Guns N' Roses bring their 2025 tour to Mumbai on 17th May

For a generation of rock fans in India, Guns N’ Roses was the gateway. Their music circulated on pirated cassettes and grainy music channels, passed along by older siblings or school friends who insisted, “You have to hear this.”

For many, they were the first reason rock and roll felt personal.

On May 17, 2025, Guns N’ Roses will perform at Mumbai’s Mahalaxmi Racecourse as part of their global tour, ‘Because What You Want & What You Get Are Two Completely Different Things’. It’s their first time back in India in twelve years—only the second time they’ve toured the country. Their presence here has always felt both significant and strangely elusive.

There are reports that the band was originally slated to debut in India in 1992, but the show was called off due to political unrest. The details remain murky—spoken of often, but with little documentation.

It wasn’t until 2012 that they finally made it. That year’s three-city tour included stops in Bangalore, Mumbai, and Gurgaon. At Leisure Valley Grounds in Gurgaon, they played for nearly three hours, throwing in covers of Pink Floyd and AC/DC.

Now, twelve years on, they return with a lineup that includes Axl Rose, Slash, Duff McKagan, Richard Fortus, Dizzy Reed, Melissa Reese, and drummer Isaac Carpenter, who joins them onstage for the first time. For the band, this marks a rare period of stability. For Indian fans, it’s the show that always felt overdue.

Much has changed since that first tour. Guns N’ Roses may no longer dominate the charts, but their grip on India’s rock memory remains. Here, they aren’t just a band—they’re a marker of time. For older fans, this concert is a long-awaited occasion. For younger ones, it’s a chance to finally experience a name they’ve heard for years, often before they ever heard the songs.