Besides using it as an occasional tour stop, one wouldn’t readily expect a Los Angeles rock band like Guns N’ Roses to let a Midwestern town that’s 62x smaller than where they live occupy too much space in their mind. But lo and behold, hiding amidst an expletive-filled “thank you” section in the liner notes of the band’s 1991 two-part album, Use Your Illusion, was a special message to St. Louis.
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The Missouri river city got a shout-out thanks to a particularly chaotic summer show that the press dubbed the Riverport Riot. In early July 1991, a feud between Axl Rose (and, more generally, Guns N’ Roses) and St. Louis began.
How an On-Stage Confrontation Turned Into the Riverport Riot
On July 2, 1991, Guns N’ Roses were performing at the Riverport Amphitheatre in Maryland Heights, Missouri, just outside of St. Louis city limits, as part of their “Use Your Illusion” tour. For some context that can maybe attest to the musicians’ mindset at the time, they had been touring pretty consistently for about two months by that point. Rookie numbers for an internationally renowned band, sure. But in the muggy heat of Midwestern summer, one could imagine that the band was already feeling a bit edgier than normal.
High-humidity heatwaves aside, Axl Rose started feeling confrontational when he noticed someone with a professional camera in the audience. At a time when the internet was still a novelty, a rogue actor recording a concert could be the difference between the existence (or lack thereof) of an album bootleg. Guns N’ Roses was performing new material, including their hit ballad “November Rain”, and Rose had a strict no-camera policy.
The frontman pointed out the man in the crowd, yelling for security to take his camera. When they didn’t act in a timely fashion, Rose took it upon himself to leap into the crowd. The following scene was a mess of security, rock stars, and concertgoers. Finally, Rose made his way back on stage and said into the mic, “Thanks to the lame-a** security, I’m going home.” He angrily walked off-stage, and then his bandmates followed.
The cameraman in question was Bill “Stump” Stephenson, a local motorcycle gang leader. Stephenson, the rest of the Saddle Tramps, and other attendees began rioting. People were ripping up the venue furniture and flinging debris, injuring random passersby in the process. The chaos was so intense that police retreated, which allowed the rioters to continue their tasks unfettered.
Guns N’ Roses vs. St. Louis, Immortalized
Over 60 people walked away from the Riverport Riot injuries. But miraculously, they all walked away. There were no deaths from the incident—unless you want to count the relationship between Guns N’ Roses and St. Louis, Missouri. Both sides appeared to harbor ill will toward the other. The band didn’t play in the Midwestern city for years. St. Louisans held the same contempt for Guns N’ Roses as, say, the Cubs. And when the time came for Guns N’ Roses to release Use Your Illusion on September 17, 1991, Axl Rose decided to take one more shrink-wrapped, commercially mass-produced shot at St. Louis.
There amidst countless profane-laden “thank you”s in their liner notes was a brief message: “F*** you, St. Louis!”
That was that for over two decades. Guns N’ Roses finally returned to the Gateway of the West in 2017 while on their “Not In This Lifetime” tour. The band played at The Dome at America’s Center. Sean Derrick reported for the Midwest Remind, “To his credit, Axl Rose put on a spectacular performance that was full of energy and without a hint of mockery. Without addressing the controversial 1991 Riverport Riot directly, Rose nonetheless thanked the large crowd for coming out and ended his final performance by alluding that it would not be long before the band would come back again.”
Photo by Jim Steinfeldt/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
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