Axl Rose - Axl Rose Turns 50 Today, Celebrates With Roses Shows

MTV reports that the tour will still only contain Rose as the original member of the rock troupe, with relations still evidently fractured between he and other pivotal cogs guitarist Slash and bassist Duff Mckagan. The three dates in New York start this Friday, February 10th, and include one at The Webster Hall - formerly known as The Ritz - where one of the group's best known shows occurred in 1998, something that they'd apparently not forgotten given that for the night the venue will revert to its original name, something that seems completely worthwhile.

Aged 50 the jury's out on whether Rose can still really cut it as a rock n' roll front man, since the release of 'Chinese Democracy' in 2008 live shows have been greeted by a mixture of delight and disappointment, with Rose famously showing up late to a number of his UK and Ireland shows during a 2010 world tour, on one occasion incurring the wrath of the UK's Leeds and Reading Festival organiser Melvin Benn who was punished for going over curfew as a result.