second video from the Use Your Illusion albums, and the first released from Use Your Illusion I. The video was directed by Andy Morahan and doesn't feature Izzy Stradlin. Shannon Hoon who sings on the track makes an appearance though.
October 26th, 1991 - Don't Cry is now in the top 20, at #17 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
November 2nd, 1991 - Don't Cry is at #14 on the Billboard Hot 100.
November 7th, 1991 - Izzy Stradlin leaves GN'R. His replacement is Gilby Clarke (born August 17, 1962). Gilby, formerly of the band Kill For Thrills, had been playing the same clubs as GN'R.
November 9th, 1991 - Don't Cry reaches #13 on the singles chart in the USA.
November 16th, 1991 - Don't Cry scores the band another top 10 single when it climbs up to #10 on the Billboard Hot 100.
November 19th, 1991 - Use Your Illusion I & II are both certified Gold, Platinum and 2x Multi-Platinum by the RIAA.
November 23rd, 1991 - Second week at #10 for Don't Cry.
December 2nd, 1991 - Use Your Illusion II is certified 3x Multi-Platinum.
December 3rd, 1991 - The UK release for the Live And Let Die single. The single peaks at #5 in the UK. The B-side is a live version recorded at Wembley Stadium on August 31st, 1991.
December 5th, 1991 - The first show of the second US leg of the tour in Worcester, MA. with Soundgarden opening. First show to feature Attitude sung by Duff McKagan as well as the live debut of So Fine.

This is the first show where GN'R uses background vocals and horns. The expanded 12-piece line-up looks like this:

W. Axl Rose (lead vocals, piano)
Slash (lead guitar, backing vocals)
Duff McKagan (bass, backing vocals)
Gilby Clarke (rhythm guitar, backing vocals)
Dizzy Reed (keyboards, percussion)
Matt Sorum (drums, backing vocals)

Ted Andreadis (keyboards, harmonica, background vocals)
Diane Jones (background vocals)
Roberta Freeman (background vocals)
Tracy Amos (background vocals)

976-Horns:

Lisa Maxwell (horns)
Cece Worrall (horns)
Anne King (horns)

December 6th, 1991 - Second show in Worcester, MA at the Centrum Centre. Breakdown is played live for the first time.
December 8th, 1991 - Blind Melon plays at The Limelight in New York, NY. Duff and Slash make a guest appearance at the show. Singer Shannon Hoon joins GN'R on stage at Madison Square Garden the following night.
December 9th, 1991 - The first of three shows at the Madison Square Garden in New York, NY The others are on the 10th and 13th. On this first night, Shannon Hoon joins the band to sing on Don't Cry.
December 10th, 1991 - Second Madison Square Garden show. Shannon Hoon joins the band to sing on Don't Cry.
December 13th, 1991 - The last of the three New York, NY shows at the Madison Square Garden.
December 16th, 1991 - GN'R returns to Philadelphia, PA to play at the Spectrum.
December 17th, 1991 - Second show at the Spectrum in Philadelphia, PA.
December 21st, 1991 - The band's new single, Live And Let Die enters the Billboard Hot 100 at #95.
December 28th, 1991 - After a short Christmas break, GN'R plays a show in St. Petersburg, FL at the Suncoast Dome.
December 31st, 1991 - A special New Year's Eve show at the Joe Robbie Stadium in Miami, FL.
  

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