SLASH Revisits GUNS N' ROSES' 'Appetite For Destruction' In FUSE TV Interview

July 24, 2012

Video footage of Slash talking to Fuse TV about the 25th anniversary of GUNS N' ROSES' classic debut album, "Appetite For Destruction", can be seen below. Slash reveals the dirty alternate lyrics for "Paradise City" and talks about how "Welcome To The Jungle" became the LP's anchor.

"'Appetite' is not what you'd call a favorite record [of mine]," Slash admitted in a recent interview with Australia's long-running radio station Triple M. "I never even thought of it that way. It's a good record, but, to me, it's still that record that we made at the time when all that shit was happening. I mean, when we recorded [those songs], it was just what we were doing [at the time], and so I still look at it that way. I don't see it as being the big record that other people see it as; I'm too close to it."

He continued, "When we got together, as far as I was concerned, we were definitely the only five guys that could have made up that band. There were a lot of different configurations — Steven [Adler, drums] and I; Steven, Duff [McKagan, bass] and I; Steven, Axl [Rose, vocals] and I; Izzy [Stradlin, guitar] and Axl; Izzy, Axl and Duff — and it finally finally settled into what became that band. And I don't think any of the other configurations could have possibly worked to make up what GUNS N' ROSES really was. And the record I just sort of a basic snapshot of life going on from 1984 to 1987, and it's a very honest record. I would never have thought in a million years that it was gonna be as successful as it became. Obviously, I thought we were a great band, I thought the songs were great, and I always stood behind that, but I thought we'd be more of a hard rock cult band."

"At this point that it became so iconic, I think one of the reasons is the fact that it was talking about stuff that nobody really talked about at the time, it was delivered with an attitude that was so sincere that a lot of people really related to it because we said things that people would have felt uncomfortable about saying but felt those same things. And we were living really on the edge and singing about it and people were like, 'Wow, that's pretty brutal.'

"The songs happened so quickly, they almost wrote themselves — honestly. With Axl, I know that he was always very, very conscientious of the lyrics and might have spent some more time with the lyrics, but the actual arrangements and the music itself would come together within an hour. We might have fine-tuned some stuff later on, but we'd be playing a new song in a club after only having worked on it for a couple of hours."

Produced by Mike Clink (MEGADETH, UFO),"Appetite For Destruction" was certified on September 23, 2008 by the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) for U.S. sales in excess of 18 million copies. The LP has reportedly accumulated worldwide sales in excess of 30 million.

The album's original cover, based on the Robert Williams painting "Appetite For Destruction", depicted a robot rapist about to be punished by a metal avenger. After several music retailers refused to stock the album, they compromised and put the controversial cover art inside, replacing it with a cover depicting a cross and skulls of the five band members (designed by Billy White Jr., originally as a tattoo),each skull representing one member of the band: Izzy Stradlin, top skull; Steven Adler, left skull; Axl Rose, center skull; Duff McKagan, right skull; and Slash, bottom skull. The photographs used for the back of the album and liner notes were taken by Robert John.

Original "Appetite For Destruction" cover:

Revised "Appetite For Destruction" cover:

Find more on
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • reddit
  • email

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).