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After\u00a0decades of swearing it would never happen, Guns N’ Roses<\/a> did the unthinkable on April 1, 2016: They publicly mended fences and reunited onstage.<\/p>\n At least, some of them did.<\/p>\n Lead singer Axl Rose<\/a>, guitarist Slash<\/a> and bassist Duff McKagan<\/a> staged a\u00a0three-fifths\u00a0reunion of the classic-era GN’R lineup at West Hollywood’s Troubadour nightclub on April Fool’s Day 2016. Despite the conspicuous show date \u2014 and\u00a0an onstage accident that threatened to derail the whole endeavor \u2014 the concert went off without a hitch and marked the beginning of Guns N’ Roses’ massive, cheekily titled Not in This Lifetime … Tour.<\/p>\n READ MORE:<\/strong>\u00a0When Guns N’ Roses’ Reunion Began With a Club Show<\/a><\/p>\n Since then, Guns N’ Roses have played hundreds of concerts, grossed hundreds of millions of dollars and even released some “new” music along the way. Keep reading to see a numerical breakdown of the band’s previously unthinkable reunion.<\/p>\n Guns N’ Roses’ fateful Troubadour show marked the first time in 23 years that Rose, Slash and McKagan\u00a0shared the stage. They were joined by longtime GN’R guitarist Richard Fortus<\/a>, drummer Frank Ferrer and keyboardists Dizzy Reed<\/a> and Melissa Reese.<\/p>\n The last time\u00a0Guns’ three principal members had performed together prior to the Troubadour gig was July 17, 1993, at Estadio River Plate in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the final date of their sprawling Use Your Illusion<\/a> world tour. The Buenos Aires date marked Guns N’ Roses’ final live performance until 2001. Rose entered a period of reclusivity in the interim, toiling on the long-gestating Chinese Democracy<\/a><\/em> while the rest of the band members\u00a0left one by one.<\/p>\n READ MORE:<\/strong> The 30 Wildest Moments From Guns N’ Roses’ Use Your Illusion Tour<\/a><\/p>\n Rose finally reemerged\u00a0at the beginning of 2001 for a\u00a0New Year’s Eve warm-up show at the Las Vegas House of Blues, followed shortly by a headlining performance at Rock in Rio<\/a>. He was flanked by an entirely new lineup, which would become a recurring trend as the mercurial frontman cycled through a revolving door of musicians over the next 15 years.<\/p>\n Remember\u00a0that\u00a0onstage accident we mentioned earlier? Rose very nearly (inadvertently) sabotaged Guns N’ Roses’ grand comeback when he fell off a monitor during the Troubadour show and fractured the fifth metatarsal in his left foot<\/a>.<\/p>\n Considering the frontman’s\u00a0storied history of cancelling gigs for far smaller inconveniences, many fans thought the reunion\u00a0would be over before it began. But\u00a0Guns N’ Roses soldiered on, with Rose borrowing the throne<\/a> used by Foo Fighters<\/a> frontman Dave Grohl<\/a>\u00a0after he\u00a0fell offstage and broke his leg in 2015. (It wasn’t the first time\u00a0the frontman had triumphed over an injured foot<\/a>, after all.)<\/p>\n Rose continued to use the throne with slight modifications as he embarked on a\u00a0concurrent tour with AC\/DC<\/a>, filling in for a temporarily sidelined Brian Johnson<\/a>.<\/p>\n READ MORE:<\/strong> How Axl Rose Changed AC\/DC’s Set Lists<\/a><\/p>\n Guns N’ Roses have played more than 340 concerts since reuniting in 2016, according to setlist.fm<\/a>. That’s a huge number of shows, accounting for nearly one-third of their\u00a0total<\/em> performances since forming more than 40 years ago.<\/p>\n On\u00a0April 1, 2026, Guns N’ Roses\u00a0will play their 346th post-reunion show in Porto Alegre, Brazil. They’ve got dozens of world tour dates<\/a> lined up through the rest of 2026 and show no signs of pumping the brakes on their relentless touring schedule anytime soon.<\/p>\n The financials for Guns N’ Roses’\u00a0past decade of touring have been staggering. The band has grossed approximately $965 million and sold more than 9 million tickets since 2016, not including their 2026 concerts.<\/p>\n Of\u00a0the multiple tours they’ve staged since 2016, the biggest and most lucrative was the Not in This Lifetime … Tour, which ran from 2016 to 2019. The three-year trek grossed\u00a0$584 million (unadjusted for inflation) and sold 5.4 million tickets, currently ranking as the 11th highest-grossing tour of all time.<\/p>\n READ MORE:<\/strong> 30 of the Highest-Grossing Rock Tours Ever<\/a><\/p>\n For a band that used to cycle through members like people change shirts, Guns N’ Roses have enjoyed a period of relative stability over the past decade. Still, there have been a few personnel shifts since Rose, Slash and McKagan reunited in 2016.<\/p>\n The first change came in 2025 when Frank Ferrer, their drummer of 19 years, announced his amicable departure<\/a>. Ferrer was replaced by Isaac Carpenter<\/a>, who previously played with McKagan’s band Loaded.<\/p>\n The second change came in 2026, when GN’R announced<\/a> one day before their 2026 world tour kickoff that Reese would not be joining them on the trek “due to unforeseen personal reasons.”<\/p>\n READ MORE:<\/strong> Guns N’ Roses Lineup Changes: A Complete Guide (We Think)<\/a><\/p>\n Fans clamoring for a new Guns N’ Roses album\u00a0will have to keep waiting. But they can partially satiate their appetite with the half-dozen “new” songs the band has released in the meantime.<\/p>\n The slow drip of new music began in August 2021 with the release of the grinding, industrial rocker “Absurd,” marking the first official Guns N’ Roses release since 2008’s\u00a0Chinese Democracy<\/em>. The vintage riff-rocker “Hard Skool” arrived the following month, signaling something of a return to the band’s hard-rocking roots.<\/p>\n In 2023, Guns N’ Roses released two more songs: the mid-tempo piano rocker “Perhaps” and the psychedelic trip-hop excursion “The General.” And in late 2025, they dropped the smoldering ballad “Nothin'” and the anthemic rocker “Atlas.”<\/p>\n READ MORE:<\/strong> Guns N’ Roses Post-Reunion Songs Ranked Worst to Best<\/a><\/p>\n All of these songs date back to the\u00a0Chinese Democracy<\/em> sessions and feature updated contributions from Slash and McKagan. Slash told UCR<\/a> in early 2026 that Guns N’ Roses had\u00a0worked through all of the\u00a0Chinese Democracy<\/em>\u00a0stragglers and would be focusing on new songs going forward \u2014 and he insisted that, yes, they\u00a0would<\/em> release a new album.<\/p>\n “The new material that’s going to come up from from us getting back together is going to be amazing. I mean, we have a ton of it, so I know it’s amazing,” the guitarist said. “[We’re always writing], but\u00a0it’s hard. It’s hard for us to stop it and just go, ‘Okay, we’re gonna sit down and we’re gonna make this record.’ Now, none of the our records were done that way. They were just sort of spur of the moment.”<\/p>\n Guns N’ Roses’ reunion has been massively successful \u2014 but it’s not a full classic lineup reunion. See why that hasn’t happened\u00a0below, along with dozens of other classic rock reunions that have yet to materialize:<\/em><\/p>\n A look at 38 of the biggest potential reunions in rock music, and why they most likely won’t happen.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Gallery Credit: Matthew Wilkening, except as noted below. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nGuns N’ Roses’ Reunion by the Numbers<\/h3>\n
Years Since the Classic Members Had Performed Together: 23<\/h3>\n
Feet Broken: 1<\/h3>\n
Concerts Played: 340+<\/h3>\n
Money Grossed\u00a0\/ Tickets Sold: $965 million \/ 9.037 million<\/h3>\n
Lineup Changes: 2<\/h3>\n
New Songs Released: 6<\/h3>\n
Why 38 of Rock’s Biggest Reunions Haven’t Happened<\/h2>\n