Duff McKagan has said that the first few dates of Guns N'Roses' 2025 tour have been "awesome".
The tour saw the band kick off at Incheon, South Korea's Songdo Moonlight Festival Park on May 1, and will also include a run of shows across Europe and the UK, rapping up with a gig in Wacken on July 31. See full details here.
According to McKagan, these shows have been hugely enjoyable.
" These first few dates of the GUNS tour have been fucking awesome, starting in Korea, which I'd never played before, in Seoul, which was super cool. I really, really like that country. I like how they roll. It's fucking awesome. The crowd was amazing. Back to Tokyo…", McKagan said.
"I'm writing now for [1980s U.S. rock magazine] Hit Parader," he continued. "Hit Parader's relaunching, so the first issue is [coming out] June 1st. And I'm a columnist for the new Hit Parader, so we'll see how that goes. But I wrote an article — hopefully it's okay — about sort of the rock and roll history of Tokyo and Japan. And then with my own experiences dating back to 1988, to now. Tokyo right now is so fresh in my mind 'cause I just finished the column".
"Yeah, while I was in Tokyo this time, my wife [Susan] and daughter Mae were there and a couple of her friends. So we did some fun stuff. But I had a Fender event at the only Fender store in the world. It's a three-story, very impressive store, right in Harajuku, where my favorite kind of punk rock clothing shop is. It's called Jim Sinn. It's in Harajuku. It's right by the Fender store. They've become friends of mine over the years. They love Susan. We've made that our pilgrimage to that punk rock clothing store. Then at the Fender event, I had Isaac come and play. Instead of me just playing bass and having like a clinic, I had Isaac come, and he played drums and we played little bits and pieces of a bunch of GUNS songs. And it was super fun. Playing Taiwan again was great. Taipei's a great city. We are now in Bangkok, and more to come on that".
These shows also mark Guns N'Roses' first shows on stage with new drummer, Isaac Carpenter, who replaced Frank Ferrer, who left the band in March. More on this here.
