9 Things You Didn't Know About 'Appetite For Destruction'

Appetite For Destruction turns 30 years old on Friday. Sure its tastes have changed; it now has an appetite for a manageable mortgage. Seriously, the band sells iPhone cases targeted to the “World’s Best Dad” crowd. Jokes aside, this was one of THE albums of the ’80s and still remains one of the best hard rock albums ever recorded. But we bet you don’t know everything about this classic album so we’re giving away 9 tidbits of musical knowledge that will make you an Appetite for Destruction expert in about five minutes.

1. Appetite for Destruction is the biggest-selling debut album of all time in the US and has sold over 30 million copies worldwide.
2. The iconic Celtic cross/band of skulls album cover wasn’t GnR’s first (or even second) choice. The original cover was based on a Robert Williams’ painting of the same name but it’s violent imagery caused considerable controversy. The band’s label, Geffen, had to whip up an alternative when several retailers refused to sell it. The alternative is the design we all know today, which was originally conceived as a tattoo for Axl by artist Billy White Junior. Axl has also said he originally had another idea for the cover: a picture of the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion from 1986. Geffen, justifiably thinking it was in bad taste, kibosh-ed that idea as well.
   

   

3. Geffen wanted Paul Stanley (of KISS fame) to produce the album but when he proposed some sweeping changes to the drum arrangement the band told him (politely, I’m sure) to go away. Mike Clink stepped into the producer’s chair and ended up recording all five of GnR’s ’80s & ’90s albums.
4. Slash claims that “Welcome To The Jungle” was written in just three hours, which was an extremely efficient use of time considering VH1 ranked it as the greatest hard rock song of all-time in 2009.
5. The classic GnR ballad “November Rain” could have easily appeared on Appetite For Destruction, but the band decided to save it for a later album as they already had “Sweet Child O’ Mine” and didn’t want to include another slow song. Other iconic Guns N’ Roses songs that could have ended up on the album include “You Could Be Mine” (later used on the Terminator 2 soundtrack), “Back Off Bitch” and another ballad, “Don’t Cry”.
6. Geffen were considering cutting their losses on the album when it only sold about 200,000 copies in the initial months after release. The label even stopped trying to promote it and were hoping to force the band to get back inside the studio to record a follow-up. Instead, it topped the charts over one year after its initial release… on August 6, 1988.
7. The video for “Welcome To The Jungle” is what rocketed the band to super-stardom. MTV originally wouldn’t air it, fearing it would anger their local cable affiliates. However, GnR’s manager Alan Niven was finally able to convince MTV President Tom Freston to run the video one-time at 5am on a Sunday as a personal favour. After MTV became inundated with requests they couldn’t turn back. The people had spoken, they demanded “Welcome to the Jungle” and the band was a viral sensation way before the Internet.

8. Only two people received writing credits on Appetite For Destruction that weren’t band members: West Arkeen and Chris Weber. Arkeen co-wrote “It’s So Easy” and Weber co-wrote “Everything Goes”. Axl considered Arkeen to be the 6th member of the band and Weber was a former bandmate of Axl and Izzy Stradlin in Hollywood Rose. Sadly, Arkeen passed away at age 36 on May 30, 1997.

9. “Paradise City” is the only track on the album that uses a synthesizer.

by JACK 96.9’s corbet.rutzer