Axl, Slash, Mick Wall and the "N" word!

[Bumblefeet]

As you all know the Guns N'Roses album GNR Lies brought about a lot of controversy along with its release. The most controversial part of the album was the use of the "N" word. In "that interview" with Mick Wall of Kerrang!, in 1990, Axl claimed that the song was written as a joke and that Slash was all up for it. Once the article was released Axl was furious and hence wrote the song "Get in the Ring", yet Mick Wall still claims that he did nothing wrong. Here is where the story gets kinda tricky. Slash is half black. His mother, i believe. I think that Slash once said the use of that word was something that he could never forgive Axl for. This totally contradicts "that interview". So who is correct? Did Axl actually say that about Slash or did Mick Wall just make it up? Did Slash actually feel that it was a joke but then felt like he had to cover his tracks? What do you think is the true story?

[CD2006]

i think you need to check you gnr history and realize that axl wrote that song at a party with slash and some others, he just wanted to vent what had happened to him and slash was probably concerned but up for it, and axl always made it perfectly clear that it wasn't his intention to offend anyone with it. it was slash' mother who reacted.

[HungerForChaos]

Who cares, if you get rid of everything that offends someone there'd be nothing left on this planet. I don't think this matters. Imo...

[Natasha23]

Maybe it was a lot of miscommunication between Axl and Slash at the time. ?I do remember hearing Slash say how upset he was that Axl wrote that and then put the song on the album, knowing his mother is black. ?
I thought it was Axl with Duff and West Arkeen sitting around, I think around Christmas time, when they wrote the song. ?I don't think Slash was present when they wrote the song.
I think Axl has demonstrated many times how often he changes his mind, and how pissed off he gets when things are out of his control. ?It seems more likely that Axl was angry about what he said coming to light, than Mick Wall just made up a story out of thin air. ?A lot of celebrities think they can spill their guts to a reporter, and then turn around and say "I never said that" when they don't like how it translates onto a written page. ?Lindsay Lohan just pulled the same stunt with Vanity Fair. ?She told them she had an eating disorder and that she's experimented with drugs, then when her publicist couldn't get it retracted, she says Vanity Fair twisted her words and took them out of context. ?So who do you believe? ?What did Mick Wall have to gain by making that part of the interview up? ?Who knows how ethical Mick Wall is... or Axl for that matter. ?
I don't think Axl ever had hateful intentions when he wrote that song. ?I do think he was naive to think he could say n*gger and then say he wasn't calling all black people that word, just a certain type of black people. ?He didn't understand it doesn't work that way.

[mrlee]

Yeah Natasha, Axl and the boys were all sitting around bummed out on Christmas Day because West Arkeen had been mugged by a black guy that day.  They wrote that song as a joke.  And the immigrants and faggots part came about when a liquor store owner threatened to kill Axl and Slash and the faggot part was when Axl was hitchhiking with some truck driver and when they had stopped in a motel one night, the driver tried to rape Axl.

Slash only said that he never supported the song.  Nor does he endorse the use of that word.


I remember on Behind The Music he said that he didn't play on Look At Your Game Girl, it was some guy named Carlos.  He has some high principles I tell you what.

And I don't think Axl is racist.  He was brought up in the Midwest and using that word is common.

well its ok for black people to call it each other so axl probably thought that it was ok to write it.

[Gargh!]

I think that Axl had no idea what he was doing when he wrote it, but admitting that later would seem so naive and (perhaps) unlikely that he had to rejig it...  I also think that Natasha is right - Axl changes his mind a lot, after all.

[journey]

The only section of the song I don't like is the derogatory slurring. I think they said it was targeted toward specific people. If that were the case, then those people should've been called out by name or something. It made it sound like it was about different racial/ethnic groups in general, which is what threw everyone off. Axl seems like a tolerant and loving person. I honestly don't think he meant to be cruel or hateful. He was just applying personal experiences to his music as most people do.

And not to make excuses, but most people have said and done things that they later regretted. It's human nature. You learn from your mistakes. No one's perfect by any means.

Also, I think One In A Million has been removed from all the current copies of GNR Lies out of respect for the public. I remember reading that somewhere. Not sure about authenticity of it.

What do you think is the true story?

I think a lot of times magazine reporters will try to sensationalize stories in order to sell them and cause a stir of discussion. But in reality, it's hard to tell what the truth is or isn't, if you don't know all the people involved personally.

[Natasha23]

Not all black people are okay with calling each other the n word.  So the argument that if it's okay for black people to say, than it's okay for white people to say, doesn't really hold water.  Which I believe is what Axl has said, why can't he say it if black people can say it.  Well, one should ask themselves, why would you want to use that word in the first place?  I think Axl was trying to make a statement, as opposed to just spewing hateful lyrics in order to rally other bigots to his cause.  But that word's history is so loaded with hatred, and violence, and has historically been used to cut black people off at the knees.  I think the black community has embraced it for themselves in order to deflate some of its power, but it's all about the context in which it is used.