After more than 20 years of separation, Guns N’ Roses members Axl Rose, Slash, and Duff McKagan have reunited for the “Not in This Lifetime” tour. The tour was announced before a surprise concert was held in the Troubadour in West Hollywood.

It has been well documented that the separation of the group was caused due to tensions between singer Axl Rose and guitarist Slash. The hatred that the band members had toward each other kept them at odds since the mid 90’s. After the major success of their debut album in 1987, Appetite for Destruction, the band would not receive the same success on following albums. 1991’s GN’R Lies, 1991’s  Use Your Illusion 1, and Use Your Illusion 2 both failed to be as commercially successful and impactful as their debut album. Meanwhile, the members of the band all dealt with their own inner troubles due to drug abuse that were close to have them knocking on heaven’s door. As tensions grew between the band members, most explicitly toward Axl Rose, there seemed like the band was close to splitting up. In 1991, the first member to leave was Izzy Stradlin. By 1995, the only remaining member of the original band was Axl Rose.

The tensions between Axl and the original members, in specific Slash, kept a possible reunion as being “Not in this Lifetime.” The hatred that members like Slash kept for Axl, like many of the original members did, was never hidden and thus kept the band dissipated.