GUNS N' ROSES Keyboardist MELISSA REESE To Sit Out Tour Due To 'Unforeseen Personal Reasons'

GUNS N' ROSES has announced that keyboardist Melissa Reese will not be joining the band on tour this spring "due to unforeseen personal reasons".

GUNS N' ROSES says: "We hope our fans understand."

Reese joined GUNS N' ROSES in 2016 after being recommended to the band by Bryan "Brain" Mantia, the former GN'R drummer with whom she had collaborated on various projects. Reese became the first female member of the band, taking on the role of second keyboardist alongside Dizzy Reed and replacing Chris Pitman.

Melissa made her live debut with GUNS N' ROSES at the first show of the "Not In This Lifetime…" tour, which took place on April 1, 2016 at the Troubadour in West Hollywood, California.

"GUNS is definitely still looked at as this dudes thing, where it's a male club and there's no place for a chick," Reese explained to Rolling Stone magazine in a 2020 interview. "But you could not ask for a better group of dudes. That's the band itself and everyone we work with. They're protective of me. It's beyond just having my back. We're like a family, and they're like my big brothers."

She went on to clarify her status with the Axl Rose-fronted band, saying: "I'm a member-member of GUNS N' ROSES. It's always been the case, but I feel like I haven't been forward enough about it. It's something that would be good to just, once and for all, get out so there's no questions."

GUNS N' ROSES will kick off a massive 2026 world tour on March 28 in Monterrey, Mexico that will include a summertime North American run of stadiums and amphitheaters. The trek will take the veteran hard rock band across South America before moving to Europe in the early spring and summer. GN'R will then play three U.S. shows starting on April 30 in Hollywood, Florida before launching a North American tour on July 23 in Raleigh, North Carolina at Cater-Finely Stadium.