The Guns N’ Roses Metallica Stadium Tour of 1992 would be one of the biggest tours of all time.
Both bands were the biggest groups in the world at the time and it would be billed as a co-headlining
tour rather than one band opening for the other. The tour took place during the summer of 1992
across major cities in both America and Canada. But one prominent politician tried to stop the
tour from coming to his city and that’s what were going to talk about in today’s video.
A 30 year old councilor representing a ward in Canada's capital of Ottawa
was steadfast against allowing the Metallica and Guns N’ Roses tour from coming to his City. The
reason? Faith No More would open the tour with Metallica hitting the stage second and they would
play about a two hour set or so and the stage setup to get Guns N’ Roses ready for their show
took around 1.5- 2 hours. On top of that, Guns N’ Roses frontman Axl Rose would consistently show up
late so the shows as part of the tour would finish in the early hours of the morning. For Watson,
he was concerned about several factors. One being the city’s noise curfew which took effect at 11pm,
the other was the fact that public transit doesn’t run in the early hours of the morning.
The concert organizers wanted to be able to play past 12:30am
and the concert tour needed Council approval to get a waiver from the noise bylaw.
And some constituents and residents supported Watson’s position and the Councillor successfully
lobbied his counterparts and the mayor to vote against giving the tour a noise waiver.
But things didn’t end there. Watson’s positions made him extremely unpopular
with Guns N' Roses and Metallica fans and soon enough the international media took notice and
Watson would be interviewed on Entertainment Tonight. He would recall to the Ottawa Citizen
“It was my one and only time I got on Entertainment Tonight. There was a huge
media blizzard. I got a lot of phone calls, about 700 — mostly from teenagers,” he'd remember..
A morning radio DJ named Dan Halen, who hosted 54 Rock’s morning show, spent one of his shows
letting angry Guns N’ Roses and Metallica fans vent their frustration at the Councillor..
Halen would recall to the Ottawa Citizen “Our phone lines were jammed, starting at 6 a.m.,”
said Halen at the time. ”We decided to drop the music this morning and let them vent their anger.
A lot of Guns N’ Roses fans are 25, 35 or 40. They’re taxpaying, working people" he'd say.
One fan even referred to Watson as and i quote “a stuffed shirt,” but the Councillor stood
firm standing by his position that people who attended the concert would likely be drinking
and without public transit, there wouldn’t be a proper and safe way for them to get home.
The amount of backlash from the public was so great that the council members and mayor reversed
their decision and gave them a noise waiver until 12:30am, but they would only allow them to play
the concert under two conditions: (1) there would be a $30,000 fine if the noise continued past 1
AM; and number (2) everyone attending the concert had to bring a donation for the Ottawa Food Bank.
In the end though, it didn’t matter as the tour skipped Ottawa.
Promoter Debra Rathwell told the Ottawa Citizen back then why the tour skipped the nation’s
capital saying ”(Not including Ottawa) has nothing to do with where Ottawa is geographically located,
how many people live in the town, whether they did a petition, didn’t do a petition,
or whether city council said anything,” ”The simple reason is they’ve cut their tour and
they’re playing bigger buildings. It isn’t any more complicated than this" she'd say.
The Guns N’ Roses and Metallica tour would play two Canadian dates, one would be Toronto and the
other in Montreal, where as you guys know a riot would break out following Guns N’ Roses
cutting their set short to only 45 minutes after frontman Axl Rose complained of vocal problems.
But In 2017 Guns N’ Roses returned to Ottawa as part of the Not IN This Lifetime Tour
and Watson at this point was the mayor of the City.
The Citizen caught up with him and asked him about whether he planned on attending to which he said
“No, I’m not a heavy metal fan, I’ll let others enjoy.
“They haven’t asked for an exemption. We’re getting older, so are Guns N’ Roses.” he’d remark.
That does it for today's video guys. Thanks for watching. Be sure to hit the like button
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