Guns N’ Roses Paint Los Angeles Sky With 500 Drones To Launch 2026 World Tour

Guns N’ Roses have never exactly been subtle, but this time they took it to the sky.

On Monday night in LA, Guns N’ Roses lit up the air above Hollywood Forever Cemetery with a 12 minute drone show, using 500 drones to officially fire the starting gun on their 2026 world tour.

The display, created with Sky Elements Drone Shows, stitched together Guns N’ Roses iconography, symbols and call backs from across the band’s history, finishing on a clear message, they’re not done yet.

Sky Elements vice president Kyle Pivnick summed it up simply: “Sky Elements was honored to be a part of the GUNS N’ ROSES world tour announcement. With 500 drones flying over the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, it was an iconic moment, and symbolic to the band’s return to the world stage.”

World tour locked for 2026

The 2026 run starts in March and April with dates in Mexico and Brazil, before the band heads back to the United States for a pair of shows, from there it is Europe in June, then another lap of North America through July, August and September.

The North American leg kicks off on July 23rd in Raleigh and threads through Toronto, St Louis, Las Vegas and Atlanta. Sitting at the centre of it all is a proper homecoming, September 5th 2026, Guns N’ Roses will hit Pasadena’s Rose Bowl for the first time in more than three decades.

Australian fans are still waiting on local dates, but history says if there is a world tour, there is at least a chance of our name being added to the map.

New music and an old habit of breaking records

To go with the announcement, the band are releasing two new tracks, “Nothin’” and “Atlas”, on December 2nd via Geffen. They’re the first new songs since 2023, landing on top of a catalogue that already includes Appetite For Destruction, Use Your Illusion I, Use Your Illusion II, GN’R Lies, The Spaghetti Incident?, Greatest Hits and Chinese Democracy, plus more than 100 million units sold and a 2024 Grammy Hall Of Fame nod for their 1987 debut.

Their recent touring numbers are just as ugly in the best way, the 2024 world tour sold 1.3 million tickets and packed out stadiums, festivals and arenas across the globe, following the juggernaut Not In This Lifetime… run, which became one of the highest grossing tours in history.