New York - AFP
Guns N' Roses on Friday announced a 21-date tour of North America, expanding a reunion that will bring the original lineup back together for the first time in two decades.
A short video on the hard rockers' website lists 20 major US cities and Toronto as destinations for the summer tour.
No dates, venues or ticket information were provided. In a likely wink to the lack of details, the announcement was accompanied by a snippet of the group's song "Patience."
Guns N' Roses' 1987 "Appetite for Destruction" remains the top-selling debut album in US history. Axl Rose's soaring voice and raw anger coupled with Slash's intricate guitar work made the group a global sensation.
But the band, shaken by bitter personal disputes between Slash and Rose, last played together in Buenos Aires in 1993. Since then, Rose has kept performing as Guns N' Roses with other musicians.
The band has long received lucrative offers to come back together. It first revealed its reunion plans when it was announced as the headliner for the Coachella festival next month in California.
Since then, Guns N' Roses said that the reunion would begin on April 8-9 with two shows at the new T-Mobile Arena on the Las Vegas Strip. An additional two shows were announced for April 19-20 in Mexico City.
The latest announcement may not be the last; the rockers notably did not list Los Angeles, their home turf, where they would be expected to perform a nostalgia-rich show.
A radio host on Atlanta rock station WNNX recently reported that Rose would also join AC/DC as guest vocalist for shows as frontman Brian Johnson suffers hearing problems. Neither Rose nor the veteran Australian rockers have commented.