One in a Million: Guns N’ Roses cuts ‘racist’ song from album reissue

Guns N’ Roses have cut a song criticised as racist and homophobic from a reissue of their 1987 debut album Appetite for Destruction.

Considered a seminal moment for the hard rock genre, Appetite for Destruction is one of the best-selling albums of all time, having sold 30 million copies around the world. The re-release will feature dozens of bonus tracks, including the band’s follow-up EP, 1988’s G N’ R Lies.

However, the closing number on the EP, One in a Million, will not be among them. While no reason has been made public for the omission, the song “was extremely controversial and condemned by many upon its release”, says Pitchfork, due to lyrics containing racist and homophobic slurs.

The song, written by frontman Axl Rose, tells “police and n*****s” to “get out of my way”,  describing the singer as “a small town white boy / Just trying to make end meet”.

Another verse rails: “Immigrants and f*****s / They make no sense to me / They come to our country / And think they'll do as they please / Like start some mini Iran / Or spread some fucking disease.”

Rose addressed the controversy on multiple occasions in the years following the EP’s release, defending his language as reflective of his experiences of moving from small-town Indiana to Los Angeles.

“If you haven't been there, you can't say s**t to me about what goes on and about my point of view,” he told Rolling Stone in 1989.

“I've had some very bad experiences with homosexuals,” he said, before describing being the victim of an attempted rape as a teenager.

With regards to use of the word “n*****s”, he told the same magazine in 1992: “I was pissed off about some black people that were trying to rob me. I wanted to insult those particular black people. I didn't want to support racism.”