Watch Guns N’ Roses perform 'Shadow of Your Love' for the first time in over 30 years
Guns N' Roses fans at the band's Not In This Lifetime tour stop in Odense, Denmark, on Wednesday night were in for a rare treat, a live performance of the B-side rarity 'Shadow of Your Love'. It marked the first time the band played the song live in 31 years.
'Shadow of Your Love' was co-written by Rose in the pre-Guns N' Roses era when he was part of a group called Hollywood Rose. It then ended up being the first song GNR ever rehearsed together for 'Appetite For Destruction' producer Mike Clink during studio sessions circa 1986. While it ultimately didn’t make the cut for that album, as the band recently announced, the song is finally being released as the lead single from the band’s ridiculously expensive, massive 30th-anniversary reissue of 'Appetite For Destruction', which is slated for a June 29 release.
“It was magic from the first day,” Steven Adler, the band’s drummer at the time (who isn’t part of the reunion), said of the track rehearsals. “The first song we played in rehearsal was ‘Shadow of Your Love’, and Axl showed up late. We were playing the song, and right in the middle of the song, Axl showed up and he grabbed the microphone and was running up and down the walls screaming. I thought, ‘This is the greatest thing ever.’ We knew right then what we had.”
As Billboard points out, a live version of 'Shadow of Your Love' was included on a 12" version of Guns' 1987 'It's So Easy' single and as a B-side to the 1991 'Live and Let Die' single. The highly charged and powerful song has the classic relentless blitz attack of late '90s Guns N' Roses, with a double-time solo, underlined by wonderfully debaucherous lyrics that one would associate with the peak GNR era. The opening lines go: "Took my chances carelessly/Choked on my own cigarette/You can hand me another bottle of whiskey baby/But you ain't seen the worst yet."
'Shadow Of Your Love' isn’t the first surprise Guns N’ Roses have dropped in their set on the Not In This Lifetime tour. During the opening show in Berlin, they covered Slither by Velvet Revolver, the band formed by GNR guitarist Slash, bassist Duff McKagan and Stone Temple Pilots singer Scott Weiland.
Recently, the band released a never-before-seen video for 'It's So Easy' exclusively on Apple Music. Guns N’ Roses are all set to headline the Download festival on Saturday June 9.
