Guns N’ Roses Forced to End Abu Dhabi Show Early, Singer Axl Rose “Severely Ill”

November 26th, 2018 at 10:13am
Axl Rosenberg

Further evidence that the man currently posing as W. Axl Rose may, in fact, be a pod person: Guns N’ Roses were forced to end their show in Abu Dhabi early over the weekend, but not because the singer got into a fight with someone in the crowd or was afraid of being upstaged by another rock star. No no no. According to Classic Rock, the band had to cut the set short because the legendary (and legendarily temperamental) vocalist was, in fact, legitimately sick:

“The band were playing in the UAE on Sunday to close the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, with Rose telling the crowd that although he was unwell, he planned to do his best.
“He said: ‘I’ve been on IVs and a bunch of injections because I got sick today and I’ve been throwing up for the last five hours.

‘So, instead of cancelling, we want to do the best show we can for you – but I’m not really going to be moving around if that’s OK with you.’”

Guitarist Slash and bassist Duff McKagan — a.k.a. “the only other two members of GN’R about whom anyone cares” — later elaborated on Twitter:

Abu Dhabi, you guys were fucking great tonight! Axl was severely ill. But you all were hugely supportive. Thanks for that. We'll see again next time! Cheers! iiii]; ) '
— Slash (@Slash) November 25, 2018

Thank you Abu Dhabi! @axlrose pulled a damn miracle…the man was beyond ill, and pulled off something I've never seen in my 40 yrs of playing. You all pulled him thru. Til next time!
— Duff McKagan (@DuffMcKagan) November 25, 2018

The silver lining for fans in attendance, such as it is? GN’R shows last more than three hours, and Rose managed to hang in until after “November Rain,” a little bit past the two-hour mark. So as disappointing as it must have been to have the concert end early, they can’t say they didn’t see the band tear through a fuckton of hits.

You can check out fan-filmed video from the gig below.