One in a Million
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- This article is about the Guns N' Roses song. For other articles with the same title, see One In A Million.
| "One in a Million" | ||
|---|---|---|
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| Song by Guns N' Roses | ||
| from the album G N' R Lies | ||
| Released |  November 30, 1988 December 17, 1988 |
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| Recorded | Rumbo Studios, Take One Studio & Image Studio | |
| Genre | Hard Rock | |
| Length | 6:10 | |
| Label | Geffen Records | |
| Writer(s) | Guns N' Roses | |
| Producer(s) | Guns N' Roses and Mike Clink | |
| G N' R Lies track listing | ||
| "You're Crazy" (7) |
"One in a Million" (8) |
None (None) |
"One In A Million" is a song by American hard rock group Guns N' Roses (GN'R). It is the eighth track on the album G N' R Lies and was released in 1988. The lyrics describe GN'R singer Axl Rose's experience of getting hustled in the Greyhound bus station upon first arriving in Los Angeles.
There is a also a song by the Pet Shop Boys called One in a Million, which appears on their 1993 album Very. Given that the Pet Shop Boys' work touches on gay themes it could be argued their version is a riposte to the Guns N' Roses song (the Pet Shop Boys main lyric being "One in a million men can change the way you feel." The link is not as tenuous as one would think given the differing nature of the bands; Axl Rose is known to be a big Pet Shop Boys fan (although he initially hated them), and in particular of their song "Being boring" which appeared on the 1990 album Behaviour. As recorded in the Chris Heath book Pet Shop Boys versus America, Rose came backstage to meet the Pet Shop Boys on their 1991 tour of North America, and revealed that their song "My October Symphony" (also on Behaviour) inspired him to write the Guns N' Roses song "November Rain". Therefore, the Pet Shop Boys song could be a mild rebuke on their new friend's former views on homosexuality.
[edit] Controversy
The song's lyrics caused great controversy among many different groups, and accusations of homophobia and racism were leveled against Guns N' Roses' lead singer and song lyricist, Axl Rose.
The use of the word "faggots", described as "spread[ing] some fuckin' disease", led to controversy and protests from homosexual groups. It also led to GN'R's exclusion from an AIDS benefit for the Gay Men's Health Crisis at Radio City Music Hall. In response to the accusations, Rose initially stated that he did not understand homosexuals, and spoke of negative experiences in his past, such as a seemingly friendly man who let him crash on his hotel room floor and then tried to rape him. [1] He later softened this stance, and insisted that he was not homophobic, pointing out that some of his icons, such as Freddie Mercury and Elton John, as well as the head of his record label, were bisexual and gay.
Others accused him of racism for the use of the word "niggers" in the song. At the time Rose said that wanted to use the word because it was taboo and he also claimed that that he had not used the word in a racial way but as "someone who is a pain in your life." In later conferences, Rose stated that this track got people to think more about racism, and stated that its success made people more apt to look at the true horrors of racism, instead of the illusion that everyone was going to come together easily, comparing it to the song "We Are The World".
Several times Axl defended his use of the word 'nigger' as not being so bad, pointing out the rap group Niggaz with Attitude (NWA). Axl was often known to wear an NWA hat from then on. Other times he recalled personal experiences which had driven him to write such lyrics, such as feeling intimidated by black street merchants selling their "gold chains".
Before the release of Lies the other members of the band tried in vain to make Rose drop the track from the record. Fellow GN'R member, Slash, whose mother is black later stated: "I'll say only I wasn't for that song at all, and I refuse to play it on the shows." Despite this comment, Slash played the song in shows twice in 1988.
In a 1992 interview, a more mature Rose stated, "It was a way for me to express my anger at how vulnerable I felt in certain situations that had gone down in my life. It's not a song I would write now." [2]
