Remember last week when fan footage emerged of Dave Grohl and Guns N’ Roses teaming up for a show-ending rendition of Paradise City, which was cruelly cut short when the organizers decided to pull the PA plug halfway through the song?
Well, a professionally shot video from the scene has now been released and, while the video still contains the abrupt interruption from the curfew police, it makes use of the soundboard mix, meaning we can hear the end of the song as it was meant to be played, featuring Slash’s epic outro solo.
That, and it also lets us hear the insane crowd’s response to the incident, with those in attendance continuing headfirst unfazed through the track’s closing stages. Kudos to them.
Kudos also to the band onstage, who didn’t so much as blink when the audio unexpectedly disappeared. They too were totally unperturbed by the sudden lack of sound at the time, and rattled through Paradise City’s energetic end with an unaffected sense of enthusiasm and showmanship.
The unfortunate mishap occurred at the end of the band’s set, which took place on September 4 at the BottleRock Music Festival in Napa Valley, for which they brought on special guest Dave Grohl to bolster the electric guitar department.
Grohl himself has already found himself at the mercy of the festival's strictly enforced curfew, having been cut off with the Foo Fighters at the end of their 2017 set.
At the time, BottleRock organizer Dave Graham said in a radio interview (via Blabbermouth), "I was responsible for making sure that we ended at 10 and it pained me to have to do that. I would have happily paid a big fine to keep them playing.
"It's less about the money and it's more about the trust within the community and the credibility that our festival has within the community."
Other bands who have run into trouble with the festival’s organizers include Neil Young in 2019 and The Cure in 2014.
The current live Guns N’ Roses lineup – comprising Axl Rose, Slash, Duff McKagan, Richard Fortus, Frank Ferrer, Dizzy Reed and Melissa Reese – is in the midst of its We’re F’N Back! Tour, which recently saw them debut new song, Absurd.
Wolfgang Van Halen’s Mammoth WVH has also appeared alongside Guns N’ Roses on the tour bill as the band’s support act.
Visit Guns N’ Roses for a full list of tour dates.
