GUNS II: The mix of GNR and...

GUNS II: The mix of GNR and ACT UP could be volatile. Axl Rose is almost as well known for his outbursts (like the one against a photographer that spurred a riot at a St. Louis concert last year) as for his music. And ACT UP has built up a reputation for distrupting political rallies, film screenings and other public events. Last year the organization held a “die-in” in the middle of a Mass being held at New York’s St. Patrick’s Cathederal. And another ACT UP activist infiltrated the 1991 Academy Awards show and shouted out an AIDS-death statistic.

Campbell said that no such disruptions are planned for the Mercury tribute if GNR stays on the bill--he’s glad for the money being raised for AIDS awareness, regardless. He’s also having trouble getting other AIDS and gay rights organizations, which generally consider ACT UP a fringe extremist group, to join his campaign. Representatives of both the Gay Men’s Health Crisis and the London-based Terrence Higgins Trust, a beneficiary of the concert, told Pop Eye that they see GNR’s participation as a positive step in AIDS awareness, especially among hard rock fans.

And Metallica’s co-manager Peter Mensch said that any any anti-Axl uprising at the show seems unlikely. “The audience in England for Queen were rock fans,” he says. “If anything, the more rock acts on the show the better off it is in terms of the audience being happy.”