Brian McCollum

Detroit Free Press Pop Music Critic

Guns N' Roses has been "rehearsing every song they know" ahead of Thursday's tour kickoff in Detroit, the band's production manager said this afternoon.

The group is expected to perform for more than 2½ hours once it hits the Ford Field stage, said Dale (Opie) Skjerseth, who's overseeing the nuts and bolts of GNR's Not in This Lifetime Tour. The outing reunites Axl Rose, Slash and Duff McKagan for their first nationwide run together in more than two decades.

"It'll be their first night," Skjerseth said. "They'll be fresh and want to try everything."

Skjerseth showed off the band's massive stage inside Ford Field today as crews scurried around the stadium and sound-checked guitars and drums. GNR's tour is sharing the crew behind AC/DC's ongoing Rock or Bust Tour, said Skjerseth, who also serves as the latter band's production manager. (He was instrumental in linking up Rose with AC/DC to replace ailing singer Brian Johnson.)

The Not in This Lifetime Tour is a reliably big GNR effort involving 125 crew members, 36 trucks and 15 tour buses. The Ford Field setup started last week — as soon as Beyoncé's show was packed up and gone — and band members have been rolling in since the weekend.

Axl, Slash and company rehearsed for 3½ hours at Ford Field on Tuesday night, and will be back for another round of fine-tuning this evening.

If you're headed to the show: Alice in Chains is scheduled to hit the stage at 8:30 p.m., with Guns N' Roses set to begin in the 9:45 p.m.-10 p.m. range. Ford Field doors will open at 7:30 p.m.