Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash recently talked about whether the band would be open to doing a residency at the Sphere in Las Vegas, Nevada, just like Metallica is doing at the moment. He shared his thoughts during an interview with Audacy.
The guitarist explained that the venue is not set up for the kind of live performance the band is used to, pointing to the way amplification works inside the Sphere.
“I’m gonna go see Metallica over there. That’s one of those things — I think Joe Walsh turned me off of it. Because it’s not set up where you can set up a bunch of amps and really play live like the way we normally do. It’s really about the production, and it’s not so much about the band, although the band is playing.”
He went on to say that the focus of a Sphere show leans heavily on visuals, which pushed the band toward a standard tour instead.
“It’s really about the visual and all that kind of stuff. And we were talking about doing it last year before this tour, this U.S. tour that we just did, and we opted for just doing a U.S. tour and not just focusing on that one thing.”
Slash also said the residency is not completely off the table, but he has reservations about how controlled the whole production feels.
“Anyway, so it might happen down the road, but it’s not something I’m aspiring to because I think it might be a little bit too controlled. But I’m dying to see Metallica do it. It’s hard to be beholden to a whole theatrical thing like that, especially for us. And also, the way Joe was telling me, is you have to put your amps somewhere else.”
He closed by comparing the two bands’ setups and describing the logistical details that gave him pause.
“The Metallica guys use the — what do you call it? Amps. They’re not real. And so we don’t do that. And they gotta figure out some place elsewhere to put the amps and all that kind of stuff, and the more we talked about the details of it, the more, like, ugh. I don’t know.”
Slash’s comments arrive while Metallica is preparing its own run at the venue, which gives his concerns about production and equipment placement some immediate context.
Metallica will bring its first-ever Sphere residency to Las Vegas under the title Life Burns Faster, a 24-show run that begins on Oct. 1, 2026 and continues through March 13, 2027. The dates are built around the band’s “No Repeat Weekend” format, with Thursday and Saturday shows that share no songs across each two-night pairing. That structure puts heavy demands on the visual and audio design of the room, which lines up with the production-first approach Slash described.
The Eagles have already spent far more time inside the Sphere than any other act. The band has been in residence at Sphere on and off since Sept. 20, 2024, and the engagement has become the venue’s longest-running residency. That extended stay is part of why Joe Walsh’s perspective carried weight when he talked with Slash about what the room asks of a band.
