One In a Million, from the band’s 1988 G N’ R Lies EP, has been cut from a reissue of the album Appetite for Destruction thanks to lyrics such as: ‘Immigrants and faggots, they make no sense to me’ 
 
 Guns N’ Roses have removed the song One in a Million from a forthcoming reissue of their album Appetite for Destruction. The 1980s rock titans have not commented on the decision, but it seems to have been prompted by the song’s lyrics, which feature racist and homophobic language. 
 
 The track was included on their 1988 EP G N’ R Lies, which was released in the wake of their No 1 debut, Appetite for Destruction, and reached No 2 in the US charts, selling more than 5m copies. It features the lyrics: “Police and niggers, that’s right / Get outta my way / Don’t need to buy none of your gold chains today.” Other lyrics include: 
 
 Immigrants and faggots They make no sense to me They come to our country And think they’ll do as they please Like start some mini-Iran Or spread some fucking disease And they talk so many goddamn ways It’s all Greek to me 
 
 The song was condemned on its release, and guitarist Slash later said: “I don’t regret doing One in a Million, I just regret what we’ve been through because of it and the way people have perceived our personal feelings.” The Guardian has requested a comment from the band via their UK representatives. 
 
 Explaining the lyrics in 1988, singer Axl Rose said they were inspired in part by African American con artists in Los Angeles, and added: “Why can black people go up to each other and say, ‘nigger’, but when a white guy does it all of a sudden it’s a big putdown? I don’t like boundaries of any kind. I don’t like being told what I can and what I can’t say. I used the word ‘nigger’ because it’s a word to describe somebody that is basically a pain in your life, a problem. The word ‘nigger’ doesn’t necessarily mean black.” In 1992, he added: “I was pissed off about some black people that were trying to rob me. I wanted to insult those particular black people.” 
 
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 Regarding the immigrants line, he explained: “A lot of people from countries like Iran, Pakistan, China, Japan, et cetera, get jobs in these convenience stores and gas stations. Then they treat you like you don’t belong here.” He claimed the “faggot” line came from “very bad experiences with homosexuals” including an attempted rape: “I’m not against them doing what they want to do as long as it’s not hurting anybody else and they’re not forcing it upon me.” 
 
 Elton John, who once performed with Axl Rose live, said in 2017: “Never in a million years did I think [Axl Rose] was homophobic … I’ll fight for anyone who is misunderstood and misrepresented by the idiots out there.” 
 
 The band are releasing a number of different formats for the Appetite for Destruction reissue, which features the original album alongside G N’ R Lies and other extra tracks, including a wooden box set version costing £849. ||||| One guitar has been destroyed, a mirrored wall shattered, several platinum albums broken beyond repair and the telephone dropped off a twelfth-story balcony. Apparently, W. Axl Rose had to get something out of his system. 
 
 Just two weeks ago, everything in Rose's posh condo in West Hollywood, California, was in order. The mirror was intact, reflecting a space in which almost everything – including the refrigerator – is black. The platinum albums, along with dozens of plaques and awards, hung neatly on the wall. 
 
 So what happened? On the surface, one would think that the twenty-seven-year-old singer for the hard-rock phenomenon Guns n' Roses has it made. After all, there's a new BMW, a new condo, a parcel of land in Wisconsin on which he plans to build his dream house and, of course, the adoration of millions. One would think that life for Rose is pure rock & roll bliss. But one would be wrong. 
 
 Rose doesn't want to discuss exactly what set him off and made him destroy his belongings. But it becomes clear as he talks that a lot of it has to do with suddenly being famous. "When I was growing up, I was never really popular," he says. "Now everybody wants to be my friend. I like my privacy, to live alone in my own little world. I live in a security building, and all my calls are screened. I don't even know my own phone number." Tucked tightly behind a couch is an Uzi semiautomatic machine gun; nearby is a 9-mm pistol. "I'm not paranoid," he says, explaining his fondness for weapons. "This is how I choose to live. This is comfortable." 
 
 He wasn't always quite so comfortable. The eldest of three children raised in Lafayette, Indiana, Rose hitchhiked to Los Angeles, hoping to hook up with guitarist Izzy Stradlin, a longtime friend, and form a band. The two struggled on the L.A. club circuit for years. Eventually, the duo met guitarist Slash and drummer Steven Adler. Later, Duff McKagan responded to a classified ad for a bassist, and Guns n' Roses were born. 
 
 The band's early gigs were tough going. Only two people showed up for the group's first "official" L.A. performance. Over the following months, a series of frenzied, violent shows landed the Gunners on the shit list of everyone, including club owners, rival bands and the press – everyone but the fans, who grew in number with each passing gig. After playing together for about a year and building a strong following, Guns n' Roses were signed to Geffen Records in March 1986 by A&R man Tom Zutaut. 
 
 The band's debut, Appetite for Destruction, and its quickly released follow-up record, the extended EP G n' R Lies, have put Guns n' Roses at the top of the hard-rock heap. The records have sold upward of 12 million copies combined, as well as simultaneously charting in Billboard's Top Five – a feat no one else has accomplished in the last decade. 
 
 Sitting on a black Persian rug, chain-smoking Marlboros and sipping Corona beers, the singer welcomes any and all questions about the band. His onstage roar is replaced by a soft-spoken tone, but nonetheless he can be brutal in his honesty. 
 
 A few years ago you were a poor kid in a struggling rock band, and today you're in one of the most popular groups in the world. How have you adjusted to your success? 
 
 Trying to handle success is a pain in the ass. It's really strange and takes some getting used to. I've never had my place to live before, never had to deal with the amount of money we've made and not get ripped off, never understood doing your taxes and all these things. I was hating it a few months ago, trying to get organized and trying to get a place to live and to get a grip on everything. But now things are coming together. I've wanted to be here my whole life. 
 
 Did you ever in your wildest dreams think your first album, Appetite for Destruction, would do as well as it did? 
 
 Thought about it a lot. 
 
 Besides dreaming about it, did you ever believe it had a real chance to sell 9 million copies? 
 
 No, but it was like this: I thought about trying to sell more records than Boston's first album. I always thought that and never let up. Everything was directed at trying to achieve the sales without sacrificing the credibility of our music. We worked real hard to sell this many records. The album wasn't just a fluke. Maybe Appetite will be the only good album we make, but it wasn't just a fluke. 
 
 Does the business end of rock & roll ever interfere with your creative attitude? 
 
 Not for us. This is music, this is art. It's definitely a good business, but that should be second to the art, not first. I was figuring it out, and I'm like the president of a company that's worth between $125 million and a quarter billion dollars. If you add up record sales based on the low figure and a certain price for T-shirts and royalties and publishing, you come up with at least $125 million, which I get less than two percent of. 
 
 I like being successful. I was always starving. On the other side. When it came to people with money, it was always "The rich? Fuck them!" But I left one group and joined another. I escaped from one group where I was looked down on for being a poor kid that doesn't know shit, and now I'm, like, a rich, successful asshole. I don't like that. I'm still just me and, with a lot of people's help, the group was able to become a huge financial success. None of us were the popular kids in school – we were all outcasts who got together and pooled our talents. 
 
 Is there any one lesson you've learned that you wish you knew a few years ago? 
 
 What I'd tell any kid in high school is "Take business classes." I don't care what else you're gonna do, if you're gonna do art or anything, take business classes. You can say, "Well, I don't want to get commercial," but if you do anything to make any money, you're doing something commercial. You can be flipping hamburgers at McDonald's, but you're a commercial burger flipper. 
 
 Now the band is getting ready to work on the followup to Appetite and the G n' R Lies EP. What's your frame of mind? 
 
 As my friend Dave puts it, I'm jacking off. [Laughs] We're trying to regroup. I'm ready to work. I'm creating, and finally I have an environment in which I can work. I haven't had that for a long time, since three years ago, when we all used to live in one room, sitting around writing songs. Until recently, I haven't had peace of mind. There were always distractions, but now it's like we can finally work on our songs. 
 
 Do you feel heavy pressure to sell as many copies with your next album as Appetite? 
 
 We have two records out, both of them in the Top Ten, and everybody wants another record immediately. They all say, "Let's milk this sucker." It'd be nice to outsell that album. A lot of groups are trying to outsell it. For a debut, it was the highest-selling album in the history of rock & roll. Definitely in America, but I'm not sure that's true worldwide. I read where Bon Jovi was saying nobody's outdone their biggie, Slippery When Wet. He knew it was their biggie, and he didn't know if New Jersey would be as big. Of course, you're gonna want to outdo it. What I want to do is just grow as an artist and feel proud of these new songs. 
 
 Although you're only in the preproduction stages of the next album, how do you feel it will compare with the others? 
 
 The next record will definitely be much more emotional. I try to write so the audience can understand what emotions I was feeling. Also, I think the songs are worded in a way that a great number of people will be able to relate to the experiences; it's not so personalized that it's only my weird, twisted points of view. We hope to make a very long record. It'd be nice to make one that's seventy-six minutes long, a seventy-six-minute CD, with varied styles. 
 
 The most important songs at this point are the ones with piano, the ballads, because we haven't really explored that side of the band yet. They're also the most difficult songs to do – not difficult to play, but to write and pull out of ourselves. The beautiful music is what really makes me feel like an artist. The other, heavier stuff also makes me feel like an artist and can be difficult to write. But it's harder to write about serious emotions, describing them as best as possible rather than trying to write a syrupy ballad just to sell records. 
 
 Any specific titles for the next album you can talk about? 
 
 Well, there's a song called "November Rain" and another one called "Breakdown." There's also a song tentatively titled "Without You." Last night, I wrote a whole new intro to that. It just appeared out of nowhere, like the verses – just little pieces that have come whole. 
 
 How do you write complete songs from separate bits and pieces? 
 
 They'll just show up. I keep them on file in my brain and then add them together. Like, I'll be brushing my teeth and all of a sudden a prechorus will come, and I won't know why. Then a bridge came about a year ago. Six months ago another part came. Last night a whole intro came. When I was writing it, I wasn't planning on putting it with this song, but all of a sudden it just flowed. 
 
 The G n' R Lies EP surprised a lot of people because of its emphasis on acoustic material. Aren't you afraid that some people may be turned off by the band straying from the sound that got them to the top? 
 
 We're not getting away from hard rock, but we don't want to be limited or contained in any group. Our basic root is hard rock, a bit heavier than the Stones, more in a vein like Aerosmith, Draw the Line-type stuff. We love loud guitars. George Michael was telling me he really loved our melodies and wondered why we covered so much of it up with the loud guitars, and I said because we love that. I told him he should put some more loud guitars in his music. He has such beautiful melodies, and it'd be nice to hear some loud guitars in there. At the same time, I have my favorite symphony pieces, orchestra pieces if you will. 
 
 I've always looked at things in a versatile sense because of Queen, ELO, Elton John, especially early Elton John, and groups like that. With Queen, I have my favorite: Queen II. Whenever their newest record would come out and have all these other kinds of music on it, at first I'd only like this song or that song. But after a period of time listening to it, it would open my mind up to so many different styles. I really appreciate them for that. That's something I've always wanted to be able to achieve. It's important to show people all forms of music, basically try to give people a broader point of view. 
 
 Speaking of versatility, you're known primarily as a singer, but you've been playing piano quite a bit lately. 
 
 I've played piano my whole life. I took lessons, but I only really played my lesson on the day of the lesson. All week long, I'd sit down at the piano and just make up stuff. To this day, I still can't really play other people's songs, only my own. I haven't had a piano for years. I couldn't afford one. I couldn't figure out where I was sleeping at night, let alone try to have a place for a piano. So I had to put it aside and have the dream that I'd get to it. Now I really want to bring the piano out. 
 
 So far the song that's inspired the most controversy in the band's short career has been "One in a Million." How did you come to write that song? 
 
 "One in a Million" was written while sitting in the apartment of my friend West Arkeen, who's like the sixth member of the band. I wrote it at his house, sitting around bored, watching TV. I can't really play guitar too well, I only play the top two strings, and I would write a little piece at a time. I started writing about wanting to get out of L.A., getting away for a little while. I'd been down to the downtown-L.A. Greyhound bus station. If you haven't been there, you can't say shit to me about what goes on and about my point of view. There are a large number of black men selling stolen jewelry, crack, heroin and pot, and most of the drugs are bogus. Rip-off artists selling parking spaces to parking lots that there's no charge for. Trying to misguide every kid that gets off the bus and doesn't quite know where he's at or where to go, trying to take the person for whatever they've got. That's how I hit town. The thing with "One in a Million" is, basically, we're all one in a million, we're all here on this earth. We're one fish in a sea. Let's quit fucking with each other, fucking with me. 
 
 The lyrics have incited a lot of protest, so let's go over them line by line. Let's start with one of the verses, "Police and niggers, that's right/Get outta my way/Don't need to buy none/ Of your gold chains today." 
 
 I used words like police and niggers because you're not allowed to use the word nigger. Why can black people go up to each other and say, "Nigger," but when a white guy does it all of a sudden it's a big putdown? I don't like boundaries of any kind. I don't like being told what I can and what I can't say. I used the word nigger because it's a word to describe somebody that is basically a pain in your life, a problem. The word nigger doesn't necessarily mean black. Doesn't John Lennon have a song "Woman Is the Nigger of the World"? There's a rap group, N.W.A., Niggers With Attitude. I mean, they're proud of that word. More power to them. Guns n' Roses ain't bad . . . N.W.A. is baaad! Mr. Bob Goldthwait said the only reason we put these lyrics on the record was because it would cause controversy and we'd sell a million albums. Fuck him! Why'd he put us in his skit? We don't just do something to get the controversy, the press. 
 
 How about the next verse? "Immigrants and faggots/They make no sense to me/They come to our country/And think they'll do as they please/Like start some mini-Iran or spread some fuckin' disease." Why that reference to immigrants? 
 
 When I use the word immigrants, what I'm talking about is going to a 7-11 or Village Pantries – a lot of people from countries like Iran, Pakistan, China, Japan, et cetera, get jobs in these convenience stores and gas stations. Then they treat you like you don't belong here. I've been chased out of a store with Slash by a six-foot-tall Iranian with a butcher knife because he didn't like the way we were dressed. Scared me to death. All I could see in my mind was a picture of my arm on the ground, blood going everywhere. When I get scared, I get mad. I grabbed the top of one of these big orange garbage cans and went back at him with this shield, going, "Come on!" I didn't want to back down from this guy. 
 
 Anyway, that's why I wrote about immigrants. Maybe I should have been more specific and said, "Joe Schmoladoo at the 7-11 and faggots make no sense to me." That's ridiculous! I summed it up simply and said, "Immigrants." 
 
 How about the use of the word "faggots"? 
 
 I've had some very bad experiences with homosexuals. When I was first coming to Los Angeles, I was about eighteen or nineteen. On my first hitchhiking ride, this guy told me I could crash at his hotel. I went to sleep and woke up while this guy was trying to rape me. I threw him on the floor. He came at me again. I went running for the door. He came at me. I pinned him between the door and the wall. I had a straight razor, and I pulled the razor and said, "Don't ever touch me! Don't ever think about touching me! Don't touch yourself and think about me! Nothing!" Then I grabbed my stuff and split with no place to go, no sleep, in the middle of nowhere outside of St. Louis. That's why I have the attitude I have. 
 
 Are you antihomosexual then? 
 
 I'm proheterosexual. I can't get enough of women, and I don't see the same thing that other men can see in men. I'm not into gay or bisexual experiences. But that's hypocritical of me, because I'd rather see two women together than just about anything else. That happens to be my personal, favorite thing. 
 
 How about gay-bashing? Have you ever beaten up somebody simply because of their sexual preference? 
 
 ]No! I never have. The most I do is, like, on the way to the Troubador in "Boystown," on Santa Monica Boulevard, I'll yell out the car window, "Why don't you guys like pussy?" 'Cause I'm confused. I don't understand it. Antihomosexual? I'm not against them doing what they want to do as long as it's not hurting anybody else and they're not forcing it upon me. I don't need them in my face or, pardon the pun, up my ass about it. 
 
 The "One in a Million" lyrics about "faggots" who "spread some fuckin' disease" got G n' R bounced from an AIDS benefit in New York by the Gay Men's Health Crisis, one of the groups that was involved with putting on the show. How did you feel about that? 
 
 We're in no way associated with the Gay Men's Health Crisis, except that David Geffen is on the board of directors for the concert and he's the owner of our record company. We were asked to do this, and we wanted to contribute some money to help stop a deadly disease that's killing humans of all kinds. A friend of mine who's homosexual and was largely responsible for the record companies taking notice of us was upset about it because we didn't even get a chance to clear ourselves, to make good. 
 
 AIDS is something very scary. The concert was something we wanted to do and felt it was important to do, but we were denied the opportunity. We were even denied the opportunity to say anything about it. It was just publicly announced that we weren't allowed to do it because the Gay Men's Health Crisis wouldn't let us. I don't feel they have the right to deny the money and attention they would have gotten from us playing. It's pride, it's ignorant, and it's childish. 
 
 Women seem to be one of the more popular subjects with Guns n' Roses. Are you a romantic kind of guy? 
 
 I'm a person that has a lot of different relationships. It's really hard to maintain a one-on-one relationship if the other person is not going to allow me to be with other people. I have a real open, hedonistic, sexual attitude. Just 'cause you're not totally in love with a person doesn't mean you don't like them. You can think they're attractive, and you want to touch them, have a great time with them. Maybe at that moment you are in love. I think love and lust go hand in hand, like good and evil. One without the other is not complete. But I don't tell someone I'm in love with them if I'm not. I never have. 
 
 You'd describe yourself as promiscuous then? 
 
 I have sex as often as possible. 
 
 Don't you ever think about contracting AIDS? 
 
 Yeah, but I also live in a city that's supposed to get the big quake any day. You can get killed on the freeway in a drive-by shooting, the food's irradiated, there's a million ways to go out. A lot of times, sexual situations are very spontaneous, but I try not to be overly careless. 
 
 So you practice safe sex? 
 
 Practicing safe sex . . . I like the word practice. It means keep doing it, keep repeating the process, get it right. Practice makes perfect. I don't know if it'll get perfect, but you can get a lot better. Just keep practicing. 
 
 What about drugs? Everyone and their mother seems to have a G n' R story involving junkie debauchery . . . 
 
 I'm not, and have never been, a junkie. The last interview in RIP Magazine got taken out of context about me talking openly about my drug use. That was over two years ago and was only for a few weeks when there was nothing to do. I was also very safe about it. That doesn't mean that at some point I won't get really sick of life and choose to OD. Then people will go, "He was always a junkie." That's not the case, but you can believe what you want, I don't give a fuck. No one's really gonna believe anything I say anyway as far as what I do or don't do with drugs, 'cause it's such a taboo subject. 
 
 Lately I've been drinking champagne for fun, a few beers, you know. Right now drugs get in the way of my dreams and goals. I really don't want drugs around me now. I'm not necessarily against the use of drugs, they just don't fit in my life right now. Then again, I could be out on tour for six months and a blast might be what cheers me up that night. 
 
 Do you think these excesses might hurt other members of the group? 
 
 I don't want to see drugs tear up this band. I'm against when it goes too far. Right now, for me, a line of coke is too far. A line of coke puts my voice out of commission for a week. I don't know why. Maybe it's because I did lots of stuff before. Maybe it's guilt and it's relocated in my throat. All I know is it's not healthy for me right now. And if somebody goes, "Oh, man, he's not a partyer anymore," hey, fuck you! Do you want a record or not? 
 
 With all the misconceptions floating around about G n' R, the biggest misconceptions seem to come from magazine interviews you've granted. 
 
 There's been a lot of sensationalism. People out there don't know what's real or not. Things are always going to get changed or taken out of context, but some magazines will make up an interview just to sell issues. One's written that Slash said I run over dogs. I've never run over any dogs. I think it sucks when a kid has three bucks and he buys a candy bar, a soda and a magazine because he's really into Guns n' Roses, and he gets bad photos and an interview that's not true. It's not fair. Unfortunately, it probably will never change. 
 
 Some schools have banned G n' R T-shirts, and organizations like the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC) have objected to what they feel is the band's glorification of a degenerate lifestyle. When you sing to a younger audience, do you think you have any responsibility as their idol? 
 
 It's just a record . . . I don't know. You have to go through your own changes and growth. I'm not trying to influence anybody in a negative way. Also, I'm not raising your kid. You're the parent. The PMRC? Who are they? A TV show, like AM/PM? 
 
 If you had a young son, say Axl Rose II, how would you feel if he brought home an album with lyrics about "niggers" and "faggots"? 
 
 Right now I don't want to have a child, because I can't give it enough time. But I'd want him to talk about what he listened to with me, and have him show me new things, and me show him new things. He could play me the Screaming Banshees From Hell, and I could play him Jimi Hendrix or something. We could talk about the music. We'd talk about things together. I think it's a parent's job to raise their child. My father likes "Welcome to the Jungle." Ten years ago, if a song like that was caught in our house, man, it was over. But I can't hold how he once felt against him. 
 
 Let's go back to your childhood. Were you a bad student? 
 
 No. On the placement tests in school, I was always in the top three percent. I dropped out in the eleventh grade, went back as a senior, then dropped out again. 
 
 Why did you drop out? 
 
 'Cause I couldn't make school work for me. I was having to read books, sing songs, draw pictures of things that didn't stimulate or excite me. It just didn't do anything for me. So I dropped out and started drawing and painting at home and spending a lot of my time in the library. Basically I started putting myself through Axl's school of subjects that I wanted to learn about. 
 
 You grew up in Lafayette, Indiana. What influence do you think your small town had in shaping you? 
 
 It made me despise people with closed minds. It made me want to break out. 
 
 What about small-town values? 
 
 That's a load of shit. 
 
 Were you in trouble a lot? 
 
 Me and my friends were always in trouble. We got in trouble for fun. It finally reached a point where I realized I was gonna end up in jail, 'cause I kept fucking with the system. This guy and I got into a fight. We became friends afterwards, and he dropped charges against me, but the state kept on pressing charges. Those charges didn't work, so they tried other ones. I spent three months in jail and finally got out. But once you've pissed off a detective, it's a vengeance rap back there. 
 
 They tried everything. They busted me illegally in my own back yard for drinking. They tried to get me as a habitual criminal, which can mean a life in prison. My lawyer got the case thrown out of court. I left and came to California. They told me not to leave, but I left anyway. My lawyer took care of it. I just didn't go back for a long time. Now when I go back to see my family, I avoid the police there. I try to avoid all police in general. 
 
 What happens when you go back now as a celebrity instead of an outcast? 
 
 It gets a little bit out of hand. I can't really go anywhere. I just go to my friends' houses, but people I don't know show up wanting autographs. People I used to go to school with, people that used to hate my guts, want me to invest money in this and that. People say shit like "Axl thinks he's too cool to party with us." But those people never wanted to party with me before. The people who are offended by this comment are the ones who should be. 
 
 How do you explain your volatile nature? 
 
 When I get stressed, I get violent and take it out on myself. I've pulled razor blades on myself but then realized that having a scar is more detrimental than not having a stereo. I'd rather kick in my stereo than cut my arm. I'd rather kick my stereo in than go punch somebody in the face. When I get mad or upset or emotional, sometimes I'll walk over and play my piano. 
 
 Your own music has been diluted somewhat by radio stations that play different, shorter versions of G n'R songs. How do you feel when your music is cut to suit the airwaves? 
 
 Not that any of our songs compare, but if you hear a short version of "Layla," I think you're gonna be pissed off, especially if you're planning on hearing the big piano part at the end. I hate the edit of "Sweet Child o' Mine." Radio stations said, "Well, your vocals aren't cut." My favorite part of the song is Slash's slow solo; it's the heaviest part for me. There's no reason for it to be missing except to create more space for commercials, so the radio-station owners can get more advertising dollars. When you get the chopped version of "Paradise City" or half of "Sweet Child" and "Patience" cut, you're getting screwed. 
 
 What kind of music and bands do you enjoy? 
 
 That's always the hardest question. Lately I've been listening to Derek and the Dominos, the Bar-Kays. I really like the first Patti Smith. I'm just starting to discover the Cure. I keep trying to find things to open myself up to. I enjoy Sound Garden. The singer just buries me. The guy sings so great. On the club circuit, I like Saigon Saloon a lot. 
 
 Today, my favorite record is Todd Rundgren's Something/Anything. I just got turned on to it. I've still got my favorites and things, like the Pistols, ELO and Queen. The two records I always buy if there's a cassette deck around and I don't have the tapes in my bag are Never Mind the Bullocks and Queen II. I think I'd be in a bind to figure out which one I'd want if I was stranded on a desert island. I might go with the Pistols, because maybe a boat would hear me if I played it. 
 
 You're also a Rolling Stones fan. There were some rumors floating around about G n' R possibly opening for them on their upcoming tour. What happened? 
 
 No formal offer has been made. I'd love to open for the Stones, but at the same time I really want to do my own record. We'll probably go back on the road sometime next year. I don't know exactly when. 
 
 Do you consider yourself the leader of the band? 
 
 That's a good question. I'm gonna do what I want to do. That may be selfish, but it's the best way for the most to come out of me. When we write a song, nobody in this band plays anything they don't really want to. When we write a song, the bass player plays his line and it ends up being what he wants to do on bass. It ends up working that way and fitting, so we end up with a set of songs that everybody likes. I couldn't say I'm the leader, like "We're gonna do what I say." It doesn't work that way. 
 
 Earlier you touched on the rock-star image and people falling into the music just because it adheres to a certain attitude and look. What about Axl Rose's longhaired, tattooed, piercednipple image? 
 
 What about it? 
 
 Is it just an image? 
 
 It's part of me. When I put on my clothes or do a photo session, I want to look the best I can. If you're going on a date, you want to look good for that person or for yourself. I've got enough money now to buy a suit I like and wear it the way I want. I don't wear suits every damn day now. Maybe I'm gonna shave and wear makeup and do my hair fuckin' way up. We're definitely image-conscious. I think if Izzy came wearing a clown suit to a photo session, we'd want to know how he could validate his presence in a clown suit. [Laughs] But if he could back it up and convince us there was a reason, then it would be cool. Otherwise, it wouldn't be. Steven has his own way of dressing, in the latest commercial-rock fashions. Steven enjoys the hell out of the clothes he wears, whereas Slash and I wouldn't be caught dead in them; then again, there's things Slash and I wear that Steven wouldn't be caught dead in either. It's just different personalities. 
 
 If we're going to do a show, I wear a headband because my hair gets in my face. When we do a photo session, a lot of the time I'll wear a headband because that's how I am onstage. If I feel real dominant and decadent, I'm gonna be wearing my jackboots and stuff like that. I try to express myself through my clothes. It's another form of the art I'm not afraid of what people think about different ways I look. I'm gonna do what I want to. 
 
 Do you get hassled much when you go out locally in L.A.? 
 
 I really only go to clubs where I know the people who work there, so I can have some privacy and hang out. It's hard when you go to a club with 600 people and you end up having to talk to 400 people. You have no time of your own to have fun. Maybe if I haven't gone out for a week, I'll go to the Cathouse, because I know some friends are gonna be there. I just want to be around my friends, even if we don't talk about anything. I just need it. 
 
 You have all these people asking you for an autograph, and it gets kind of embarrassing. I don't want to be a prick to people and go, "Get away from me." But I don't enjoy going someplace and just signing autographs all the time. It comes with the fame, but sometimes it gets out of hand and people can be very rude and obnoxious about it. I've had people break into my hotel room with cameras, waking me up and taking photos. People find out where I live and show up at my building. I've never asked anyone for an autograph. 
 
 Having to deal with autographs doesn't seem like it's the worst thing in the world. At this point in your life, what's your biggest regret? 
 
 That I didn't talk to Todd Crew before he went to New York. [Crew, the bassist in the band Jetboy, was a close friend of the band's who died due to an alcohol-related overdose.] I felt a massive need to talk to him out of concern for his well-being. But I wasn't aware enough to realize I didn't have the time I thought I did. I thought I'd have time later . . . 
 
 You seem to have an exceptionally strong bond with your friends. Do you think your values have changed any since you've become a rich rock star? 
 
 I saw a guy last night, a homeless guy on the beach. I hate panhandlers 'cause I've never done that. I just couldn't, it would have felt too weird. I walked past the man and realized I had some money in my pocket. It's not that I give everybody I see money. I don't at all. But I handed him twenty bucks and he was like "Thanks, man, I appreciate it." He can have breakfast tomorrow. 
 
 I could have just walked away, but I could tell in my heart that the guy could really use that money. He wasn't trying to scam. He looked like he was gonna get up tomorrow and look for a job or something to survive. I felt good about that, and I'm wondering if he's all right now. I don't know. The next day I was hoping he didn't go buy crack with it. ||||| Guns N' Roses recently announced a huge new box set reissue of their 1987 album Appetite for Destruction, featuring dozens of bonus tracks. Among the extra tracks are all of the songs from Guns N' Roses' 1988 EP G N’ R Lies... except for one. As Stereogum points out (via Alternative Nation), the song “One in a Million,” in which Axl Rose sings racist and anti-gay slurs, and expresses anti-immigrant sentiments, has been omitted. 
 
 “One in a Million” was extremely controversial and condemned by many upon its release. In a 1989 interview with Rolling Stone, frontman Axl Rose (who wrote the song) defended his lyrics. “Why can black people go up to each other and say, 'nigger," but when a white guy does it all of a sudden it's a big putdown?,” he said. “I don't like boundaries of any kind. I don't like being told what I can and what I can't say. I used the word 'nigger' because it's a word to describe somebody that is basically a pain in your life, a problem. The word 'nigger' doesn't necessarily mean black.” 
 
 At one point in the song, Axl sings, “Immigrants and faggots/They make no sense to me/They come to our country/And think they'll do as they please.” When asked why he singled out immigrants and homosexuals, he recounted “bad experiences” with both groups. “Maybe I should have been more specific and said, ‘Joe Schmoladoo at the 7-11 and faggots make no sense to me,’” he said. “That's ridiculous! I summed it up simply and said, ‘Immigrants.’” 
 
 The original cover artwork for G N’ R Lies included a preemptive apology regarding “One in a Million” that read, “This song is very simple and extremely generic or generalized, my apologies to those who may take offense.” Pitchfork has reached out to reps for Guns N’ Roses for further information about the box set release. ||||| Double Jack Daniel's and Coke, easy on the ice, with finger sandwiches. Five-fifteen Saturday afternoon at Le Chardonnay, the Los Angeles restaurant modeled on a Parisian art nouveau bistro, and there sits Slash, lead guitarist for Guns n' Roses, calmly talking in an ornate side room. 
 
 Related Watch Guns N' Roses Celebrate 'Appetite' at Intimate NYC Show Hard rock band's invite-only Apollo Theater concert marked advent of their own SiriusXM channel 
 
 "Try these, they're good," he says as a waiter brings over a plate of pastries. He nibbles the little tarts and slowly nurses his drink while speaking quite lucidly and soberly, in contrast to his infamous reputation as a Dionysian waste case. But Slash, who recently turned twenty-five, remains an outsider in this upper-crust environment. Despite his new found millions and sterling position in L.A.'s rock hierarchy, he still can't get a last-minute dinner reservation at this ritzy restaurant after the interview session is over. No big deal. He and his steady girlfriend eat somewhere else that night, then stop by a decadent sex shop called the Pleasure Chest to pick up some Christmas presents, including a straitjacket for the band's singer, Axl Rose. 
 
 The last few months of 1990 have been hectic for Slash. In addition to putting finishing touches on Guns n' Roses' second album, he has been rehearsing with the band for an appearance at the Rock in Rio II concert this month in Brazil. In fact, Slash has been working almost nonstop for the past year. The group did a gig at Farm Aid III, contributed material to the Days of Thunder soundtrack and the Nobody's Child charity project and recorded more than thirty Guns songs for the new album. In addition, Slash has played sessions with Iggy Pop, Bob Dylan, Michael Jackson and Lenny Kravitz, among others. This year should be even more intense: Once Guns n' Roses' album is finally released, the band plans to embark on a monstrous worldwide tour, the group's first trek since 1988 and — amazingly — the first time the Gunners have played arenas as headliners. 
 
 It's been a long time coming. Slash, whose real name is Saul Hudson, has been a resident of Los Angeles since his parents moved to America from England in the early Seventies. Slash's mom, a professional costume designer named Ola Hudson, tailored outfits for such acts as John Lennon, Diana Ross and the Pointer Sisters, while his artist father, Anthony Hudson, created album covers for clients that included Neil Young and Joni Mitchell. Raised in the neo-hippie environs of Laurel Canyon — which he still calls home — young Saul's own creative instincts were nurtured early on. He was an enthusiastic artist and even contributed a series of animal illustrations to The Bestiary, an unpublished book of verse written by Joni Mitchell, who was a neighbor. 
 
 "He was drawing from the time he could pick up a pencil," says Ola Hudson, who adds that he was weaned on her Led Zeppelin albums and raised in a very loving household. "I've been shocked at a lot of things I've read where it sounds like I left him on somebody's doorstep in a basket. They make it seem as if he never had a family and grew up on the streets like an urchin, but that's not true. It's just part of his image. He's not all leather and tattoos." 
 
 When his folks split up in the mid-Seventies, Slash had to get used to an unusual father figure — David Bowie. "My mom dated Bowie right after my parents broke up," he says. "I hung out with him and his wife and their son, Zowie, when I was real young. I really didn't like him that much, because he was the new guy in the house. I was really resentful." These days, Slash has reconciled with Bowie and often spends time with him when their schedules permit. 
 
 If home life as a teenager seemed tilted, school was even worse. Shy and alienated, Slash preferred drawing pictures of dinosaurs or racing BMX bicycles to doing his homework. "I had long hair, and the schools I went to were filled with kids of bankers and real-estate agents," he says. "It wasn't like any of them came from the same background I had." 
 
 Repeatedly kicked out of school, Slash was a loner who never had many friends until he picked up the guitar. "The kids around me changed, and suddenly I got more popular because I was a guitar player," he says. He first became intrigued with the instrument after some coaxing from Steven Adler, a fellow BMX racer who later served as Guns n' Roses' drummer. 
 
 Before Guns n' Roses, Slash gigged with several bar bands and served a short stint in an all-black funk ensemble. Then he hooked up with Adler and Indiana exiles W. Axl Rose and Izzy Stradlin in a succession of rock outfits until 1985, when the four teamed up with bassist Duff McKagan and formed Guns n' Roses. 
 
 After the enormous success of Guns n' Roses' debut album, Appetite for Destruction, and the follow-up EP, G n' R Lies, the group found itself facing serious trouble. For starters, the band was ostracized because of the lyrics in the G n' R Lies song "One in a Million," which included references to "faggots" and "niggers." The charges of racism particularly affected Slash, whose father is white and mother is black. "When Axl first came up with the song and really wanted to do it, I said I didn't think it was very cool," says Slash. "But Axl gets very adamant about expressing himself, and his lyrics are very direct. He's very honest, and he's got his reasons.... I don't regret doing 'One in a Million,' I just regret what we've been through because of it and the way people have perceived our personal feelings." 
 
 Besides the furor over "One in a Million," a number of other crises threatened the band. Several members, including Slash, developed drug problems. The group began to slowly splinter, and it became difficult to organize sessions for a new album. An attempt to hold a series of rehearsals in Chicago failed miserably; a later effort to reunite to perform dates with the Rolling Stones led to Axl's threatening to quit; and Adler was dismissed last summer when he couldn't straighten himself out. 
 
 Eventually the band carried on. The Cult drummer Matt Sorum was recruited to replace Adler, and together with Slash, McKagan, Stradlin and keyboardist Dizzy Reed, the group laid down instrumental tracks for its new album last fall; all that remained at press time were the completion of Axl's vocals and the mixing chores. Following some of the interview sessions, Slash proudly played rough but nonetheless impressive mixes of the band's new material — a Stonesy song featuring Stradlin called "Dust and Bones," a short catchy number titled "Double Talkin' Jive," a punkish tune dubbed "Shotgun Blues," a song about an Axl overdose entitled "Coma" and a duet between Axl and Alice Cooper on "The Garden." Additional songs recorded for the album include "Estranged," "Bad Apples," "Back Off Bitch," "14 Years," "Loco-Motive," "Perfect Crime," "Don't Damn Me," "Ain't Goin' Down," "You Ain't the First," "So Fine," "Don't Cry" and "Why Do You Look at Me?" 
 
 The interview with Slash took course over several different sessions, some held early in 1990 and the most recent ones conducted last month at Le Chardonnay and at his home, which is nestled in Laurel Canyon. Throughout every meeting, the guitarist was jovial, unassuming and — above all — focused. Although he didn't mind opening up about his personal life or his feelings about the other band members, he was clearly obsessed with finishing the new album. Still, he was reluctant to lay on a load of hype. "All you have to do is listen to it," he says of the album. "If you like it, you like it, and if you don't, we did it and that's it." 
 
 Slash: First of all, I refuse to talk about drugs, Axl or any other bands. Period. [He smiles.] 
 
 Well, okay, then let's talk about the new album. Why is it called Use Your Illusion? 
 
 It's the title of a painting by some controversial artist. I don't know who. I've never heard of him. I don't keep up with art circles. But that's the name of this painting that Axl bought, and he said, "Let's make this the cover of the album." Like the last album cover, we just said, "Fine," no discussion. 
 
 How much material have you recorded so far? 
 
 Thirty-five songs. Thirty-five of the most self-indulgent Guns n' Roses songs...It's a lot of material to work with — like four albums' worth. For most bands, it would take four to six years to come up with this much stuff. 
 
 There have been a lot of rumors about whether it will be a single album, a double album, even a boxed set. What's actually happening at this point? 
 
 Well, this is like cleaning out the closet. There's a ton of material we want to get out, and the problem is, how does one release all of it? You don't make some kid go out and buy a record for seventy dollars if it's your second record. We're trying to think of a way to distribute the material where each of the four discs of material can be separated, so you can buy the whole thing or you can buy just one. But since it's not released yet, nothing is etched in stone. It might change, and I don't want to mislead anybody. I know the thing that it's not going to be is one big boxed set, where you have to buy the entire thing or nothing. I can tell you that much. 
 
 There's been speculation that one album might be released in March or April, then a double album later this year, followed by another single album in 1992. There have also been reports of an EP featuring cover versions of various punk songs. 
 
 An EP is probably the direction we're going to go as far as some of the covers are concerned. There are six covers: "Live and Let Die," by Wings, "Knockin' on Heaven's Door," by Dylan — that new version [on the soundtrack for Days of Thunder] that went nowhere — "Don't Care About You," by Fear, "Attitude," by the Misfits, "New Rose," by the Damned, and "Down on the Farm," by U.K. Subs. They're songs that we like – it's as basic as that. Each of us has an individual favorite, and at the same time we share some. "New Rose" is something Duff wanted to do, I think. "Don't Care About You" is something I wanted. The Misfits song was Axl's idea, and "Heaven's Door" and "Live and Let Die" were songs Axl and I both thought about doing. 
 
 In terms of the original material you've recorded, is there any specific theme or unifying message? 
 
 I'd have to say no. I will say it leans more to the darker side. There's not a ton of really happy material on it, you know? Most of it is pretty fucking pissed off. It's very pissed off, and it's very heavy, and then there's also a subtlety to it as far as us really trying to play. 
 
 How do the songs reflect the changes that the band has gone through over the past few years? 
 
 The way our lives turned around, the repercussions of our success and the general shit that we do from day to day gets brought up a lot. There are a lot of semi-humorous drug tunes and a few songs about love going in whichever direction. Regardless of whether it sounds like the blues or not, basically that's what it is. It's a strange thing. I never thought we were a naive band; I always thought we were pretty hip to what's going on. But when we used to just hang out on the street, it was more fun than when we had lots of money and became part of society and were forced to deal with responsibilities. I think money is like the central nerve of it all, too. It's like I think Jimi Hendrix said — "The more money you make, the more blues you can sing." 
 
 Appetite for Destruction, was pretty much a hard-rock album, while the G n' R Lies EP included several acoustic songs. Will there be any radical musical departures on the new album? 
 
 There'll be a lot of different instruments. I've got guitars doing all different kinds of sounds and things. There are horns on "Live and Let Die." We didn't get into sampling, but right now, as we speak, Axl is in the studio with a rack of synthesizers, so we don't have to bring in an orchestra for a couple of songs. There might even be a bunch of kids singing on "November Rain," because it's that kind of song. It's very angelic. We'll do whatever it takes to make the songs as powerful as possible. 
 
 A children's choir, horns, synthesizers — it sounds like the group is heading in a new direction. 
 
 It's not a change in direction; I don't think we ever had a real direction. But we have gotten a little bit more experimental, I guess. I hate that word — we've just been doing shit, whatever we felt like doing. This album goes from one extreme to the other, from some very, very intensely raunchy, over-the-top stuff to being very mellow — and everything in between. 
 
 Any thoughts for a single at this stage? 
 
 I don't think there are any singles on this record. 
 
 Why not? 
 
 I don't mean to rock the boat or anything, but I think there's a swearword of some sort on every song. Every potential single it's, like, whoops, oh, well, not that one. But there's some great songs, and I don't care if they say "fucking" in it or if they say "shit" or if they're talking about girls in the way we're not supposed to. 
 
 Will the album carry a warning sticker? 
 
 Axl doesn't agree with stickering. I don't care — I think the sticker is fine. It gives it a little sense of danger. 
 
 Are there plans for a tour? 
 
 We're slated for a two-year tour starting in April. We'll go to New Zealand, Australia and Japan, then to the United States, where we'll branch out to all those places we haven't done yet. We'll go to Europe and play Wembley [in London], I think, then go to Japan for one gig and then come back to the States. That's just off the top of my head. We'll do arenas here, and then we'll come back and do coliseums. 
 
 Will there be a sponsor? 
 
 I'm willing to do it if there are no dumb ads and no dumb commercials. I want to do Black Death Vodka. Axl turned me on to it. I want Black Death Vodka to call me, because I'll sponsor them. Just me personally. 
 
 What about the band? Your managers have supposedly been talking to cigarette and beer companies about sponsoring the tour. 
 
 I guess we're doing it, but I don't want to sell out. I don't want to be the next Janet Jackson, M.C. Hammer, fucking Eric Clapton or whoever else. We're doing a tour, and if they want to help pay for it, we'll use their name — we'll put banners up all over the gig, I don't give a shit. If there's free cigarettes and free beer and they help pay for the tour, I don't care. But I'm not wearing a Budweiser T-shirt. I don't care if we do our own photos and it says "Budweiser" or "Marlboro" on the bottom of the page, but I don't want to do anything where I'm holding up something with a big smile on my face. 
 
 Aren't you concerned about a backlash from the fans? 
 
 I don't think the fans will care. They all drink Budweiser and smoke Marlboros. I was worried about the parents and what they'd say about the cigarettes, but it's like some of the most influential personalities in baseball, football, basketball and race-car driving do ads. I mean, I advertise smoking constantly anyway; I can't help it. I don't see why cigarettes are any worse than beer. 
 
 Speaking of booze, let's go back to this time last year and the American Music Awards. You gained national headlines when you nonchalantly said "fuck" on live television. What exactly happened that night? 
 
 The fucking music awards...What happened was I got this phone call the day of the show asking if I wanted to go. We were nominated for two awards, and someone from the band needed to accept if we won. So me and Duff and our girlfriends all got drunk and flipped on down there after a stop at Carl Jrs. When we arrived, it was mass confusion, the whole paparazzi thing. I really didn't give a shit; I just wanted to hang out and have a good time. Anyway, we had third-row seats, and the show was real cheesy and boring. We were smoking and drinking wine, and all of a sudden we won this award. We weren't ready for it. I don't know what I said onstage, but it was short and sweet. I don't think there were too many "fucks" in it. Then we went backstage. I met Lenny Kravitz, which was cool, but Prince blew us off. He and his entourage just ignored us when we walked by. He didn't say anything, and he probably didn't know who we were. I don't think we're what he'd call good company, and I really didn't care. He looked like a fag that night anyway. Afterward, we went back to our seats, and when the second award came, it was totally unexpected. I got up to the microphone and started to thank the people who helped us out over the years. I said "fucking" again, and I knew it was live television, so I said, "Oops." But it just slipped out again and again and again. Once I started, that was it. It was just like using an adjective. 
 
 Why did you get so bombed if you knew you might have to appear on live TV? 
 
 I wasn't really drunk. All I had was wine. I had, like, two glasses of wine during the show, and I wasn't that fucked up. That's just me — really, you have to know how I am, especially when I'm in a crowd of people. All this attention is focused on you, and I get very shy. I don't know why, but I can't approach a public situation like that without loosening up. That night, I didn't wear my hat, I didn't have a guitar to hide behind, and I wasn't performing. You walk into one of these places, and you feel almost like you're being X-rayed. Besides, I sort of wanted us to be the fuckups there, because everybody else was so polite and stiff and unnatural. We were trying to have a good time, and I think out of all the people there, we were the only ones who weren't putting on a façade. 
 
 A few months before the AMAs, there was another fiasco when the band opened up for the Rolling Stones in Los Angeles and nearly broke up in the process. What led to those shows? 
 
 At that time I was at the tail end of a really, really serious heroin problem. I felt the band had to do the Stones gigs to bring us back together. We were all living in our separate houses, no one saw anybody, I was doing my thing, and only three of us were going to rehearsals on a regular basis. So I said, "Yeah, let's do the gig," even though our management was against it. I made an agreement with the band that after the Stones shows were over, I'd clean up. That was agreed upon and understood. 
 
 The night of the first Stones date, Axl went onstage and alluded that drugs were destroying the group. How did you feel when you heard that? 
 
 I was about to walk off. I was pissed. We finished the show, and it was one of those nights where everybody had their little part of the stage and just stayed there. The show sucked, it was lousy, and then Axl announced he was going to quit. 
 
 But he returned the next night, and things seemed to improve after you gave a little speech about dope. Were you pressured into making those remarks? 
 
 Axl said he wouldn't perform unless I agreed to go up and do what he called apologize, which I refused to do. I said what I said, and he came out, and it was very warm because what I said was totally honest. It wasn't an apology; it was sort of an explanation. No, not even that — I just opened up and said what I felt about heroin and what it does to people, who it's killed and how wrong it is. Because that's how I felt. But I was a junkie at the same time. 
 
 When did you first use heroin? 
 
 I started sometime during the very beginnings of the band. I got turned on to it, and that was the beginning of the end, I guess. The first time I did it, I smoked it, and then I snorted it once. But the first time I really got high, I shot. I was that kind of junkie — snorting it wasn't enough and smoking it wasn't enough. Anyway, it's one of those drugs where it's a great high and you love being on it, and it really fucks your life up. It's unfortunate that something as fucking menial as a little pile of powder can do that, but it does happen. 
 
 What do you think was the lowest you ever sank? 
 
 On heroin, the lowest was going to the Rainbow [an L.A. nightclub] to borrow money, so I could score — shit like that. But I wasn't only a heroin junkie, I was a coke junkie, too, and I used to trip out really hard. The lowest I went was a little fucking episode in Phoenix, where I flipped out on coke, destroyed a hotel room and was all bloody, running around the hotel naked and shit. Some people tried to press charges, and the cops and paramedics came, but fortunately I lied my way out of it. 
 
 Have you ever overdosed? 
 
 I've OD'd so many times. I've woken up in the hospital so many fucking times. I don't like to get into it, but I've been through some shit. I've been in jail over drugs. You'd think things like that would make you stop, but they don't. 
 
 What finally caused you to quit? 
 
 Because the one thing I care about the most in my life — the band — was blowing apart. That was the major incentive. Otherwise, I was perfectly comfortable just relaxing on a high, hanging out with my snakes and stuff. 
 
 It's been about a year or so since you've stopped shooting dope. Any temptations to use hard drugs again? 
 
 The closest I've had to anything like that is I've dreamed about it a couple of times. Nightmares. Some pretty bad ones. But that's about it. 
 
 Were you ever in a detox clinic? 
 
 They tried to put me into rehab, but I left in three days. I was real pissed off and came back home, got loaded, then went to Hawaii and cleaned up. I've been clean ever since. 
 
 What was withdrawal like that last time? 
 
 I had a pretty bad habit, so kicking was always rough. The physical part of it is bad enough, but the anxiety part is the worst. But I don't see why the subject of kicking dope is such a big deal. It's personal, really. It's like asking how I go to the bathroom or what do I wash first when I take a shower. As far as I'm concerned, I don't think it's anybody's business. I don't want to be another Keith Richards. His whole history with drugs has been so heavily publicized, and he's spoken so candidly about it when he was fucked up because he thought it was cool, I guess. What happens is those stories never go away...It's a very sensitive subject. But it's a subject that you don't try and put across to how many millions of people who read this magazine who don't do it or haven't been through it. It's like one of probably the most disastrous things that a human being can go through. It's like sitting on your deathbed all the time. 
 
 You've also had severe alcohol problems. How bad did your drinking get? 
 
 I seriously used to go through one and two bottles of Jack Daniel's a night. Easy. Sometimes a half gallon. I used to get up in the morning and I'd just be drunk all the time. I passed out on the floor of a guitar store in England — really stupid shit. It was all a growing experience. I think I've learned a lot, and I think I've grown up a lot since then. I don't know if it's made me any better or worse as a person, but I'm very hip to any drugs and alcohol now. I know what they're all about. 
 
 How's your drinking these days? 
 
 I haven't been drinking that hard if I can help it. I still get overly drunk sometimes and have a good time, and it doesn't bother me. It's sort of a pain in the ass the next morning, though. But I still have my little quirks and insecurities where I go to a bottle rather than just being sober and dealing with it. I still have those little problems, which are part of a pattern, I guess. But then I haven't been as depressed as I was. Usually if I'm drinking too much, it's for a reason. Boredom is my worst enemy, and I get bored really easily. In the history of this band, as long as we were out playing, I never had a problem of any kind. When we're rehearsing or recording or onstage, there's not really that much drinking going on, nor am I concerned about it. I'll have a cocktail when I'm home or whatever, but it's as simple as that. 
 
 Last year, Guns n' Roses replaced longtime drummer Steven Adler because of his substance abuse. How would you describe his problems? 
 
 Steven is about as rock & roll a personality as you can get. All he lived for was sex, drugs and rock & roll — in that order. Maybe drugs, sex and rock & roll. Then it was drugs and rock & roll. Then it was just drugs. 
 
 How do you feel when people say he was kicked out of the group unfairly? 
 
 I felt really bad for Steven. He's saying stuff like "How could they do this to me?" But it wasn't a matter of how could we do this to him. It was how could he do this to us. He was taken care of by this band. Anybody who thinks we just kicked him out is just somebody who doesn't know what the fuck they're talking about and doesn't know what went on. We waited for him for a fucking year. How long is a band supposed to wait around? We all wanted to get out and play, and he wanted to play, too. He was just too loaded to do it. Really, we did all kinds of things for this kid to get him back to normal, and he refused. Every time he went into rehab, he took off. I mean, I took off from rehab, but it's because I didn't want to be controlled by anybody else. I went and cleaned up on my own. Steven had no control whatsoever. He didn't want to be in rehab and still wanted to be doing what he's doing. He thought it was very rock & roll. What do you tell a guy like that? So I just said, "Fuck it, that's it, I can't deal with it anymore, we have to get a new drummer." 
 
 For a while, a drummer from the Sea Hags sat in with Guns, then Martin Chambers from the Pretenders stepped in momentarily. How did you settle on Matt Sorum from the Cult? 
 
 The guy from the Sea Hags was a really cool guy, and we got along, but he just didn't have the right vibe. I saw Matt at the Universal Amphitheater and after a few months went by and nothing happened, it dawned on me that he was the best drummer I'd seen in a long time. So I just said, Fuck it, it couldn't hurt to try him. 
 
 Thank God I went to that show that night. The fact that Matt could play and fit in was what saved us. If we hadn't found somebody, it would have ultimately been the demise of the band. Matt's been capable of keeping up with it, if not enhancing it totally and bringing new stuff to it. He still can't show up anywhere on time, though. [He laughs.] 
 
 While most members of the band have had difficulties handling booze and drugs, Axl has had the toughest time just dealing with people. He's had hassles with his neighbor. He's had marital woes, continuing confrontations with the Hollywood police and other sticky situations. How have these incidents affected the group and the recording of the album? 
 
 Well, they're a pain in the ass, and they keep things from getting done. I'm the most uptight about all of this. It's just my nature — Axl thinks I'm this sort of sick-minded workaholic. And it's true — in some ways, I do get uptight. I can get very negative about it. But there are moments when it [Axl's troubles] really gets in the way of what I think is productive, and we end up spending a lot of money. Sometimes I think Axl has no idea, or has a very slight idea, of what the financial reality is. I mean, to me $400,000 or whatever to make a record is ludicrous. Of course, if I was to say that to Axl outright, he'd say I don't know what he's going through, and there'd be a fight right there. That's the way we've always been — there's something I can't relate to or vice versa, and that's where we butt heads. So I just sit there with my head between my knees, freaking out...But Axl's craziness drives me crazier than it does Axl, unbeknownst to him. And that's the truth. 
 
 Why do you think he gets into so much trouble? 
 
 Axl is like a magnet for problems. I've never met anybody like him. He's the kind of guy that would get a toothbrush stuck down his throat because that particular toothbrush happened to be defective. 
 
 I mean, shit goes on with that guy, and if you talked to him, he'd tell you the same thing. 
 
 The bond between you two often seems volatile. 
 
 I don't want to talk about Axl, because everybody is constantly trying to pit us against each other. You know, they're trying to put two fucking Japanese fighting fish in the same bowl. We've always been the same. We have our ups and downs, and we butt heads. As long as I've known Axl, we've had so many differences that have been like the end of the line as far as we were concerned. I think that happens with most singers and guitar players, or whatever that cliché is. It might look a little intense on the outside, seeing all this shit that we're going through, but it makes for a tension that's — in a morbid kind of way — really conducive to the music we collaborate on. But as far as Axl goes, he is the best singer-lyricist around. 
 
 Although Guns n' Roses took an extended hiatus from recording, you made a number of appearances on other people's albums last year. You played on Iggy Pop's Brick by Brick album and on Bob Dylan's Under the Red Sky. What was the Dylan session like? 
 
 Don Was called me up and asked me to play with Dylan, which turned out to be one of those mistakes you learn from. He must have said two words while I was there. One was "Hi" and the other was "Play it like Django Reinhardt." With all due respect to Django, that would have been a great concept had it fit the song. The whole thing was just a drag. Nothing against Dylan, because my dad liked him. I mean, I grew up on Bob Dylan; he was the guy my family listened to. And I never disliked him until the last five or six albums. I did get to meet George Harrison while I was there, though, and that was great. He was doing some fucking awesome slide playing. 
 
 Didn't you have another unfortunate recording experience with Michael Jackson? 
 
 Michael Jackson was somebody I admire and have a lot of respect for. But when it came down to it, the sessions were so unorganized. I like to keep a schedule and be punctual, but those dates just sat there for months and months until I kept thinking they didn't want to use me anymore. I got a call three months later to do it at such and such a date, but when that date came, it wouldn't happen. I finally went down and recorded some rhythm stuff for a couple of songs. Then the producer said he was going to another country for a while, and I told him to give me a call when he got back. But all I did was end up talking to his wife or his kid trying to find out what the fuck was going on, and to this day I still don't know what's happening. 
 
 If Dylan and Jackson were unpleasant experiences, you seem to have clicked with Lenny Kravitz. After you met at the AMAs, how did you start recording together? 
 
 I went down to the studio where he was in L.A., and we hung out that night. He smoked pot, and I drank vodka, and we did a solo on one of his songs called "Fields of Joy." I just finished recording another song for his new record, a song I'd originally written for Guns that never happened as a Guns song. We had a great time hanging out in New Jersey. The guy is so fucking down-to-earth. It's a pleasure to work with somebody like that, where there's no bullshit. 
 
 Have you been doing any other sessions recently? 
 
 Les Paul called me up to play on this tribute record where he's producing tracks by Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck and all these cats. So I took another song called "Burnout," which should have been a Guns tune, and got Iggy Pop to sing it and Kenny Aronoff to play drums. Duff's going to play bass, and Lenny sang backup on it. 
 
 When we were at the studio, Les Paul said to me, "You're pretty good when you learn how to play." Thanks, God. You know, that was pretty fucking intense. I just sort of, like, crept away. 
 
 Anybody else been after you to do session work? 
 
 I got a call from Kim Basinger to play on her record. That was, like, no, okay? 
 
 Despite your rowdy rock image, your romantic relationship seems stable, you have a strong attachment to your family, and your house is completely filled with kittens, dogs and what appear to be your favorite pets — snakes. How many of the reptiles do you own? 
 
 I had eleven; now I have ten. I just lost one, Clyde, who I had for about eight or nine years, the longest I've had any of these guys. He just passed away in the back yard the night before last. It's sort of a drag, because he's been through so much shit with me — my whole career. I tried so hard to keep him alive, and he fucking died. It was depressing, because it was a bad night as it was. I came home, I was pissed off about some shit, and I wanted to check on the snake, and the snake was dead. It was, like, oh, fuck. I stayed up all night. I was just miserable, a fucking wreck. Nobody really understood. It was, like, my snake died, and people just went, "Oh, that's too bad." 
 
 Had he been sick for a long time? 
 
 Snakes get these incurable diseases. It's really hard to get them back to normal, but I've gotten pretty good with them. I had a vet coming here, and we were working with Clyde. He lost all this weight, and we were force-feeding him and giving him medication. I knew that Clyde was a really tough snake because he's gotten into all kinds of things in the past. I mean, he got caught in the trash compactor once and got electrocuted and poked his eye out. We thought hopefully whatever it was that kept him around that long would keep him in there, but he didn't make it. He's buried out in the back yard. 
 
 Besides your pets, you're also very close to your parents, and you hang out with your brother Ash a lot. Did anyone else in your family influence you? 
 
 My grandmother bought me my first guitar. I used to fuck up around the house, and my grandmother would chase me around the couch. She'd freak out when I'd play "Black Dog" really loud. I wasn't ready for her death at all. I think of her a lot, and she's with me all the time, I guess. 
 
 Despite your relationship with your family, you once said you make it a point not to get close to people. Why not? 
 
 For the most part, it's because I don't trust anybody. I've got a few close friends I trust implicitly. But when you're dealing with people on this level, most of them are out to get you. I've had a lot of friends turn on me, so I'm a little jaded. I'd like to trust everybody, but sometimes you've been so totally taken advantage of that you feel like a piece of meat. 
 
 Do you think your feelings have anything to do with the way you were raised? 
 
 That's a good point. A lot of musicians are very rebellious because they come from a really repressed, sometimes damaging family life. I was really fortunate. I come from a very loving and supportive family, thank God. I could be a lot worse than I am now.
– A re-released version of a Guns N' Roses' album won't sound quite how fans remember it. "One in a Million," a song that made waves upon its release because it featured the N-word, an anti-gay slur, and anti-immigrant sentiments, has been omitted from a box set reissue of the band's 1987 album Appetite for Destruction. The song was actually on the 1988 album G N' R Lies, but the box set's bonus tracks include all the other songs on G N' R Lies, reports Pitchfork. Frontman Axl Rose defended the use of the N-word to Rolling Stone in 1989, saying "it's a word to describe somebody that is basically a pain in your life" and "doesn't necessarily mean black." A few years later, guitarist Slash, born to a black mother and white father, had this to say: "I don't regret doing 'One in a Million,' I just regret what we've been through because of it and the way people have perceived our personal feelings," he told Rolling Stone in 1991, per the Guardian. Despite an apology for "One in a Million" included in the original cover art for G N' R Lies—"This song is very simple and extremely generic or generalized, my apologies to those who may take offense," it reads—people were outraged by the song's lyrics. "Immigrants and f------/They make no sense to me/They come to our country/And think they'll do as they please/Like start some mini-Iran/Or spread some f---ing disease," they read in part. The band has yet to explain why the song was cut.