Ask anyone who has lived in the St. Louis region for any amount of years what the worst concert ever was and a vast majority without hesitation will mention the infamous Guns N’ Roses concert in July of 1991.
The first half of 1991 had been a huge success for Guns N’ Roses. The “Use Your Illusion” tour launched on January 20, 1991 and had continued into July when Axl Rose and company landed in St. Louis for a concert at the (then named) Riverport Amphitheater. The band exploded into their set the night of July 2, 1991 in front of a packed St. Louis crowd.
It was during the song “Rocket Queen” that chaos broke out. Axl Rose had spotted someone in the crowd who was filming the concert. He motioned to security, but then took matters into his own hands and dove into the crowd.
Video shows Axl threw a punch at the fan before being hauled back onto the stage by security where he proceeded to say “Thanks to the lame a** security, I’m going home!”. He threw the microphone down and the rest of the band followed him from the stage. Once fans realized the show had suddenly been stopped and Guns N’ Roses were not coming back to the stage, a riot ensued with chairs being thrown and an estimated $200,000 in damage to equipment was done. In total, it’s believed there were 60 injuries among the fans and it took 400 police officers to eventually stop the riot.
Criminal charges were filed against Axl, but a judge ruled that he did not directly incite the riot…