Guns N’ Roses Debut Rare Sex Pistols Cover ‘Black Leather’ Live

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Published April 21, 2026 by Ned Tepper

Guns N’ Roses have dug deep into punk’s back catalogue, pulling out a track most fans never expected to hear live.

During their Fortaleza, Brazil show over the weekend, Guns N’ Roses rolled out Sex Pistols deep cut ‘Black Leather’ live for the first time, sliding it into a sprawling 27 song set, it wasn’t Axl front and centre for this one either, bassist Duff McKagan took the lead, giving the performance a rougher, more street level edge (per Ultimate Classic Rock).

A punk deep cut resurfaces

‘Black Leather’ isn’t your standard Pistols staple, the track originally surfaced as an outtake tied to The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle era, recorded after Johnny Rotten’s exit, it bounced around the underground before gaining more traction through The Runaways’ 1978 version.

Watch the footage below:

Guns N’ Roses themselves are no strangers to it, the band previously covered the song on their 1993 covers album ‘The Spaghetti Incident?’, though that version featured Axl Rose on vocals.

This time around, handing it to McKagan shifts the tone, it feels less polished, more aligned with the song’s messy lineage.

Still pushing deep into the catalogue

For a band that could comfortably coast on hits alone, moments like this show Guns N’ Roses still have an appetite for curveballs, dropping a relatively obscure punk track mid set isn’t about crowd pleasing, it’s about digging into influences and letting them breathe onstage.

They’ve only got a handful of South American shows left before shifting gears, after a brief run in the US, the band will head into Europe, then launch a full North American stretch through July to September.