Guns N’ Roses delivered a major surprise to fans during their 2026 tour when they brought back a song that had essentially disappeared from their live shows for decades.
During their headline set at the Monsters of Rock festival in São Paulo, Brazil, the band suddenly launched into “Bad Apples,” a deep cut from their 1991 album Use Your Illusion I. The performance instantly caught longtime fans off guard because the song had not been played live since the early days of the Use Your Illusion era more than three decades ago.
The São Paulo performance marked only the third time in history that Guns N’ Roses have played the song live. The last known performance happened on May 11, 1991 at Los Angeles’ Pantages Theatre, during a small run of warm-up shows before the massive Use Your Illusion Tour. A few months earlier, the band had debuted the song live at Rock in Rio 1991 in Brazil.
Because of that rarity, the moment instantly stood out in the band’s set. “Bad Apples” has long been considered one of the deepest cuts in the Guns N’ Roses catalog, rarely appearing in their concerts despite being part of the ambitious Use Your Illusion albums. In fact, live statistics have shown it to be among the least-performed songs from the record, having only appeared a handful of times across the band’s entire touring history.
The performance came during the third stop of the band’s 2026 world tour, which kicked off the previous weekend at the Tecate Pa’l Norte festival in Monterrey, Mexico. As the tour has unfolded, Guns N’ Roses have already begun mixing surprises into their setlists. In addition to resurrecting “Bad Apples,” the band also introduced several other songs during the early dates, including tour debuts of classics like “Rocket Queen.”
The group has also been digging into material that rarely appears in their shows. During the early performances of the tour they brought back songs such as “Dead Horse,” another Use Your Illusion I track that has only appeared occasionally in their concerts over the past several years.
Fans attending the opening dates of the tour have also witnessed the band performing their newest material, including songs titled “Atlas” and “Nothin’,” which were released in December and played live for the first time during the opening show in Monterrey.
The current run of shows has one notable absence as well. Longtime touring member and keyboardist Melissa Reese is not taking part in the 2026 tour due to unforeseen personal reasons, leaving the band to continue the performances without their second keyboardist for the time being.
The 2026 tour is expected to be one of Guns N’ Roses’ biggest global runs in recent years. The band plans to travel across Latin America, North America, Europe, Australasia, and Singapore, with dates currently scheduled through the end of the year. Along the way they will be joined by an eclectic group of opening acts, including artists from rock, hip-hop, and alternative scenes.
But for longtime fans in São Paulo, the biggest moment of the night came from the past rather than the future. When the opening riff of “Bad Apples” rang out across the festival crowd, it marked the return of a song that had been absent from the stage for more than three decades, proving that even after all these years, Guns N’ Roses can still pull surprises from deep within their catalog.
