COACHELLA 2016: 3 questions Guns N' Roses…
COACHELLA 2016: 3 questions Guns N' Roses will answer at the festival
Singer Axl Rose of Guns N' Roses.
By Vanessa Franko | vfranko@scng.com | The Press-Enterprise
Guns N' Roses, one of the most epic rock bands of the 20th century, has reunited and will play to an audience of up to 99,000 people at the sold-out Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival at the Empire Polo Club in Indio on Saturday, April 16.
And while the band has played a couple of shows already–including a warm-up at the Troubadour where Axl Rose broke his foot and a pair of shows in Las Vegas last weekend, we still have some questions for the band that broke big with hits such as "Welcome to the Jungle," "Paradise City," "You Could Be Mine" and "Sweet Child O' Mine."
Who is in Guns N' Roses?
While this is being billed as a reunion, right now it's really lead singer Axl Rose, guitarist Slash and bassist Duff McKagan as the original members of the band.
Dizzy Reed, who also started playing with the band in 1991 around the "Use Your Illusion" records, is also with the band.
The rhythm guitar spot is taken by Richard Fortus, who joined the band in 2002 and played on 2008's "Chinese Democracy."
On the drums is Frank Ferrer, who became a member of GNR in 2006 and also played on the record that took more than a decade to make.
For the recent shows, Melissa Reese has joined to play keyboards, synthesizers and provide backing vocals.
However, this is Coachella and Coachella is special. If original rhythm guitarist Izzy Stradlin and drummer Steven Adler were to show up, this would be the show to do it. I don't think they do the full set, but to hear them do some of the tracks from the band's stellar debut "Appetite for Destruction," would be one for the Coachella history books.
RELATED: Follow live updates from the festival
COACHELLA 2016: Day 1 recap – breezy, beautiful and bonkers in Indio
When will Guns N' Roses go on?
The band is notorious for never showing up on time for performances. Even the band's warm-up show at The Troubadour April 1 had commemorative tickets that read that the band would be on stage "Sometime after 11 p.m."
Their Coachella set is poised to start at 10:30 p.m. However, given Guns N' Roses' history, plus the fact that Axl Rose's broken foot now requires him to use Dave Grohl's Foo Fighters motorized rock throne on stage means there will be more time between when Ice Cube (and let's be honest, the N.W.A. reunion show) leaves the stage at 10 p.m. and when GNR actually shows up.
I think 11 p.m. is an early estimate for the band, but hopefully they will be on by 11:15 p.m., because the Coachella festival has a City of Indio-set curfew of 1 a.m.
What will Guns N' Roses play?
Should the band show up on time, they will have two-and-a-half hours to perform. The shows so far have been heavy on "Appetite for Destruction" tracks, but have also included some covers, including The Damned's "New Rose," which was on GNR's covers album "The Spaghetti Incident?" The only awkward moment there is if The Damned, also playing Saturday, plays the song.
There has been a healthy representation of the "Use Your Illusion" records and a couple of tracks off "Chinese Democracy," too.
However, we could get some deep cuts, too.
What are you hoping Guns N' Roses will play? If you want live updates throughout tonight's set, follow @vanessafranko on Twitter. Also, see all of our live coverage of Coachella in our live blog.
Coachella Festival
Vanessa Franko
Vanessa Franko is the Digital Director of Entertainment for the Southern California News Group. The lure of palm trees and covering pop culture brought her to The Press-Enterprise in Riverside in 2006. Vanessa has reported on everything from the Palm Springs International Film Festival to the MLB All-Star Game as a reporter, photographer, videographer and on-camera personality. She's won awards for her coverage of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and for crime reporting in her home state of Maryland. Vanessa studied multimedia storytelling as a Knight Digital Media Center fellow in Dec. 2011 and has taught college courses in digital journalism. She's seen shows at every major concert venue in Southern California, but most special was when Paul McCartney played the high-desert roadhouse Pappy & Harriet's in Pioneertown for a couple hundred fans in Oct. 2016. Her album collection numbers in the thousands (including a couple hundred on vinyl) and when she isn't hunting for records, she and her husband like to check out the best in Southern California craft beer and watch sports. She also had a cameo in the 1992 Atlanta Braves highlight film, Lightning Strikes Twice!
Follow Vanessa Franko	@vanessafranko
'Game of Thrones' slashes its way to historic 32 Emmy Award nominations