Axl Rose teamed up with crossover country star Carrie Underwood this weekend for a historic rendering of two Guns N' Roses classics.
Rose joined Underwood onstage towards the end of her headline set at the annual Stagecoach festival at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California on Saturday night, supplying vocals on performances of Sweet Child O' Mine and Paradise City. In a hint as to what would happen later, Underwood's intro tape featured another GN'R classic, Welcome To The Jungle.
Fan-shot footage of both performances is below.
"Best. Night. Of. My. Life!!!, " tweeted Underwood after the event, using more exclamation marks than is strictly necessary. "I am still freaking out!!! Thank you Axl Rose, for making this lifelong dream come true!!! You rocked that Stagecoach stage harder than anyone has ever rocked it before!"
Underwood has long been a Gun N' Roses fan, and wore a band t-shirt during the Stagecoach show. She's also covered Sweet Child O' Mine, Paradise City, November Rain and Patience multiple times since 2006. She saw the band live for the first time at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas in 2019, the show during which Axl Rose took a tumble while performing Knocking On Heaven's Door.
“We were nowhere near Las Vegas, so naturally I said, ‘Let’s go to Las Vegas with the band and go see GNR play!'” Underwood told the Jimmy Fallon Show in 2020. “It’s kind of a life-long dream of mine I never thought would happen. Couldn’t waste that opportunity, so I abandoned my husband, abandoned my children, went to Vegas, and saw Guns N’ Roses. Amazing.”
"I might have, like, hung out with Axl after the show a little bit!” she added. “I do always say that it’s hard when you meet your heroes, because I do consider him to be somebody who taught me how to sing, because I loved how he could just do different things with his voice. I was like, ‘I don’t know! If I meet him, and he’s not everything I want him to be...‘ But he was. It was great. He was super cool, and nice, and we talked – we’re best friends."
