Interview: Slash Admits Guns N’ Roses’ Songs Are ‘Sort of Sexist’

[Ratam]

1 hour ago, Blackstar said:

SLASH: How happy can you be living in L.A.? Like, you’re looking at a tree, and there’s a dog pissing on it, and there’s some whores in front of it, and the air’s filled with smog...
AXL: That’s the stuff I write about. To some people, that’s depressing. But that’s what I am, and that’s what I deal with.  [L.A. Weekly, 1986]

[It's So Easy] is a song West Arkeen and I wrote. It's an account of a time that all of us were going through. We didn't have money, but we had a lot of hangers on and girls that we could basically live off of. Things were just too easy. There was an emptiness; it's so easy [Duff, Geffen Press Kit, 1987] *

K : What kind of direction do you see the band taking on this next album? Do you plan to expand your usual themes somewhat, or are you sticking pretty much to the sleazy half-world undercurrents of the first album for inspiration?
Axl : This record will show we’ve grown a lot, but there’ll be some childish, you know, arrogant, male, false-bravado crap on there too. But there’ll also be some really heavy serious stuff.  [Kerrang, 1990]

-----

* The most "insightful" quote about It's So Easy was from Slash though:

There's a lot to say for that period of time when you just start to lose the excitement of chasing chicks. You start going after really bizarre girls, like librarians and stuff, just to catch them and say I finally went out and caught a girl that wouldn't be my normal date. Because everything else was starting to get - it's so easy [Slash, Geffen Press Kit, 1987]

I guess now Slash "normal date" is Meeghan

[IrishgunnerII]

On 10/9/2018 at 11:35 PM, Coma16 said:

I always thought UTLH was about a dog...

It is. 

Edited September 12, 2018 by IrishgunnerII

[BlueJean Baby]

It was the era of sex, drugs and rock n' roll 😉

[TeeJay410]

On 9/11/2018 at 7:46 AM, Iron MikeyJ said:

It's NOTHING compared to some of the things Dr. Dre, Snoop, Jay-Z, and Eminem have said on their albums. 

Jay-z has publicly gone back and denounced some of his lyrics, particularly singling out big Pimpin’. 

[Iron MikeyJ]

14 hours ago, TeeJay410 said:

Jay-z has publicly gone back and denounced some of his lyrics, particularly singling out big Pimpin’. 

Well ya he better, if he wants to keep B happy anyways. 🤔

[DieselDaisy]

I just want to know where everyone stands on the Serena debate?

[yourcrazy]

People get way too upset over stupid shit. Of course there is a lot of sexist songs and lyrics in GnR.  This should come as no surprise to anyone who ever actually listened to any of the lyrics.  They shouldn’t apologize or change anything.  The don’t give a fuck attitude of this band is what made them so popular.  You can still be a fan of the band or a song and not be sexist or racist.   This shouldn’t be political but in today’s age it seems like everything is going that way.  There’s a disconnect from reality.  These songs should be taken with a grain of salt. 

[PirateRadio]

Never crossed his mind.. Not much does besides his clothes, little guitar strings, and $$$$

[Iron MikeyJ]

30 minutes ago, DieselDaisy said:

I just want to know where everyone stands on the Serena debate?

Cry baby. Trying to be like "Lebron", but tennis doesn't bow down to her like the NBA does for LeBron. She was REAL quick to cry sexists. I honestly feel the only reason why she didn't play the racists card was because she was playing a girl that was African American and Asian. She ligetimatly committed 3 penalties, so they called the match. Those are the rules, period. Plus that same umpire has called PLENTY of men for the same crap. The difference is the men didn't keep on pushing him, they backed off. That's why they didn't call the match on them, not because of "sexism".

Lebron created this "cry baby" attitude in pro sports imo, they all follow his lead. To be honest, I don't like ANY modern athletes, I only root for teams. I used to like a lot of players from a lot of sports, but I can't find many to respect anymore. I might "respect" their athletic ability, but I'd hardly call myself a fan of any of them. 

[Azifwekare]

6 hours ago, Iron MikeyJ said:

she was playing a girl that was African American and Asian.

Caribbean and Asian. Black does not necessarily mean African American. 

[Silverburst80]

On 9/14/2018 at 8:24 AM, DieselDaisy said:

I just want to know where everyone stands on the Serena debate?

Hear her at the end " i've heard alot of people say way worse", after threatening to shove ball down that womans throat... of course seeing it was a woman Serena wasn't able to pull the sexism card from the pack that day.

 

Edited September 15, 2018 by Silverburst80

[Slosh13]

For anyone to label Guns music/lyrics as sexist doesn't understand the band and is taking the lyrics out of context. If you take Rocket Queen as an example, it shows the sleazy side in the first side and the love in the second side, expressing the duality in all of us.

Guns = violence/anger. Roses = love.

Many journalists do not understand the subject they are writing about or care to take the time to do some research. The lyrics in the context of a musical arrangement tells us much more than the lyrics on a piece of paper. 

[killuridols]

6 hours ago, Slosh13 said:

If you take Rocket Queen as an example, it shows the sleazy side in the first side and the love in the second side, expressing the duality in all of us.

So violent relationships are normal because they have a component of violence and a component of love? 

What a load of crap.

Sex is a pulsion of life, not of death or destruction. People who add violence to their relationships are just insane.

The lyrics are sexist because those guys are/were sexist. There's not much science behind it, really.

Edited September 15, 2018 by killuridols

[action]

27 minutes ago, killuridols said:

 

The lyrics are sexist because those guys are/were sexist. 

by that logic, stephen king is a serial killer.

[killuridols]

14 minutes ago, action said:

by that logic, stephen king is a serial killer.

I know nothing about Stephen King and I have barely read his books but if his stories are based on real events of his life then he could well be some type of criminal. Or you think criminals cannot produce art?

GN'R lyrics are realistic because what they wrote derives from real life experiences. Besides, why would anyone want to write sexist lyrics if they were against it?

Rose was accused of rape and domestic violence. He paid high sums of money to shut down the victims, so this truly goes beyond the lyrics.

[Azifwekare]

1 hour ago, action said:

by that logic, stephen king is a serial killer.

Hardly. Stephen King writes about fictional characters, everyone knows Guns write about themselves and their experiences.

Obviously, Used To Love Her is just a spoof murder ballad and is ridiculous that anybody would take it seriously, but stuff like Back Off Bitch and that lyric in It's So Easy would not even come into anyone's mind if they weren't sexist to some extent at the time they were written (I doubt that they still feel the same way today).

Obviously we're fans of the music or we wouldn't be here, but you can't just pretend there's nothing wrong with "turn around bitch, I got a use for you". If you said that to anyone IRL you'd get fucking decked.

When I was a kid and not mature enough to understand, I thought it was just their cool sleazy RnR way of saying "let's do it", but hey, we all have to grow up at some point, don't we?

[soon]

^^^ This

Sadly, what 'growing up and maturing' means to most is what others call 'giving in to PC culture.'

 

[Free Bird]

It's a fucking GNR forum. Let's stop with that political correctness at least on here, c'mon.

 

 

[Nintari]

It's what makes Guns so fucking awesome. That whole "this is who we are, don't like it, go fuck yourself" vibe. Without it, there IS no GNR. 

Edited September 16, 2018 by Nintari

[Nintari]

13 hours ago, Azifwekare said:

Obviously we're fans of the music or we wouldn't be here, but you can't just pretend there's nothing wrong with "turn around bitch, I got a use for you". If you said that to anyone IRL you'd get fucking decked.

That line was directed at groupies which are women who do not respect themselves or their bodies and would probably enjoy being told that by the object of their choosing. That's why it's in that song, because it's contextually accurate. 

[Jordan Rose]

Fucking liberal, virtue-signalling, snowflakey wankery. The tosspots who want to get their panties in a bunch over decades-old lyrics and the like usually turn out to be total hypocrites, one way or another.

[killuridols]

11 hours ago, Nintari said:

That line was directed at groupies which are women who do not respect themselves or their bodies and would probably enjoy being told that by the object of their choosing. That's why it's in that song, because it's contextually accurate. 

STFU 

[Azifwekare]

12 hours ago, Nintari said:

It's what makes Guns so fucking awesome. That whole "this is who we are, don't like it, go fuck yourself" vibe. Without it, there IS no GNR. 

I'm pretty sure that is also the exact thing they would say to anyone who accuses them of "turning PC".

[DieselDaisy]

They are now animal loving Trump haters. They'll probably kill you if you leak a bootleg though so they aren't that liberal. Also McKagan likes Gucci. And that plane doesn't fly on Cannabis fumes. 

[DieselDaisy]

On 9/11/2018 at 3:00 PM, life_247 said: