When Axl, Slash, and Duff walked off the stage at Arrowhead Stadium in September of 1992, Kansas Citians probably didn’t think they’d have to wait another 24 years to see the iconic rock band play again. Maybe they should have seen it coming. Guns N’ Roses was in the middle of their massive Use Your Illusion Tour that spanned nearly 200 shows across four continents and the tour had its rough patches. Some of the challenges encountered during the tour included riots breaking out in St. Louis, beer bottles being thrown at the band while performing in Chile, and longtime rhythm guitarist Izzy Stradlin leaving the band six months into the tour. The band would ultimately spend the next several years with mounting tension and creative differences which led to longtime guitarist Slash leaving the band in 1996.
After several years filled with lineup changes and extended Chinese Democracy recording sessions, Slash and Axl put aside their differences in 2015 and Guns N’ Roses were officially back on tour. When they returned to Arrowhead Stadium on June 29, 2016, during their Not in This Lifetime... Tour, the energy was palpable. They were joined by grunge legends Alice in Chains (Alice’s lead singer/guitarist Jerry Cantrell made a joke to the crowd about Arrowhead not being as loud as CenturyLink Field in Seattle). The show was electric. Axl had no trouble hitting the highest notes, while Slash played the blistering guitar licks that helped the band achieve superstardom after their breakout album Appetite for Destruction in 1987.
Kansas City would have to wait another seven years for GNR to return in 2023 for a show at Kauffman Stadium. This time, the tour was less-dramatically named the “Guns N’ Roses 2023 Tour”. When Guns N’ Roses return to Kansas City after a three-year drought on August 19th at the brand-new Morton Amphitheater in riverside, they will be playing to a new generation of fans discovering their music for the first time. Whether you are a longtime fan who remembers a warm September night in 1992, or a young fan that saw the band three years ago for the first time, the 2026 show is sure to be magical.