Guns N' Roses Past and Present Plan "Appetite" Anniversary Celebrations

Looking for a way to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of Guns N' Roses classic Appetite for Destruction? So are the rest of the current lineup and an assortment of former members. Onetime Gun Steven Adler plus former L.A. Gun Tracii Guns will play a show on July 28 at Hollywood's Key Club with their own bands, Adler's Appetite and L.A. Guns, to "pay tribute" to the 1987 release. The "new" GN'R will be performing on the actual date of Appetite's release, July 21, in Osaka, Japan. And of course you could start lining up two weeks early for Velvet Revolver's August 6 tour date at Verona, New York's Turning Stone Resort Casino. And if you want to know what Gilby Clarke, Josh Freese, Paul Tobias or Buckethead are doing to commemorate this special anniversary, you're on your own.

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Song Stories

“Smells Like Teen Spirit”

Nirvana | 1991

"Smells Like Teen Spirit," named after a brand of deodorant marketed to girls, was Kurt Cobain's attempt to "write the ultimate pop song," he said, using the soft-loud dynamic of his favorite band, the Pixies. Cobain "had that dichotomy of punk rage and alienation," the song’s producer, Butch Vig, told Rolling Stone, "but also this vulnerable pop sensibility. In 'Teen Spirit,' a lot of that vulnerability is in the tone of his voice." Sadly, by the time of Nirvana's last U.S. tour, in late '93, Cobain was tortured by the obligation to play "Teen Spirit" every night. "There are many other songs that I have written that are as good, if not better," he claimed.

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