GN'R DJ Ashba: We never know what will happen next

Guns N' Roses guitarist DJ Ashba says the band's unpredictability is what makes it so exciting.

Not knowing what might happen from one song to the next at a GN’R show may be a source of frustration for some fans, but for the band members, frontman Axl Rose’s loose style is great fun.

DJ Ashba tells the Review Journal: “That’s what I’ve always loved about playing in the band – you just never know what’s going to happen from song to song. We don’t have set lists onstage. We might have a rough idea of the way the show will go, but Axl’s great at feeling out the crowd.

“I always get the next song right after we finish the previous song. It’s like, ‘OK, Brownstone.’ And then the whole crew switches – lighting, pyro, everybody switches from song to song. That’s what makes it so exciting. I don’t know many bands who really run their ship that way.”

The band are set for a second residency at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas, where, DJ Ashba says, they hope to make each show as unique as possible.

He says: “Our goal is to do a show that’s completely different than the last one we did there. And obviously, we know we’re there for three-four weeks straight, so the other obstacle is how do we make the show different from night to night.”

Stef wrote close to 5,000 stories during his time as assistant online news editor and later as online news editor between 2014-2016. An accomplished reporter and journalist, Stef has written extensively for a number of UK newspapers and also played bass with UK rock favourites Logan. His favourite bands are Pixies and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Stef left the world of rock'n'roll news behind when he moved to his beloved Canada in 2016, but he started on his next 5000 stories in 2022.