Kurt Cobain’s Feud With Guns N’ Roses Began Over a Controversial Song

The rivalry between Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain and Guns N’ Roses’ Axl Rose grew from clashing values and a public confrontation at the 1992 MTV VMAs, when Rose threatened Cobain. Cobain refused to have Nirvana support the planned Guns N’ Roses/Metallica stadium tour and later called the band “talentless,” effectively ensuring the two acts could not move past their animosity.

Much of Cobain’s hostility centered on the Guns N’ Roses song “One in a Million,” released in 1988 on G N' R Lies. The track contained derogatory lines about the Black community, members of the LGBTQ+ community, and immigrants, and Cobain condemned Rose for the song’s racist and homophobic slurs, seeing it as emblematic of everything he opposed.

Rose has said the song was written about being hustled at a Greyhound bus station and did not shy away from inflammatory language.

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