My Michelle

"My Michelle" is a song written by Axl Rose and Izzy Stradlin of Guns N' Roses and released on the band's 1987 debut album Appetite for Destruction.

For the recording of this song, guitarist Slash used a slightly different setup. For the rest of the album, he used a Gibson Les Paul copy through a modified Marshall amplifier on the same settings for each song. However, for this song, he swapped to a '60s Gibson SG because he felt it had a darker sound.

Composition and lyrical intent

The song is about a friend of the band, a girl named Michelle Young who is thanked in the 'Appetite For Destruction' cover sleeve. Slash knew Young throughout junior high, as she was a friend of Slash's first girlfriend.^[1] According to Axl Rose, he and Young were in a car together when "Your Song" by Elton John came on the radio and Young 'happened' to mention that she had always wanted someone to write a song about her.^[2]

Rose's first attempt was a sweet, almost romantic song, but one that had absolutely nothing to do with the reality of Michelle's life. He was unhappy with this version and re-wrote it, this time seeking to be completely honest.^[3] Several members of the band expressed concern over this version of the song, especially Slash, fearing it would upset Young.^[4] Rose himself then became hesitant, but finally decided to show it to her. She liked the song and the attention it brought to her, and was especially pleased with its honesty, most notably regarding her drug addiction, the death of her mother and her father's work in the pornography industry,^[4] all of which are mentioned within the first verse:

Your daddy works in porno
Now that mommy's not around
She used to love her heroin
But now she's underground
So you stay out late at night
And you do your coke for free
Drivin' your friends crazy
With your life's insanity

According to Slash's bio, Young managed to clean up and move across the country to escape her lifestyle.

During the 2006 NY and European Tours, Axl Rose shared the vocal duties with former Skid Row singer Sebastian Bach.^[5]

Covers

• The song was covered by the punk group AFI for the compilation called Punk Goes Metal.
• In the Super NES and PlayStation version of the game Mega Man X3, Neon Tiger's stage theme music is a shortened remix of this song. Surprisingly, this makes it into all re-releases and even onto Mega Man Xtreme 2.
• The song was also covered by the mathcore band The Dillinger Escape Plan for the controversial tribute album, Bring You To Your Knees: A Tribute To Guns N' Roses. Members of the DEP now admit in interviews that the album was terribly recorded, but they were happy with their song. ^[6]
• The Red Hot Chili Peppers also played the intro live in 1989.

References