Guns N' Roses

Sourced

• Did you wear a black arm band when they shot the man who said "peace could last forever"? And in my first memories they shot Kennedy, I went numb when I learned to see. So I never felt for Vietnam, we've got the wall of D.C. to remind us all that you can't trust freedom when it's not in your hands, when everybody's fighting for their promised land.
  • "Civil War", Use Your Illusion II (1991)

• What's so civil about war anyway?
  • "Civil War", Use Your Illusion II (1991)

About the band

• Everyone in the band wore their influences on their sleeves and there was not a bit of the typical L.A. vibe going on where the goal is to court a record deal. There was no concern for the proper poses or goofy choruses that might spell pop-chart success; which ultimately guaranteed endless hot chicks. That type of calculated rebellion wasn't an option for us; we were too rabid a pack of musically like-minded gutter rats. We were passionate, with a common goal and a very distinct sense of integrity. That was the difference between us and them.
  • Slash, in Bozza, Anthony, & Slash (2007). Slash. Harper Entertainment: New York. p. 99.

• It makes sense that the bands first show took place in Seattle because as much as L.A. was our address, we had as much in common with the average "L.A." band as Seattle's weather has with Southern California.
  • Slash, in Bozza, Anthony, & Slash (2007). Slash. Harper Entertainment: New York. p. 108.

• The truth is, all we ever cared to do was top the bullshit hair metal bands that enjoyed undue success for their subpar existence.
  • Slash, in Bozza, Anthony, & Slash (2007). Slash. Harper Entertainment: New York. p. 237.

• Most of the girls who dated us back then were these innocent chicks whose lives were changed forever after one of us came into it for however long it lasted. We were like a vacuum back then that sucked people up and spit them out; a ton of people around us fell by the wayside that way. Some people died, not because of anything we did, but as a side effect of being too close to the flame. People would get attracted to our fucked-up weird life and just get it wrong and drown in our riptide.
  • Slash, in Bozza, Anthony, & Slash (2007). Slash. Harper Entertainment: New York. p. 256.

Unsourced

• No matter how much money they throw in our faces, there's no reason for us to get together...unless there's a mutual respect and understanding...and we're way far from that.
  • Slash, 2004

• • Civil war