10 Perfect Rock Songs That Were INSANELY Controversial
8. One in a Million - Guns N Roses
Most of the hair metal coming out of LA was never something that you had too take all that seriously. Considering the kind of thrash metal that was going around at the same time, hearing people like Poison and Motley Crue on the radio felt like you were spending every hour of the day in Candyland. And while Guns N Roses gave us a break from the sugar high of their peers, Axl Rose got a little bit too vulgar on their next release.
Looking to knock out a couple of acoustic tunes in between records, GNR Lies closes with One in a Million, which was a lot more seedy than most Guns N Roses fans were probably used to. Taken from the point of view of a low life wandering the streets, Axl Rose gets a little too eager with his language, frequently talking down to the police and using gay and racial slurs in between the verses.
Aside from the band's fans that might have been offended, there were also different layers to this in the band as well, since Slash is half black and now had to wonder about why his singer is saying these things right in front of him. Axl did have a (sort of) explanation for this, saying that he was just describing low lifes in general and not specifically black people in his verses. You can say that after the fact, but what you say in the moment definitely had a few fans tugging at their collars.