Worst Missouri Concert Ever? Guns N’ Roses in St. Louis in 1991

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.

We learned later that the fan who was recording the show that Axl took issue with was a guy named Billy nicknamed "Stump". In a documentary about the incident, Stump said "When I hand the camera off, as I'm turning back he's already in flight coming at me...so he like hit me blindside and we went over the chairs". He said that he ruptured a disc in his back when they hit the chairs. Stump eventually sued Axl for damages and the case was settled out of court before a jury could come to a verdict.

Axl Rose - "It was accepted and we have to be enforced and so we're fine about it".

What many don't know is that after it was announced that Axl and Stump had settled the case, Stump approached Axl for his autograph and was given it as shared in this interesting backstory in the documentary.

Guns N' Roses didn't play St. Louis for more than 26 years returning in July of 2017. The band will return to St. Louis again on August 16, 2026 according to the official Guns N' Roses tour page. Let's hope the results of that show will be more positive than the one in early July of 1991. It will always be notoriously known as the worst concert in Missouri history and there isn't even a close second.