GUNS N’ ROSES fan named Caroline Campos is claiming that a poster she brought to the band’s concert in Nashville on Saturday, which read “Where’s Izzy, was taken from her and ripped to shreds at the request of the band itself.
She said: “Ok so last night I had this “Where’s Izzy” sign. If you know about GUNS N’ ROSES and you’ve seen the “Don’t Cry” music video, you get it. If not, its a reference to Izzy Stradlin who left the band and is not currently touring with the other 4 original members.”
“So when the original drummer Steven Adler came out to play his set, I held up my sign with cheers from most of the people in my section. Axl looked at my sign and started laughing and said “That’s a good question!” He seemed to appreciate the sign. I put the sign away during actual performances so I wouldn’t block the people behind me, only held it up between songs when the lights came on.”
“About 10 to 15 minutes later, while GUNS N’ ROSES was playing “November Rain”, our section got swarmed by security AND stage crew (with headsets on). They went row by row asking “Who has the sign?? Who has the Where’s Izzy sign?” Most everyone in my section acted like they had no idea. Eventually they made it to the row behind me and saw the sign tucked under my chair. A guy in jeans and a black shirt tapped my shoulder and said “Is that your sign? You need to give it to me.” I said “Why? Who are you?” He showed a badge and said “I’m with the band and they’ve asked for the sign to be removed.” I said, “We aren’t allowed to have signs?? But I read that..” and he cut me off and said “You can’t have THAT sign. Give it to me.” I gave it to him and he walked away folding and ripping it up.
A representative for GUNS N’ ROSES later told Ultimate Guitar, “GN’R would never make this request! Izzy is family!”
Campos later told TeamRock: “I do want to try to convey that the sign wasn’t meant to be rude or malicious to the band, especially Richard Fortus.
“Asking ‘Where’s Izzy‘ is not meant to insult Fortus any more than cheering for drummer Steven Adler would convey anything negative about Frank Ferrer. I made the sign as a tribute to the ‘Don’t Cry’ video, where the ‘Where’s Izzy‘ sign is featured for a split second. “It’s my favourite GN’R video and I tried to recreate the sign exactly. I’m not sure how anyone could take it to mean anything negative about the band.
“My husband and I paid a lot of money and drove a long way to see the band. I’m just so disappointed it happened. But I thought they all put on a great show, including Fortus.”
On November 7, 1991, it was announced that Stradlin had left GUNS N’ ROSES. He had played his final show as an official member of the band on August 31 at Wembley Stadium. Of his reasons for leaving, Stradlin later said, “I didn’t like the complications that became such a part of daily life in GUNS N’ ROSES,” citing the Riverport riot and Axl Rose‘s chronic lateness on the Use Your Illusion Tour as examples. He stated that getting sober played a part in his decision to leave, saying, “When you’re f*cked up, you’re more likely to put up with things you wouldn’t normally put up with.”
