How Guns N’ Roses scored ‘You Could Be Mine’ in The Terminator, according to Slash

The year is 1991. Fans all over the planet are looking forward to the next steps of the Armas e Rosaswhich had established itself as a popular phenomenon at the end of the previous decade.

The debut album, Appetite for Destruction, was launched in 1987, but only really exploded a year later. The public’s demand for more material from this young Los Angeles band was so great that a mini-album, GN’R Lies (1988), was improvised with four acoustic tracks (including the hit “Patience”) and four others from the EP “Live?!*@ Like a Suicide” (1986).

A re-recording of “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” (Bob Dylan) came out in 1990, as part of the film soundtrack Days of Thunder. At the beginning of 1991, some new songs were played live at the festival Rock in Rio. But it wasn’t until the middle of that year that the public got a glimpse of the company’s next steps. Gunsthrough “You Could Be Mine”.

The track was made available as a single in June 1991, also as part of the soundtrack for a film: The Terminator 2: Judgment Day. It reached a relatively shy 29th place on the American chart, but reached the top 5 in eight countries, including Australia, Sweden and the United Kingdom. The music video, with scenes from the feature film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger — and even an interaction between the musicians and the actor —, entered heavy rotation on MTV, as a preview of the albums Use Your Illusionto be made available in August.

In an interview with Total Guitarthe guitarist slash revealed details regarding the composition of “You Could Be Mine” and told how the song ended up on the soundtrack of Terminator 2. Initially, regarding the creation, the member of the Guns said that the bases had existed for a long time.

“We started writing this song and ‘Perfect Crime’ when we were doing pre-production on Appetite for Destruction. ‘You Could Be Mine’ it was one of the riffs of Izzy (Stradlin), guitar player). As always happened with Izzy, he would play something, that thing would catch my attention and then I would play along, but in my own style. That was what was so magical about Izzy and me: we never stopped to try to solve anything, it was natural.”

The top hat guitarist even admits that “You Could Be Mine” era, on the albums Use Your Illusionthe closest thing to Appetite for Destruction. The weight in the performance and the hedonistic lyrics confirm this.

Entrance to the Terminator 2 trail

The composition process was simple, so the input for the soundtrack Terminator 2 it wouldn’t be that different. slash says that everyone in the band was a fan of Arnold Schwarzenegger — and they soon discovered that the opposite was true. An interview with the actor, available on YouTubeconfirms this.

“They are big fans of exterminator and they have expressed this many times. And I’ve always been a fan of their music. So we went looking to see what it would be like to make a video together or to get some of their music.”

Schwarzeneggerin fact, was essential for the inclusion of the track in the film’s soundtrack. slash reveals:

“I know that Arnold he liked the song, because he was the one who made the final decision. Duff (McKagan, bassist) and I went to spend some time at his house. He seemed to be interested in the whole thing. We take several doses with Arnold!”

O Armas e Rosas he would still put other of his songs on film soundtracks. In 1994, a cover of “Sympathy for the Devil” (Rolling Stones) entered an Interview with the Vampire — being the final recording of Slash and Duff McKagan until their returns in 2016, in addition to saying goodbye to Matt Sorum (battery). Five years later, with a new lineup, the group achieved success “Oh meu deus” in the feature Fim dos Dias and a partial re-recording of “Sweet Child O’Mine” in The Big Daddy.