Though his time with Guns N’ Roses was brief, from the time they formed in 1985 through his departure in 1991, as a founding member of the band, guitarist Izzy Stradlin was also a chief songwriter throughout the majority of the Guns N’ Roses’ catalog.
Once Stradlin left his hometown of Lafayette, Indiana, and moved west to Hollywood, like his childhood friend Axl Rose, the two eventually reconnected playing briefly in the band Hollywood Rose before forming Guns N’ Roses in 1985.
Right from the start Stradlin, along with Rose, Slash, Duff McKagan, and Steven Adler, were documenting the grittier sediments and earlier daze of life in Hollywood from 1987 debut Appetite for Destruction through their double-dosed Use Your Illusion in 1991.
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A key songwriter in the band, Stradlin along with Rose also co-wrote two of Guns N’ Roses’ biggest hits: “Don’t Cry” from Use Your Illusion I and “You Could Be Mine,” which was featured in the film Terminator 2: Judgment Day and on Use Your Illusion II, and “14 Years.”
By the early ’90s, Stradlin was building his book of songs. Shortly after parting ways with Guns, Stradlin released his solo debut, Izzy Stradlin And the Ju Ju Hounds in 1992, and 10 more solo albums through Wave of Heat in 2010 with ex-bandmate McKagan and The Georgia Satellites’ Rick Richard playing on most of his releases.
Long after leaving Guns N’ Roses, and playing his final show as a member of the band on November 7, 1991, at Wembley Stadium in London, Stradlin’s mark was already branded on the band. Within the Guns N’ Roses catalog, there are even a few tracks even Stradlin penned solo. Here’s a look at three of them.
“You Ain’t the First”
On Use Your Illusion I, Stradlin co-wrote six tracks—”Right Next Door to Hell,” “Dust N’ Bones,” “Don’t Cry,” “Perfect Crime,” “Bad Obsession,” and “Bad Apples”—along with two on his own, including “You Ain’t the First,” a recount on the demise of a temporary relationship.
I tried so hard just to get through to you
But your head’s so far from the realness of truth
Was it just a come-on in the dark, wasn’t meant to last long?
I think you’ve worn your welcome, honey, I’ll just see you along
As I sing you this song
One, two, three, one
Time can pass slowly and things always change
Your day’s been numbered, and I’ve read your last page
You was just a temporary lover, honey, you ain’t the first
Lots of others came before you, woman
Said, but you’ve been the worst
Said you’ve been the worst
“Double Talkin’ Jive”
After police found human body parts in a garbage can near the band’s recording studio, Stradlin offered up his second solo contribution to the first Use Your Illusion I, “Double Talkin’ Jive.”
“One event that got everyone talking during the recording of Illusions I and II was the day there was a huge commotion in the alley,” recalled Slash in his 2007 self-titled memoir. “It turned out that the cops found a dismembered arm and a head in the dumpster behind the studio. All I know is that we didn’t do it, but Izzy turned the event into a lyric on ‘Double Talkin’ Jive.'”
Slash added, “And I got to do a great Spanish flamenco thing on that track, which was a gas to do. That song has a really cool electric solo, too, that morphs into an acoustic flamenco groove.”
In 2023, former Guns N’ Rose drummer Matt Sorum released his memoir, Double Talkin’ Jive: True Rock ‘n’ Roll Stories from the Drummer of Guns N’ Roses, The Cult, and Velvet Revolver.
Found a head and an arm in da garbage can
Don’t know why I’m here
Livin’ on the run for oh so long
I gotta go collect
Double talkin’ jive get the money motherfucker
‘Cause I got no more patience
Double talkin’ I got (lies)
No more patience man
Back in town an’a all new friends
They sayin’ how ya been?
Fucked up and outta place
That’s how I felt back then
Read our 2023 interview with Matt Sorum talking ‘Double Talkin’ Jive’ and more HERE.
“Pretty Tied Up (The Perils of Rock ‘N’ Roll Decadence)”
A bondage scene with a dominatrix where the man was technically the one tied up, inspired Stradlin to write this Use Your Illusion II track. “My Mexican friend Tony took me to meet his woman named Margot at her house,” revealed Stradlin in 1992. “She gave us some tequila and she goes in the bedroom, and we walk in there and there’s this big fat naked guy with an onion in his mouth. He’s wearing women’s underwear and high heels, and he’s tied up with duct tape against the wall. Me and Tony were like, ‘What the fuck is going on here?’ Cracking up laughing. She was this dominatrix chick.”
He added, “We sat around her living room for the rest of the afternoon, listening to records, and she’d go in the bedroom and do her thing. At the end of the day, she turned him loose and he paid her all this money. She took us out to eat. There was this whole scene of dominatrix chicks who worked in the S&M clubs. They’d beat on guys and after work, they’d take a musician out to dinner, let you stay at their place sometimes.”
Stradlin later wrote “Pretty Tied Up” at this house in Los Angeles before the band headed off for a writing session in Chicago. At the time Stradlin was high on heroin, according to Slash, and crafted a sitar out of a broomstick, strings, and a cymbal.
“I remember that Izzy had taken a cymbal and a broomstick and some strings, and had made a sitar out of it,” wrote Slash. “Needless to say, Izzy was pretty fucking high.”
In the recorded version, Stradlin is playing an actual electric sitar.
Once there was this rock n’ roll band
Rollin’ on the streets
Time went by and it became a joke
We just needed more and more fulfilling
Time went by and it all went up in smoke
But check it out
She’s pretty tied up hangin’ upside down
She’s pretty tied up an you can ride her
She’s pretty tied up hangin’ upside down
Ohh I can’t tell you she’s the right one
Oh no, oh no, oh no
Once you made that money it costs more now
It might cost a lot more than you’d think
I just found a million dollars
that someone forgot
It’s days like this that push me o’er the brinks
Cool and stressing
Photo: Paul Natkin/Getty Images
