Controversial Song Apparently Left Off GUNS N' ROSES Boxed Set

May 7, 2018

The newly announced "Locked N' Loaded" deluxe boxed set of GUNS N' ROSES' classic 1987 debut album, "Appetite For Destruction", also includes B-sides from the "Appetite" sessions, the 1986 "Live ?!*@ Like A Suicide" EP and three of the four songs from the band's 1988 acoustic EP "GN'R Lies". But one track from "Lies" has been left out of the new release, according to The Pulse Of Radio: "One In A Million", a song that was controversial at the time for lyrics containing racial and homophobic slurs.

The song contained the words "n***a" and "f****t" as well as anti-immigrant sentiments. Singer Axl Rose said at the time that he based the lyrics on his first impressions of Los Angeles when he arrived from small-town Indiana. In a 1989 Rolling Stone interview, he described "black men selling stolen jewelry, crack, heroin and pot," as well as having "very bad experiences with homosexuals," including an attempted rape.

Neither the title of "Lies" nor the live EP are referenced in a press release announcing the boxed set, with the sessions for "Lies" only mentioned in passing as the source of another song included in the package. This seems to indicate that "One In A Million" has been deliberately left out of the "Appetite" reissue.

Rose defended his use of the racial slurs at the time of the EP's release, saying: "Why can black people go up to each other and say, 'n***a,' but when a white guy does it all of a sudden it's a big put-down. I don't like boundaries of any kind. I don't like being told what I can and what I can't say."

GUNS guitarist Slash, who is half black, later admitted he had mixed emotions about recording the song, telling Rolling Stone in 1991: "I didn't think it was very cool, but Axl gets very adamant about expressing himself." He added: "I don't regret doing 'One In A Million', I just regret what we've been through because of it and the way people have perceived our personal feelings."

The deluxe edition of "Appetite For Destruction" will arrive on June 29 and include 73 songs — including 49 tracks that never before been released — spread out across four CDs and seven 12-inch 180-gram vinyl LPs. A super deluxe version will also include a 96-page book with unreleased photos from Axl's personal archive, new lithographs and a plethora of memorabilia.

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