Is Guns N’ Roses’ ‘Paradise City’ About a Real Place?

You’ve got heard it, your mother and father have heard it and even your grandparents have in all probability heard it. Weapons N’ Roses’ “Paradise Metropolis” is undoubtedly one of the vital well-known rock songs, however what place is it really based mostly on?

The observe is a staple for the rockers. Featured on their 1987 debut album Urge for food for Destruction, it has been performed at almost each single one in every of their live shows [via Setlist.fm], and is sort of all the time the closing track of the present. And in January of 2024 — 35 years after it was launched as a single — it surpassed 1 billion streams on Spotify. The music video is not fairly there but on YouTube, nevertheless it nonetheless has a whopping 806 million views.

For sure, it is a massive track, and also you in all probability know extra folks that have at the least heard the refrain than individuals who have not. So, let’s dive into the historical past of it.

What Is the Backstory of Weapons N’ Roses’ ‘Paradise Metropolis’?

Slash wrote in his 2007 self-titled autobiography that the concept for “Paradise Metropolis” was born on the best way house from a Jetboy present that Weapons N’ Roses opened for in San Francisco. The guitarist was messing round on his acoustic guitar of their rental van and got here up with the melody, after which Duff McKagan and Izzy Stradlin joined in too. Slash began buzzing, after which Axl Rose sang, “Take me all the way down to the paradise metropolis.”

Slash stated he chimed in with the following few traces, “The place the grass is inexperienced and the women are fairly,” however he thought it was corny. After Rose repeated his authentic line, Slash got here up with a brand new one: “The place the women are fats they usually’ve bought massive titties.”

Clearly, the latter phrase did not make it onto the ultimate recording.

Is ‘Paradise Metropolis’ Primarily based on a Actual Place?

There is not any report of any of the members of Weapons N’ Roses saying that “Paradise Metropolis” was impressed by a particular metropolis or city, however Rose, who’s from Lafayette, Indiana, informed Hit Parader in a 1988 interview that “the verses are extra about being within the jungle; the refrain is like being again within the Midwest or someplace.”

READ MORE: There Are Solely 4 Songs Weapons N’ Roses Have By no means Performed Stay

The “jungle” might have been a reference to a metropolis comparable to New York or Los Angeles, each of which served as inspiration for the lyrics to their different large Urge for food track “Welcome to the Jungle.”

The place Was the ‘Paradise Metropolis’ Music Video Filmed?

The music video for “Paradise Metropolis” options footage from two of the band’s performances in 1988 — one in every of which happened at Giants Stadium in New Jersey whereas they had been on tour with Aerosmith, and the opposite was on the legendary Monsters of Rock competition in Donington Park in England.