ST. LOUIS — 28 years ago Tuesday, St. Louis was the site of one of the most notorious fights in music history.
On July 2, 1991, rock band Guns N' Roses was in Maryland Heights, playing in front of a raucous crowd at Riverport (now Hollywood Casino Amphitheater), when G&R front man Axl Rose saw a fan near the stage with a camera.
Rose shouted for security to take the camera away from the fan, but before anyone could react, Rose took things into his own hands.
He leaped off the stage and into the crowd, trying to get to the fan.
Rose's dive into the crowd set off a melee of destruction.
The fighting between fans, security, police and the group resulted in more than 60 injuries, dozens of arrests and hundreds of thousands of dollars in property damage.
"There was just this royal mass of tension that eventually exploded in to chaos and destruction," Daniel Durchholz, a local St. Louis writer and author told us in 2017. He was also in that 1991 crowd of concert-goers.
"There were 60 injuries,” then owner Steve Schankman told us in 2017. “And it was basically because stuff was being thrown from seats and seatbacks and chairs thrown up and down."
Rose was charged with assault and property damage, found guilty and was fined $50,000. The band also had to contend with various civil suits from the riot.
Axl Rose even donned an infamous "St. Louis sucks" t-shirt and avoided the city on future tours.
Guns N' Roses didn't return to St. Louis until 26 years later in 2017 when they played at the Dome at America's Center.
No riots to report from that show, as the band let the music do the talking.