“One day’s work”: Slash on how ‘G N’ R Lies’ was the easiest Guns N’ Roses album he ever made
Being in Guns N’ Roses tends to be the kind of challenge most people wouldn’t wish on their worst enemy these days. Outside of originally being one of the most dangerous acts to take the stage, some of the band’s behaviour during their Use Your Illusion tour showed the height of rock and roll stardom in all its ugly glory. While Slash was keener to plug his guitar into an amp and see what came out of it, he could only wish that all of the band’s greatest albums could have been made as easily as certain records under their belt.
When looking at their road to success, though, it would have been a miracle if they had survived past their debut, Appetite for Destruction. Outside of the virtual hell that came with making that record, every member of the band was hanging on by a thread in the Los Angeles underground scene, usually doing what they could to satisfy their drug habits while still living hand to mouth on cheap pizzas and whiskey.
That’s before the band ever ventured into the studio, though. Despite Slash being synonymous with a Les Paul in his hands these days, hearing the cheap sound he was getting out of his guitars on the first rehearsals for Appetite was a nightmare for him, culminating in him throwing one of his guitars through the windscreen of one of the band’s rental vans during one recording session.
Once they found their groove, Appetite functioned more like a diary than a set of songs. Every one of the tunes felt like another look into the underbelly of Los Angeles, telling stories of people strung out on heroin, starving on the street, and the band members caught in the middle while trying to keep their sanity on tracks like ‘Paradise City’ and ‘Welcome to the Jungle’.
Considering how vicious that first record was, their decision to make their next project a bunch of acoustic sessions was the best move they could have made at that point. Even though GNR Lies does have a few disturbing moments, like ‘One in a Million’, hearing the acoustic version of ‘You’re Crazy’ and the ballad ‘Patience’ reminded everyone that the group could write heartfelt material without having to resort to the heaviness all the time.
And looking at how the whole record was made, Slash remembered the session as one of the most easygoing records he ever made, saying, “We did the Lies record, and it was a real easy, quick thing to do, which was really successful. [That] was sort of a shock with one day’s work, and it sells all these copies.”
It’s also better that the album earned it as well. While ‘One In a Million’ is worth being forgotten like a drunk uncle’s racist tirade at a family reunion, the strength of ‘Patience’ is enough to make it an essential listen for anyone looking to educate themselves on every piece of Guns’s catalogue. But it’s important not to get one’s hopes up for more songs like this.
Although they would break out the acoustics now and again on the Use Your Illusion experience, what could be great moments like ‘You Ain’t the First’ start to get bogged down when having to slog through songs like ‘Breakdown’ or Rose ranting at the press on ‘Get in the Ring’. Still, it’s nice to see the band in their moist, natural form playing the heartbroken ballads that Mick Jagger and Keith Richards would have been proud of.
