The Scorpions were invited as a "reserve" in case another band would not perform, more specificly: in case Guns N' Roses would not perform.
Although it was downplayed and hushed up later, Slash himself said in an interview at the time that there were serious doubts that the safety of the band could be guaranteed. Many Queen fans were deeply offended and outraged about the fact that homophobe Axl Rose was invited to the Freddie tribute and apparently the promoter was afraid that the performance could cause a riot amongst the audience. According to Slash it was a last minute decision that the band performed, after all.
In a later interview with MTV to promote the "5 live" mini album Brian defended the controversial decision to invite Axl saying that the concert had more credibility when the "macho spectrum" of the Rock industry was involved.
Interesting. So it was again about Axl and "One in a million"? I doubt he's really homophobic, because he keeps telling people how much he admires Elton John and his music. And didn't he also say something like "They mean everything to me" about Queen?
Jan
Jan78 wrote: Interesting. So it was again about Axl and "One in a million"? I doubt he's really homophobic, because he keeps telling people how much he admires Elton John and his music. And didn't he also say something like "They mean everything to me" about Queen?
Jan
The Queen comment was on a script... which Axl read... haha.
Liking Queen's music doesn't mean you have to like gays.
I think the tribute was their first performance together, but there was another one at some award ceremony I seem to remember.
By the way, I am glad the scorps did'nt perform. For me they are an embarassing relic of the past. G'n'R were the best band of the day IMO.
Regarding the controversy of Guns and Roses performing-Roger Taylor strongly defended Axl and his quote, when asked about the people protesting G n R, was something along the lines of, "they are playing and to the people who don't like it, I have two words for them". We can safely assume the words started with F and Y, don't you think? BTW, I actually spoke to Klaus once and asked him about being at the tribute concert, he said they were there because they became friendly with the band while they were all in South America together and they he greatly admired Freddies singing ability. Klaus has always had a very good voice also, but man is he short!