Carrie Underwood Says She Convinced Axl Rose To Sing

Singer Carrie Underwood recently spoke to Rolling Stone and revealed she sent an email to Guns N’ Roses frontman Axl Rose to convince him to sing together.

Although Carrie Underwood argued she has been influenced by music in general, she noted that some rock acts like George Michael, My Chemical Romance, Queen, the Rolling Stones, and Guns N’ Roses impacted her career. In fact, the country singer has covered these artists’ songs throughout her music career. Underwood has been a long-time Guns N’ Roses fan, and she had a chance to share the same stage with them this year.

The 2022 Stagecoach Festival began on April 29 at Indio, California’s Empire Polo Club, and ended on May 1. Carrie Underwood was the headliner on April 30, and Axl Rose decided to join her on stage to perform classic GN’R hits, such as ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine,’ and ‘Paradise City.’ Underwood performed the former’s opening verse and chorus and immediately launched to ‘Paradise City.’ She had previously covered ‘Paradise City’ in 2014 at the CMA Music Festival.

Sharing the same stage with Axl Rose was an excellent experience for Underwood since she had always wanted to sing with the rocker at some point during her life. In July, the singer joined GN’R on stage during the band’s concert at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London. In one of his tweets, Rose thanked Underwood for joining them. Together, they performed the same GN’R hits, ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’ and ‘Paradise City.’

When asked about her Stagecoach festival and London concert appearance with Axl Rose and GN’R, Carrie Underwood recently told Rolling Stone that she had previously asked Axl Rose a couple of times to sing together, but it wasn’t the right time for the two. According to Underwood, she sent Rose an email for the Stagecoach festival and explained what performing with him meant to her. Afterward, they had rehearsals, and the singer had a chance to perform with her rock hero.

Speaking to Rolling Stone, Carrie Underwood said the following about joining Axl Rose on the same stage:

“It was many years in the making. I’ve been covering Guns N’ Roses my whole life, pretty much, and definitely onstage for the past 15 years. I had asked before if he would ever come to sing or if I could come to him somewhere. We had a couple of ‘almost maybe’s, where it almost maybe would have happened, but for various reasons, it wasn’t the right time. But for Stagecoach, I asked.

I sent him an email and said, ‘We’re so close to you,’ and explained why and what he meant to me. I learned how to sing by picking really hard vocalists to try to emulate, and his voice always mesmerized me. I was like, ‘How is he doing the things that he’s doing?’ So I told him all that. And he came! We had rehearsals, and everything went very smoothly. It was easy for all of us to be around each other. Hopefully, he had a good time.”

Below, you can watch Carrie Underwood and Axl Rose playing together at the Stagecoach festival and their ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’ performance in London.