My Michelle

At the time of recording My Michelle, guitarist Slash opted for a different sound from the rest of the album Appetite for Destruction. While for the other songs he used a modified Gibson Les Paul with a Marshall amplifier, for this particular piece he chose a 1960s Gibson SG, seeking a darker tone.

There are two accounts of how the song came to be. One version points to a band friend, Michelle Young, who is thanked on the album cover. Slash had known her since high school, and she was a friend of his first girlfriend. According to Axl Rose, while traveling together, "Your Song" by Elton John played, and Young commented that she had always wished someone would write a song for her. Rose’s first attempt was a sweet ballad, but it didn’t reflect the reality of Michelle’s life. Unsatisfied, he rewrote it with total honesty. Some band members, especially Slash, expressed concern that the song might upset Young. Despite their doubts, Rose showed it to her, and she liked it, particularly for its sincerity in addressing topics like her drug addiction, her mother’s death, and her father’s work in the porn industry—all mentioned in the first verse. It’s said that Young later rehabilitated and moved away to leave that lifestyle behind. The other version suggests the song was inspired by an incident before the band’s fame, where a young woman destroyed equipment during a rehearsal, culminating with Axl fleeing from the police. During the 2006 tours in New York and Europe, Axl Rose shared vocals with Sebastian Bach, vocalist of Skid Row.

Appetite for Destruction, the debut album by Guns N’ Roses, was released on 21 July 1987 by Geffen Records. Recording took place between 18 January and 23 June of that year, with Mike Clink as producer. Many of the album’s lyrics reflect the daily lives and youth of its members. The cover features a design with skulls representing each of the five members: Izzy Stradlin, Steven Adler, Axl Rose, Duff McKagan, and Slash. Initially, the album didn’t attract much attention, but the following year it became a commercial success after the band’s tours. The song My Michelle, lasting 3:40, was composed by the members of Guns N’ Roses and produced by Mike Clink, with mixing handled by Michael Barbiero and Steve Thompson.