SLASH Explains Why He Is 'Trepidatious' About Playing Sphere In Las Vegas With GUNS N' ROSES

During an October 23 appearance on SiriusXM's "Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk", Slash was asked if he would be open to doing a Sphere residency in Las Vegas with GUNS N' ROSES at some point. The GN'R guitarist said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I haven't been [to the Sphere] yet, but just everything that I've seen, or most everything that I've seen of it, looks amazing. I'm real trepidatious about playing there, because… It's a great visual show. I think that in almost every case for a band, it becomes a visual show as opposed to seeing a rock and roll show. So there's that. And also, from talking to Joe Walsh about it, 'cause obviously THE EAGLES have been doing a residency there since forever, is that it's not really sort of rock and roll friendly, the way that it's set up. So it's just one of those things where it seems like a really cool thing, and conceptually there's probably a lot of cool things that you could do, but I don't think it would be the right environment for a proper rock and roll show."

After host Eddie Trunk noted that everybody is still waiting to see the first hard rock or heavy metal band play the Sphere, with METALLICA recently confirming that the James Hetfield-fronted act was in talks to play the venue in late 2026, Slash said: "I'd be interested to see that too. And I heard about METALLICA doing it. I could see them doing it because I can imagine them… Because you have to prepare your mind to put on not just a band performance, but 50 percent of what you're doing is going to be the projection, or whatever you call that — the outer wall [laughs], what you're putting on as content. And so that is something that's gonna be the main focus of your show and the main focus of what everybody's gonna be looking at. And so you have to sort of getting to that mindset, and I think that's hard for us to go that far into it. But we'll see. Maybe down the road."

A massive, spherical venue known for its immersive entertainment experiences, including concerts and films, featuring a state-of-the-art 16K resolution wraparound screen and a powerful sound system, the Las Vegas Sphere is nestled near the Venetian Resort and Wynn Las Vegas just off the Las Vegas Strip.

The Sphere has already hosted residencies from a number of legendary rockers, including U2, PHISH, DEAD & COMPANY and THE EAGLES.

U2 opened the building with 160,000-square-foot LED screens and 4D features, playing to more 700,000 fans across 40 sold-out dates from September 2023 through March 2024. The shows commemorated one of U2's most successful albums, the chart-topping 1991 release "Achtung Baby", played in its entirety, along with select tracks from other U2 LPs.

A global news event which saw the world's biggest rock band open the world's most state-of-the-art venue, "U2:UV Achtung Baby Live At Sphere" quickly became a pop culture moment and a must-see for music lovers everywhere. The show's stunning visuals and live music performance, combined with the venue's immersive technology elements, including the world's most advanced audio system, became an instant social media sensation as hundreds of thousands of fans shared their "U2:UV" experience across multiple platforms generating billions of impressions, making "U2:UV" a truly global phenomenon. One of the band's most ambitious creative projects to date, it saw them work once again with longtime creative collaborator and show director Willie Williams, artists including Es Devlin, John Gerrard and Marco Brambilla, and longtime partner and producer Brian Eno.

The first sports event to take place was the NHL Draft with the UFC following in September 2024.

Sphere's next-generation technologies include the world's highest-resolution LED display that wraps up, over and around the audience, creating a fully immersive visual environment. The venue also features the world's most advanced concert-grade audio system, Sphere Immersive Sound, powered by HOLOPLOT, which delivers audio with unmatched clarity and precision to every guest.

Last October, Sphere Entertainment, the company behind Sphere Las Vegas, announced plans for a new venue in Abu Dhabi.