10 Hard Rock Song Lyrics That Nobody Understands
2. Most Of The Lyrics To One In A Million
No strangers to controversy, Guns N' Roses have had their fair share of misunderstandings over the years, but none worse than on their 1988 track, One In A Million.
Without quoting directly, the song charts a young white man's struggle to make it and takes a racist, xenophobic and homophobic stance through lyrics that include slurs about black people, immigrants and homosexuals. Fans and detractors of the band alike have denounced the song and rallied against its message, so much so that it has been left out of more recent compilations and collections of the band's music.
Guitarist Izzy Stradlin and bassist Duff McKagan have recently claimed that the song has been dramatically misinterpreted. Purportedly, the song is actually a response to the sour race relations in late-eighties Los Angeles and is written from the perspective of a prejudiced character. However, lead guitarist Slash (whose mother is African-American) was uncomfortable with the song from the beginning.
Vocalist and lyricist Axl Rose may have struck the truest line in 1992, admitting that, no matter whether the song's narrator is fictional, it was written with specific individuals in mind and that it was an outlet for him to express his anger. Though, combining the conflicting conclusions from the band's members and Rose's notorious volatility, the jury may still be out on this one.