The two-decades-in-the-making reunion of Guns N’ Roses has become the fourth highest-earning tour in history, grossing $475 million (Dh1.7 billion), Billboard reported on Thursday.
The music industry magazine and chart-keeper, releasing its year-end calculations of concert receipts, said that Guns N’ Roses had surpassed former Pink Floyd member Roger Waters’ marathon 2010-13 The Wall Live tour.
U2 holds the record with $784 million earned on the Irish rockers’ extravagant, in-the-round 360 tour from 2009 to 2011.
In second and third places with just above $500 million each are The Rolling Stones for stadium concerts a decade ago and Coldplay for a global tour completed in November.
Guns N’ Roses, whose brash rock took the world by storm in the late 1980s, had been notorious for internal friction, with singer Axl Rose and guitarist Slash ending their collaboration in 1993 following a show in Buenos Aires.
After years of lucrative offers, the pair finally agreed to reunite for the 2016 Coachella festival in the California desert.
The reunion became a global stadium tour called Not in This Lifetime that has been repeatedly extended and, according to Billboard, has reached 4.3 million fans. The tour landed in March last year.
A fresh leg is scheduled for Europe this summer that will close on July 21 in Gothenburg, Sweden.
The band is best known for hits such as Welcome to the Jungle and Sweet Child O’ Mine.
The tour, however, does not include Izzy Stradlin, the rhythm guitarist and key songwriter for the band who said he refused as he believed the money would be unfairly divided among the bandmates.
Industry watchers expect big-name concert tours to become increasingly lucrative in the near future, with the number of festivals quickly growing and consolidation of promoters streamlining costs.
