Rocket Queen

'Rocket Queen' was inspired by a riff I came up with when I first met Duff. It was one of the more complicated arrangements on what became our album, mostly because we had to integrate the riff with Axl's more melodic chorus. The song is based on our mutual friend Barbie, who even at eighteen had a notorious reputation.

That was a riff I had when Duff and I first hooked up. We had a band together with Steven way before Guns started. We had that riff, and at some point I brought it back into the band. The chorus was something that Axl had been working on that had nothing to do with the rest of the song, but we somehow managed to incorporate it.

It was a pretty interesting operation because the chorus was in a completely different key. I remember when we played it live I would have my roadie bring me my slide, but by the time that song came up in the set, he'd be drunk. And by the time he got it on my finger, the solo section would be over [laughs]. It was very Spinal Tap.

Oh, but there's a song on the album, a really cool riff-based song called Rocket Queen, and the origins of that came from Road Crew—that was Duff, Steven and me.

I normally don't think about [the creative process]. I go in and sort of adapt. When I'm practising at home, I like to play a lot of chromatic stuff. I stop in between different notes and come up with different ideas and stuff. I'll play however many notes in succession, and all of a sudden I'll catch four and realise there's something there...and I'll start fucking with that. Rocket Queen is indicative of that approach - basically just sitting around and playing, maybe zoning out, watching TV and playing guitar at the same time. All of a sudden, the ear catches something. Welcome To The Jungle has a lot of that, too. It's more or less the same kind of way I've always written; if I'm just tying notes together, not really paying attention, when you catch onto something you start there and begin working on an actual tune.