Phoenix is maybe 30% sold?

This is a calamity. Just LOOK at the sea of blue dots showing available tickets:

https://www.ticketmaster.com/guns-n-ros … 509A1C1614

The gravy train has run out of fuel. They need to step up (release new music) or call it a day.

Randomly checking shows in Ticketmaster, sales still look slow. Look at the entire unsold sections for Nashville:

https://www.ticketmaster.com/guns-n-ros … 51DBF39FF3

Word around the campfire is that with Charlie (R.I.P.) unavailable to play drums and Bill long-gone as bassist, Mick and Keef recruited a drummer and bassist their own age to play on the new record:

Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney.

If true that will be the coolest damned thing to happen in a long time.

Big breaks between some of these dates. I can’t imagine them adding additional shows in these cities but what are the odds of them adding additional concerts?

Not personally interested unless there is new music.

Seeing that they are returning to places they just visited in 2021, and doing stadiums, they are setting themselves up for potential failure (if you measure a tour’s success as sold-out concerts). With the economy going in the toilet, will a lot of people decide, “I saw them recently, I’m good”?

And if there are some partially or very empty stadiums, will Axl hold TB to blame for misreading demand? Will Duff and Slash decide there are diminishing returns and rethink their interest in GNR once these shows are out of the way?

Two things could make this tour a guaranteed success:

The best option: Release a really good album of songs that plant the GNR flag in the present. Show the world, especially new fans, how great and creative they can be. I want this, but don’t hold out hope.

The nuclear option: Announce a farewell tour to create fear of missing out. When NITL began it had an element of that: The worry that this peace between the three original members might end at any moment.

Bringing back Steven would be fantastic but for whatever reason that does not seem to be an option. Izzy seems fully retired from music. Having Matt and Gilby return for a UYI-type reunion would be fun but, again, unlikely.

And for the sake of saying it, Pitman deserves his job back. He served loyally during the darkest days of GNR. If the lawsuit has been settled, and he is interested, he should return.