Guns N’ Roses has been on tour in Australia this week, including a show on the American holiday of Thanksgiving, but there was one thing frontman Axl Rose was not thankful for in a Thursday night (Nov. 24) Twitter post.
In it, he calls out the rogue drone operators that were seen overhead at their show at the 27,500-person Metricon Stadium in Gold Cost Australia that night, with Rose labeling them as “intrusive” and telling them to take their “toys somewhere else.”
Rose’s full statement reads, “Had a few drones this leg. Last night (Gold Coast Australia) was probably the most intrusive. Was a bit of a distraction as obviously someone thought it was just ok to be doing that but also it coming that close in front of the stage and then actually over n’ on stage.”
He continued, “According to the police it happens more often than not lately especially with sporting events. It’s not something we’re all that used to. A lot of impulse reactions went thru everyone’s minds that after thinking about it (which when ur live there’s really no time to really sort things out like that) didn’t make much sense.”
Rose then added, “People were pissed. However much fun anyone’s having ur still trying to stay focused n’ do ur job n’ give the fans the best show u can. Anyway … we get it can b ‘fun’ to get ur drone bootleg vid but we’d appreciate it if anyone planning to b a drone pirate took the fans n’ the band into consideration n’ played w/ur toys somewhere else. Big thank you in advance!”
Several of the singer’s followers chimed in agreeing with Rose, saying drones should be banned and noting restrictions in various countries. In the United States, the policy around concerts is still undefined.
There’s current legislature on the table that aims to revise an FAA policy to “issue temporary flight restrictions for sporting events” to extend to all events at a stadium including concerts. Per Congress.gov, the measure was introduced in 2019 but is still in limbo. The FAA still just lists sporting events as being prohibited events on their website.
Guns N’ Roses have a few days off before resuming their Australian tour on November 27 and wrapping up on December 10.
The show last night sounds like it at least turned out okay as Slash posted on Twitter, “Gold Coast crowd was fn great tonight! Many thanks for the awesome reception, you all were fn brilliant, cheers! iiii]; )”
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