Both bands were denounced due to controversial lyrics.

For GN'R, the controversial lyrics were in the song 'One in a Million,' from their album 'Lies.' Here's a sampling of the (extremely) offensive material:

"Police and Niggers, that's right
Get out of my way
Don't need to buy none of your
Gold chains today
I don't need no bracelets
Clamped in front of my back
Just need my ticket; 'til then
Won't you cut me some slack?"

"Immigrants and faggots
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 fuckin' disease
They talk so many goddamn ways
It's all Greek to me"

Needless to say, this song caused all sorts of uproar. Axl Rose had this to say in a 1992 interview with RIP Magazine:

"Negativity sells, and the media knows that. "Axl Rose is rock 'n' roll's bad guy." There were a lot of people who felt that the Rolling Stones shouldn't exist, who talked crap about them. Now we're huge, and it seems the people who are most vocal are the ones who don't like us. They'll pick up any rock to throw at us. When I read that Guns N' Roses could be David Duke's house band, that's wrong, and it hurts me. I'm not for David Duke. l don't know anything about the guy except that he was in the Klan, and that's fucked. There's a lot of people who have chosen to use that song ("One in a Million"). However that song makes them feel, they think that must be what the song means. If they hate blacks, and they hear my lines and hate blacks even more, I'm sorry, but that's not how l meant it. Our songs affect people, and that scares a lot of people. l think that song, more than any other song in a long time, brought certain issues to the surface and brought up discussion as to how fucked things really are. But when read somewhere that l said something last night before we performed "One in a Million," it pisses me off. We don't perform "One in a Million."

RIP: U2 never had a song like "One in a Million."

AXL: My opinion is, the majority of the public can't be trusted with that song. It inspires thoughts and reactions that cause people to have to deal with their own feelings on racism, prejudice and sexuality.

RIP: But Axl Rose said "faggots" and "niggers."

AXL: So have a lot of other people.

RIP: Yeah, but it's real easy to feel self-righteous and point the finger at you.

AXL: l wrote a song that was very simple and vague. That was the type of painting l was painting for myself, because that's how l write songs. Try going to a museum and not seeing paintings that depict pain and suffering and confusion. l think I showed that quite well from where l was at. The song most definitely was a survival mechanism. It was a way for me to express my anger at how vulnerable l felt in certain situations that had gone down in my life. It's not a song l would write now. The song is very generic and generalized, and I apologized for that on the cover of the record. Going back and reading it, it wasn't the best apology but, at the time, it was the best apology I could make.

RIP: Given all of the static that's come out of "One in a Million," do you ever regret having shared it with the world?

AXL: I'm on a fence with that song. It's a very powerful song. l feel, as far as artistic freedom and my responsibility to those beliefs, that the song should exist. That's the only reason l haven't pulled it off the shelves. Freedom and creativity should never be stifled. Had l known that people were going to get hurt because of this song, then l would have been wrong. l was definitely wrong in thinking that the public could handle it.

(Click here for the whole interview.)

Interview Magazine got a little bit more in depth with him:

INTERVIEW: I know everyone asks you this, but l want to ask for myself: What about the famous lyrics that caused all those problems? I think one of the lines was "Niggers and faggots, out of my way."

AXL: No, that's not what was said. That's what's being said was said.

INTERVIEW: O.K. Can you talk to me about this?

AXL: People have taken two parts that they wre offended by and combined them into one sentence and said that's what I said. l find that amazing. What l said, and the first thing said, is, "Police and niggers, that's right, get outa my way." That's what I said.

INTERVIEW: You said what?

AXL: l said, "Police and niggers, that's right, get outa my way." I'd had four or five black guys trying to rob me who were all junkies. And a couple of other guys trying to sell me gold chains. l had just gotten off the bus and people were grabbing my backpack. It was a very scary, heavy situation for me. l just got off the bus, into boom "You're in Hell, son."

INTERVIEW: just one thing --

AXL: And, a black man --

INTERVIEW: Can you just straighten something out for me a sec?

AXL: Walt, wait, one second. A black man is the one who got me out of that situation, and l call him an angel. l always have. The police were shoving me out of the way.

INTERVIEW: Is this line a lyric, though, or is it something you said on the stage?

AXL: No, that's a lyric. It's a lyric in a song called "One In a Million." It was originally written as comedy. It was written watching Sam Kinison during one of his first specials. I was sitting around with friends, drunk, with no money. One of my friends had just gotten robbed for seventy-eight cents on Christmas by two black men.

INTERVIEW: And the other lyric, where you use the word "faggot"...I'm asking you this --

AXL: That's O.K. --

INTERVIEW: -- because l want you to talk to me about this thing where people say, "Axl Rose is homophobic."

AXL: Well, a lot of people have used the word "faggot," and they're not getting told they're homophobic. But, homophobia? O.K. I'll repeat myself -- this is something that l just said in Rolling Stone. I don't know, maybe l have a problem with homophobia. Maybe l was two years old and got fucked in the ass by my dad and it's caused a problem ever since, but other than that, l don't know if I have any homophobia. How was that?

INTERVIEW: Well...

AXL: That's a fact. That's something that happened and that's some of the damage I've been working on.

INTERVIEW: Jesus!

AXL: O.K. So anyway, homophobia? The song is very generic. it's very vague, it's very simple, it was meant to be that way, it was written that way. It was like, O.K., I'm writing this song as l want to -- l want this song to be like "Midnight Cowboy." That guy was very naive and involved in everything. The cowboy. My friend who got robbed, he was like Dustin Hoffman's character. l wanted the song to be written from that point of view. l wrote it to deal with my anger and my fear and my vulnerability in that situation, that l still felt uncomfortable with, that happened to me. That was the "police and niggers" line. But now we move on to another line that says, "immigrants and faggots, they make no sense to me/ they come to our country and spread some fucking disease." O.K., l wrote that, being a songwriter, and being an abstract songwriter and using my artistic license. The "immigrants" line, the part that says they come to our country -- wait, I just said my own verse wrong. I said what someone else said it was, that I'm really upset about. Sorry. It says, "Immigrants and faggots, 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 / and they talk so many goddamned ways / it's all Greek to me." O.K.? I can understand not understanding what the hell I meant in that, because I jumbled two thought patterns together.

INTERVIEW: Among other things, that was interpreted as though you're saying stuff about AIDS.

AXL: It goes back and forth, it twists... Well, I am saying stuff about AIDS. The line about "faggots" was written after I heard a story from a sheriff about a man they had just arrested after just releasing from jail, and he had AIDS, and he was back out on Santa Monica Boulevard hooking. We were like, "Oh, my God." And this just happened to get stuck in the song, since we had a radical line like "police and niggers" -- we might as well go all the way now, we'll write something else just as obnoxious, because we were just writing off-color humor at the time. We were dealing with a situation that was really heavy, ugly, and scary, and so we were making light of it. l was being encouraged to write as l was writing.

INTERVIEW: Are you saying to me that you wrote what was going on in your mind?

AXL: And what was going on in the room I was in. And what was going on with a lot of people that I knew. There was a lot of confusion about a lot of issues, a lot of confusion about racism. We were being told this is "We Are the World." It wasn't fucking "We Are the World." It was "We Are the World" for a chosen few who did a nice little song or something, but dawn in the streets, it was war. That was being just glossed right over. People have said that I've devastated the consciousness of "We Are the World" and rah-rah-rah -- It's like, "No, your 'We Are the World' consciousness was a nice try, but all it did was gloss over the shit that's going on.'" And somehow, by some freak act of God, l exposed it all. You know? And people had to deal with the issues.

INTERVIEW: So you're saying to me that you exposed what was around you and yourself?

AXL: Yes.

(Click here for the whole interview.)

...and here's what he had to say about his controversial lyrics in Rolling Stone:

ROLLING STONE: Does is bother you that so many people think you're misogynous, homophobic and racist?

AXL: It can bother me. But the racist thing is just bullshit. I used a word that was taboo. And I used that word because it was taboo. 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. When I used the word faggots, I wasn't coming down on gays. I was coming down on an element of gays. I had just heard a story about a man who was released out of the L.A. county jail with AIDS and he was hooking. I've had my share of dealings with aggressive gays, and I was bothered by it. The Bible says, "Thou shalt not judge," and I guess I made a judgment call, and it was an insult. The racist thing, that's just stupid. I can understand how people would think that, but that's not how I meant it. I believe that there's always gonna be some form of racism -- as much as we'd like there to be peace -- because peopIe are different. Black culture is different. I work with a black man every day (Earl Gabbidon, Rose's bodyguard), and he's one of my best friends. There are things he's into that are definitely a "black thing." But I can like them. There are things that are that way. I think there always will be.

ROLLING STONE: People are afraid of things that are foreign to them.

AXL: It's that way with everything, you know? It's that way with people who are of the same race or same gender. Maybe now and then they'll reach a point where something happens, and they bond, and they're really close. But they're always going to have their differences. The most important thing about "One in a Million" is that it got people to think about racism. A lot of people thought I was talking about entire races or sectors of people. I wasn't. And there was an apology on the record. The apology is not even written that well, but it's on the cover of every record. And no one has acknowledged it yet. No one.

ROLLING STONE: What about the songs that are perceived as misogynist? A lot of people see songs like "Back Off Bitch" and "Locomotive" as a reflection of your current views on women.

AXL: Yeah, and that's wrong. I can understand that, because the records just came out. But "Back Off Bitch" is a ten-year-old song. I've been doing a lot of work and found out I've had a lot of hatred for women. Basically, I've been rejected by my mother since I was a baby. She's picked my stepfather over me ever since he was around and watched me get beaten by him. She stood back most of the time. Unless it got too bad, and then she'd come and hold you afterward. She wasn't there for me. My grandmother had a problem with men. I've gone back and done the work and found out I overheard my grandma going off on men when I was four. And I've had problems with my own masculinity because of that. l was pissed off at my grandmother for her problem with men and how it made me feel about being a man. So I wrote about my feelings in the songs.

(Click here for the whole interview.)

Not surprisingly, the song has been covered by bad-taste-whore Marilyn Manson. Here's what he had to say about it:

...Another song which Manson and band have covered for use on a future single is the equally controversial Guns ‘n’ Roses track ‘One In A Million’, on which singer Axl Rose stated: ‘Immigrants and faggots, they make no sense to me/They come to our country and spread some f**king disease’. The lyrics caused outrage back in ‘88, so much so that Rose was forced to make an awkward public apology for the offense caused to America’s black and gay populations.Manson views the song - and the storm of protest which followed - with a wicked fascination.

“It’s interesting to me that Axl Rose would write a song like that and then back down in the press and not be able to defend his statement,” he says. “If you’re going to have the balls to make that kind of statement, then you should be able to back it up. So I figure I’ll say it and then show him how it’s done properly. These people really don’t know how to do anything right!” Manson huffs. “I have to take up all their slack for them. I’m not doing it because I agree with their statements, but because someone needs to do it properly.”

And if there is fresh outrage when your version of ‘One In A Million’ is released?

“Go bother Axl Rose, he f**king wrote the song!” Manson cackles. “It’s not my f**king problem!” ...

Recently, Axl (who owns the GNR name outright) has decided to pull the song from pressings of 'Lies,' supposedly effective February 2000. Browsing through some of the CD seller sites shows that the song still remains intact as of this writing.

Moving on to the Smiths and their lyrical woes, we look to the allegations instigated by British publication The Sun. In 1983, they claimed that the lyrics to 'Handsome Devil' (The B-side to 'Hand in Glove,' the band's debut single) condoned child molestation. Gary Bushell's gossip column alleged that BBC Radio chiefs were to hold an emergency meeting to decide whether a 'song about child molesting' should be broadcast on The David Jensen Show. Here are the admittedly vague and questionable lyrics to 'Handsome Devil:'

All the streets are crammed with things
Eager to be held
I know what hands are for
And I'd like to help myself
You ask me the time
But I sense something more
And I would like to give
What I think you're asking for
You handsome devil
Oh, you handsome devil
Let me get my hands
On your mammary glands
And let me get your head
On the conjugal bed
I say, I say, I say
I crack the whip
And you skip
But you deserve it
You deserve it, deserve it, deserve it
A boy in the bush
Is worth two in the hand
I think I can help you get through your exams
Oh, you handsome devil
And when we're in your scholarly room
Who will swallow whom ?
When we're in your scholarly room
Who will swallow whom ?
You handsome devil
There's more to life than books, you know
But not much more
Oh, there's more to life than books, you know
But not much more, not much more
Oh, you handsome devil
Oh, you handsome devil

Here's what Morrissey had to say on the subject, gathered from the book 'Morrissey in his own words:'

"We were totally aghast at the Sun allegations, and even more so by Sounds. We really can't emphasise how much it upset us because it obviously was completely fabricated. I did an interview with a person called Nick Ferrari - and what developed in print was just a total travesty of the actual interview. It couldn't possibly be more diverse in opinon. Quite obviously we don't condone child molesting or anything that vaguely resembles it. What more can be said?"

"It's quite laughable coming from The Sun, which is so obviously obsessed with every aspect of sex so it's all really a total travesty of human nature that it's thrown at us, such sensitive and relatively restrained people. I live a life that befits a priest, virtually, and to be splashed about as a child molester - it's all unutterable."

"On the actual David Jensen session, one song, 'Reel Around the Fountain', was chopped simply because the word 'Child' was mentioned and they were frightened that people might put the wrong interpretation on it."

Members of both bands have proclaimed their own supremacy:

"To me, we were the best band to come out of england from between 1982 and 1987, and the best band in thw world that time, best rock band. Without anyone coming near us, or being able to touch us. No contest." - Johnny Marr, from the BBC's 'Young Guns Go for It.'

"People are dedicated to us because we deserve it. We try. Our reception hasn't surprised me at all. In fact, I think it will snowball even more dramatically over the immediate months - it really has to. I feel very comfortable about it, and I'm very pleased. It's all quite natural because I think we merit a great deal of attention." - Morrissey, November 1983.

"In all honesty, I think Guns N' Roses will be one of those bands that will be around forever." - Slash

Both bands featured "one-named" members.

GNR had Slash, the Smiths had Morrissey.

Neither singer used their real name.

Axl Rose was born William Bruce Rose, then his mother remarried and he became William or Bill Bailey. At age 17 he discovered his real father's surname was Rose, and he became William Rose, which he soon shortened to W. Rose ("Because William was an asshole name"). He then asked to be referred to as "Babe" for a short time, before finally settling on W. Axl Rose ('Axl' was a band featuring Izzy Stradlin and Chris Weber that Mr. Rose was a member of before GN'R). Interesting and Appropriate Facts:

Acronym: W.A.R.
Anagram: Oral Sex

Smiths singer Morrissey's real name is Stephen Patrick Morrissey.

Both lead Guitarists were from the UK, and neither used their real name.

Slash's real name is Saul Hudson, and he was born in Stoke-On-Trent, England.

Johnny Marr's real name is John Joseph Maher, and he was born in Manchester.

Both lead guitarists have been praised for their technique.

Guitar Player Magazine on Johnny Marr (January 1990):

"Despite their traditionalist streak, the Smiths developed an utterly original group sound, based largely on Marr's elaborate tapestries of overdubbed guitars. His oddball chord sequences and jarring major/minor melody clashes were leavened by a Beatlesesque sense of melody and an Olympic-sized palette of guitar tones. Marr's playing embraced the rock primitivism of the '60s, the funky groove of the '70s, and the bright, open-string chiminess of the '80s. He may have played a Rickenbacker, but there wasn't a Byrd in sight; it was a whole new angle on jingle-jangle."

10 WAYS TO AVOID BECOMING A GUITAR HERO

• Quit a wildly successful band -- and turn down offers from other successful bands -- for musical reasons.
• Avoid solos whenever possible.
• Play few single-note passages.
• Put songs before showmanship.
• Don't clutter your records, even if it means laying out.
• Be subtle in your innovations: Don't pose with a four-necked guitar; instead, concentrate on offbeat
• harmonic ideas, unusual tunings, weirdo chord voicings, and finely detailed accompaniment.
• Paint with a feather, not a firehose.
• Cite unfashionable influences.
• Violate pop music conventions whenever possible.
• Denounce guitar heroism loudly and frequently.

I don't think I really need to prove that Slash's playing has been commended. I mean, come on - it's Slash!

Both bands broke up after a lead singer couldn't see eye-to-eye with a lead guitarist.

Here's a little bit of the Smiths breakup story from Johnny's viewpoint:

"It started to just come to my mind over a period of like maybe 18 months, well, there is one solution. But it was just something that I didn't even want to think about. And then we did the last album which is actually my favorite album, and directly after making it, thing started to get a bit weird. And the atmosphere was really weird between us. And I fancied a two week holiday, and I was just treated like a pariah. I thought, 'right, well with all the crap that's going on, managers coming and going like it was a revolving door, the weird atmosphere around the band, plus musically, I was wanting to do other things,' I thought, 'now's the right time for it to finish,' y'know. And I didn't know what it was gonna do. I had no idea, but I thought, this is alright. Signing on is better than this, really." - Johnny Marr

"I think he almost had a nervous breakdown, and had had enough of all the pressure and needed a break. And he went on holiday for a couple of weeks, and I think a week before he came back, there was a story in the NME that Johnny had left the band, and that's what he came back to. So he came back and he was obviously pissed off and he said alright fuck it then, yeah, I've left the band." - Andy Rourke

Interviewer: Did that cause a rift personally between you and Morrissey?

Marr: Oh god! You're not kiddin'! We didn't speak to each other for a long time, and there was a lot of vieled sort of weird nonsense, y'know, between us in the press and all that which I just had to back out of in the end. 'Hate' was a big word at that time.

The convoluted situation that led to GN'R's silence is best explained by the band's manager, Doug Goldstein (Taken from a letter to Newsweek):

"Beginning with the termination of Steven Adler in 1990, the band had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to record basic tracks (trying to get the drums and bass recorded). Steven had a number of drug issues that I personally was trying to help him with. After numerous failed attempts at re-habilitation, the band's producer, and their former manager, convinced Slash and Duff to fire Steven. Axl was the last person to sign Steven's termination document. He sat with it for over a week until the then manager convinced him that it was the right decision."

"After recording ''Use Your Illusions'' the band embarked on a worldwide tour to support the records. Sometime in 1991, during a break in touring, Izzy Stradlin called me to inform me that he wanted to leave the project. He thought the whole thing was insanity. The rampant drug and alcohol abuse by the rest of the band (with the exception of Axl), and being in a different city everyday was too tough for him to maintain his own sobriety. He informed me that he ''just wanted to be in one of the biggest club bands in the world, not one of the biggest bands in the world''. We respected his decision, but needed to quickly find a replacement for the impending dates. We were able to find Gilby Clarke. Gilby toured with us to complete the ''Illusions'' tour. Shortly thereafter Axl and Gilby spoke about what Axl wanted to try next."

"After Izzy's departure Axl felt Guns could use a little help in the writing department. Axl thought the addition of another guitar player (#3) would help the situation. Unhappy with this, Gilby stated ''I don't want to be in Molly Hatchet'' and quit."

"In 1996, Slash decided to walk away from Guns N' Roses. He wanted to pursue his Solo career and musically he had gone in a different direction from the other band members. He was not fired, point of fact we made every effort to keep the band intact. He brought in a completed album, and no one in the band thought it was a viable way to work. Historically the band has always collaborated on material, and this wasn't done with Slash's music. He left with his music and recorded it as Slash's Snakepit. With hopes of success, he failed to convey these events to the public."

Both bands have been in and out of the courts because of shady division of rights.

Here is a brief summation of the different standpoints in the Smiths legal battles, taken from the BBC series 'Young Guns Go For It:'

"My recollection is of a certain way, and Johnny and Morrissey's is of another way, and I'm sure the window cleaner who was cleaning the windows at the time, if he were to look in, he probably would have said something different as well." - Mike Joyce, Smiths Drummer.

"When I went to Manchester with the Rough Trade contract, I was fully expecting it to be signed by all four members. But at the point of signiture, Johnny and Morrissey signed it, and gave it back to me. It became apparent, in that second, that there was a divide, in terms of the way Johnny and Morrissey percieved the business aspects of the group." - Geoff Travis, Managing Director at Rough Trade Records.

"There were only two spaces for the signitures. So me and Mike were like, 'What's all this about then?' and Geoff explained to us that there was only two signitures necessary, and the obvious ones would be Johnny and Morrissey, but it wouldn't effect us in any way. (laughs)" - Andy Rourke, Smiths Bassist.

"I certainly didn't instigate it, I didn't make any phone call to Rough Trade, let's put it that way. And say 'Hey, let's make sure there's only two names on the contract.' It just wasn't in my sphere of conciousness, it wasn't something I would've thought of, you know. (Interviewer: 'Somebody Did.') Somebody did, yeah. And you have to maybe ask 'Somebody else' about that. What bothered me was, whether we were going to make two albums or three albums or four albums. That's all I was worried about." - Johnny Marr

"I'm not a session player, I'm the drummer in the Smiths. The Smiths signed a deal with Rough Trade, Johnny and Morrissey signed it. I've signed a deal with Rough Trade, right? Obviously things panned out differently. What I didn't know, which I found out, was that Johnny and Morrissey wrote on a little card, around that time, that they were the Smiths, everybody else around them could be sacked at any point, nobody else could disagree with anything that Johnny and Morrissey say, and they all signed it in the presence of Geoff." - Mike Joyce.

"We were doing a vocal, and then he nics out for some water or some crisps or something, and a half hour goes by, and he's not back. And another half hour went by and he still wasn't back. Two and three hours went by, we didn't know where he was, we couldn't find him. And then later on that evening we got a phone call from Rough Trade, saying, he was at rough trade, and he wasn't coming back until we sorted out, and he didn't come back until the business was sorted out. - Johnny Marr.

"Johnny Marr came in and said, Morrissey wants us to get a higher percentage - more money. And Johnny says, if you don't accept it, I'm going to leave the band." - Mike Joyce.

"All me and Mike were trying to do was to stop Johnny leaving the band, and I hope that he, in hindsight, realizes that that was a good thing." - Andy Rourke.

"He thought that me and Andy (Rourke) should only get 10%. Well... I was in the back of the van. I did the gigs." - Mike Joyce

Mike Joyce sucessfully claimed an equal share of the Smith's record royalties in the courts. Andy Rourke settled out of court and continues to recieve 10%. Morrissey has unsuccessfully petitioned the House of Lords to get Joyce's Judgement overturned.

Moving on to GNR, we find all sorts of lawsuits. A brief sampling:

First, ex-drummer Steven Adler filed legal proceedings against Guns N' Roses, eventually winning a $2.5 million out-of-court payment.

Next, ex-Axl bandmate Chris Weber sued both Axl and GNR, claiming he co-wrote both 'Shadow of Your Love' and 'Back Off Bitch.' (article)

Then, GN'R's management company, Big F D Entertainment (headed up by Doug Goldstein) sued both Slash and Duff, claiming that they owed them upwards of $400,000. (article)

Both lead singers have launched recent endeavors cashing in on former glory.

Axl Rose has released a new single under the GNR name, entitled 'Oh My God.' It was featured in the Arnold Scwarzenegger movie 'End of Days,' and can be found on it's soundtrack. Rose has also announced plans for a forthcoming full-length GNR album called 'Chinese Democracy.'

Morrissey has recently launched a solo tour through the U.S. and Europe, selling out shows and playing several Smiths songs at each date. The Smiths video collection has also been reissued on DVD.

Reader additions

1.) "BOTH BANDS SUCK!!"

2.) "Hey this is al from usounds (and from thewebtoday.com, etc) right on with the Smiths, GnR article!! I emailed it to all my friends, because I used to have many of the same theories, and even used to do this entire comedy routine about how Morrissey's best album ever would be a song-for-song cover of Appetite For Destruction. To realize the comedic value, all you have to do is sing "Welcome to the Jungle" in a Morrissey voice and inflection."