Axl Rose didn’t go “numb when he learned to see” recently, as Guns N’ Roses‘ “Civil War” lyrics say, but instead, he went numb thanks to his battle with TMJ, the rocker revealed during the band’s sprawling three-hour show at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium on Wednesday (Aug. 12).
Rose shared his experience and injected it with humor between introducing the band members — Slash, Duff McKagen, Dizzy Reed, Richard Fortus and Isaac Carpenter — joking that he currently had Bugs Bunny in his ear boppin’ around, and that he had some dental work just days ago to deal with the condition. (According to the Mayo Clinic, TMJ involves the temporomandibular joint causing pain as the jaw moves around, and can also cause popping sounds in the jaw.)
“So now this side of my mouth is still f–king numb, which makes it interesting,” laughed the musician, “but this one [points to the left side of his face] had work done two days ago. So it’s interesting. It’s challenging.”
“You’re singing and you hear sounds, and you’re like … none of the doctors, none of the dentists — there’s really no way to describe what you do, and with TMJ they tell ya, ‘Try not to chew!’ OK, I won’t eat,” Rose deadpanned. “Second, you really can’t describe — you stretch your face in so many ways trying to sing like I do!”
The GN’R frontman wasn’t done being lighthearted about his experience with TMJ. “So you hear all these sounds while you’re singing, and you hear sounds that, like, make you go, ‘I really probably shouldn’t be doing what I’m doing, because that sound sounds like my jaw’s gonna fall off or go to the side or get stuck that way,” he joked. “Which, that would be pretty funny!”
In addition to dropping cracks, Rose and Co. delivered numerous hits and fan-favorites during its 2026 World Tour show at MetLife, spanning all its albums as well as some side projects, kicking off the concert with a rollicking “Welcome to the Jungle” (which peaked at No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1988); “Patience” (No. 4, 1989); “You Could Be Mine” (No. 29, 1991); “Slither” by Velvet Revolver, with Axl filling in for the late Scott Weiland on vocals; “Attitude” with Duff on vocals; Black Sabbath’s “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath,” which Axl dedicated to Ozzy Osbourne; and taking fans home by closing with the oh-so-appropriate “Paradise City” (No. 5, 1989).
Hip-hop icons Public Enemy opened the show with its hits, including “Fight the Power” (No. 20, 1989). And in true PE fashion, Flavor Flav had a powerful message to share after declaring that he had “no time for racism.”
“This world is made up of a whole bunch of races of people, but at the end of the day, no matter what color we are, no matter what language we speak, no matter what religion we study, no matter what part of the world we come from, at the end of the day, we are all God’s children of the Planet Earth,” the rapper — who has also a strong supporter of women athletes — shared as divisiveness has spread through the country. “We must all stick together and build a world of unity. So if y’all understand me and ya’ll are with me, just remember, like I said: There’s only one race, my people, and that’s the human race.”
