1992
February.
The epic "November Rain" is released as a single in it's entirety. In the UK it reaches no.4.
April.
Guns play "The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert, For A.I.D.S. Awareness" at Wembley Stadium in London. The bill includes future tour mates Metallica, in an all star line up. Guns N'Roses version of Bob Dylan's "Knockin' On Heavens Door", from the gig, is used as the b-side to the studio release of the same song, which reaches no.2 in the UK and becomes their biggest hit to date.
May.
Slash and Lars Ulrich, announce a US Stadium tour, with the two bands as co-headliners.
Nirvana are offered support slot, but they decline the offer, as they object to Axl's still alleged, homophobic and racist lyrics.
On thursday 14th the band arrives in Dublin at 7:15pm, after being delayed due to radio problems.
The crew have already been in Ireland for a week. Four stretched limo's bring them to the "Berkley Court Hotel".
Several fans and one journalist, turn up despite the secrecy of the arrival.
Axl makes the front page of the newspaper, "The Irish Independent". Most newspapers run stories on whether or not, Irish girls will take part in the "getting their tit's out", on the giant video screens adjacent to the stage. a practice which started on the US legs of the tour!
As Axl prepares for the next day's show, the rest of the band head to Slane for the sound-check.
Slane is recorded as the most beautiful venue on the whole European tour.
The sound-check lasts two hours. Slash is later said to have been out in Dublin, "to check out the girls, in their ball gowns, en route to the trinity ball"!
Saturday 16th. Press reports suggest that 800 police are on duty in the tiny town of Slane, which amounts to one tenth the police force of Ireland! but apart from drunkenness and minor drugs charges, the gig goes off without major incident.
U2 send a crate of 40 year old whiskey and a barrel of Guinness to the band. A helicopter brings the band to the gig, circling it three times to take pictures of the 55,000 crowd.
Band My Little Funhouse open the days proceedings, followed by Faith No More.
Matt, Duff and Slash go fishing and take pictures of themselves in front of the castle.
Later while in Dublin, Slash says "I can always tell a drinking town when the other people in the bar get drunk before I do!"
The gig gets three front page stories, including the headline in the "Sunday World" newspaper, "Bums N'Roses", in relation to the human pyramids which sprung up all over the site, in which the person at the apex of the pyramid, pulls a mooner!
The band later go to Howth to sample some "Irish Hospitality", and stop off on the way back to the hotel for some McDonalds!
From May 18th-July 4th 1992, the band remain in Europe. They play 19 dates in all, including a "little" gig in Paris.
May 22nd at a show in Budapest Axls announces, "This is a song Freddie Mercury asked us to sing for you. He couldn't be here tonight, he has other plans, so we tried to learn it in the dressing room tonight". Axl and Slash then play the same Hungarian song "Tavasziezel" that Queen played in Budapest in 1985. After two verses Axl lets the 77,000 fans take over for the third.
May 23 in Vienna U2 watch Guns N'Roses play and invite them to their manager's birthday party.
May 24 Guns return the favour and go to U2's gig in the same venue as the night before. Much to the crowd's delight, Axl joins the band on for an acoustic version of "Knockin' On Heavens Door".
June.
Friday June 4th, Guns N'Roses meet up with up with Jeff Beck, Lenny Kravitz and Steve and Joe, from Aerosmith for that "little gig" in Paris.
Saturday June 5th, during sound-checks, Kravitz joins the band for a live rendition of his song "Always On The Run" on which Slash, wrote and recorded the guitar parts. Jeff Beck Joins in for an instrumental version of "Locomotive" which leaves the road crew in awe. The former "Toxic Twins" join the band for versions of the Aerosmith classics "Train Kept A Rollin'" and "Mama Kin".
Sunday June 6th, Jeff Beck is forced to pull out of the gig, due recurring bad tinnitus, which his doctor warns him, if he continues playing live, he'll loose his hearing. Slash tells Beck "It was an honour, just to play on stage with him."
Later that evening, Guns N'Roses, joined by Lenny Kravitz and Joe Perry and Steven Tyler, play for two and a half hours to a packed crowd of 58,000 at the Hippodrome in the Bois de Vincennes.
June 16th, "November Rain" is released in the US supported by it's epic video, which becomes MTV's most requested video. The band also get the "Video Vanguard" award and "Best Cinematography" for "November Rain".
"November Rain" is certified gold in the next weeks.
July.
Following in the footsteps of the European tour, the four albums are all charted in Norway and Germany, where more than one million "Illusion" albums have been sold.
Led by the single "Knockin' On Heavens Door", the band are thrusted into the upper reaches of the national charts in : Ireland, UK, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Holland, Sweeden, Switzerland Hong Kong.
The UK royalties for "Knockin' On Heaven's Door" go to various organisations fighting A.I.D.S.
On the 17th the band return to the US, to begin a much interrupted tour with Metallica.
August.
On August 8th, James Hetfield is badly injured when burned by a pyrotechnic. Hetfield is told about the new pyros being integrated into the stage. He takes up position where the old pryos took place, thinking these were not in operation and is set on fire when one of them is exploded.
One of the band's guitar techs, takes his place on stage for the subsequent shows.
During the Guns N'Roses set which follows, an object is thrown on stage, Axl leaves the stage a few moments later. A major riot ensues.
Meanwhile, the "Illusion" albums have sales worldwide of over 20 million, before the tour is concluded.
October.
On the 13th of October the single "Yesterdays" is released and accompanied by another "Most Requested" video, on both sides of the Atlantic. In the UK the track reaches no.8
November.
The band undertakes a nine date tour of South America. They take in Venezuela, Colombia, Chile, Argentina and Brazil.
In most territories they break attendanc records and make history in terms of production size and scale.
December.
Guns N'Roses release their first longform videos, a two set, 90minute each, live concert filmed in Tokyo.
A double pack of the two videos, goes gold almost immediately, and soon afterwardsl the individual videos go gold also.
