Guns N’ Roses to release delayed 30th anniversary Use Your Illusion editions

Guns N’ Roses are putting together deluxe 30th anniversary reissues of the Use Your Illusion albums for release in 2022, according to guitarist Slash.

Technically, any 30th anniversary plans for the Use Your Illusion twin-set should have taken place this year, given that the two albums were originally released on September 17, 1991, but, as with so many other things, delays were brought about by the on-going Covid-19 pandemic.

“But it is coming out,” insists guitarist Slash, in a new interview with Biff Bam Pop! “I think this summer. There's a bunch of cool live stuff on it — a couple shows. The Ritz [in New York City] from the '90s, like early '90s, and a show that we did in Las Vegas back in 1989, I think it was. It's actually the show that I met my ex-wife at…"

According to Blabbermouth, the shows being referenced are one of the warm-up shows Guns played at The Ritz in New York in May 1991 prior to embarking on the Use Your Illusion tour, and the band’s January 25, 1992 show at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada, where Slash and his now-ex-wife Perla Ferrar first met.

Use Your Illusion II sold 770,000 copies in the US in its first week on sale to top the Billboard chart: Use Your Illusion I sold 685,000 copies to debut at number two.

“When I look back on it, it was a monumental achievement,” Slash told Classic Rock in 2016. “The first thing I think of when I think of those albums is that it was such a whirlwind of shit was happening at that particular time, but it was a huge accomplishment. I think the Use Your Illusion records, if you know the backstory, were very victorious.”

A music writer since 1993, formerly Editor of Kerrang! and Planet Rock magazine (RIP), Paul Brannigan is a Contributing Editor to Louder. Having previously written books on Lemmy, Dave Grohl (the Sunday Times best-seller This Is A Call) and Metallica (Birth School Metallica Death, co-authored with Ian Winwood), his Eddie Van Halen biography (Eruption in the UK, Unchained in the US) emerged in 2021. He has written for Rolling Stone, Mojo and Q, hung out with Fugazi at Dischord House, flown on Ozzy Osbourne's private jet, played Angus Young's Gibson SG, and interviewed everyone from Aerosmith and Beastie Boys to Young Gods and ZZ Top. Born in the North of Ireland, Brannigan lives in North London and supports The Arsenal.