Guns N' Roses released The Spaghetti Incident? on November 23, 1993, through Geffen Records. Their fifth studio album was a covers collection built largely around their punk and hard rock influences. Its opening song reached further back: Axl Rose singing The Skyliners’ 1958 doo-wop recording “Since I Don’t Have You.”
The album grew out of material the band already knew through playing together. “These were all songs we played in soundcheck or live over the years,” bassist Duff McKagan told Classic Rock. He recalled that there hadn’t initially been a plan for an entire record; that idea emerged after several songs were recorded. Work overlapped with Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II, and the band returned to the studio to finish the covers after its tour ended in 1993.
McKagan’s role extended well beyond choosing songs. He took lead vocals on The Damned’s “New Rose” and the Misfits’ “Attitude,” then handled vocals, bass, drums and acoustic guitar on Johnny Thunders’ “You Can’t Put Your Arms Around a Memory.” He also co-produced that track with Jim Mitchell. A release centered on other people’s songwriting gave listeners more of McKagan as a singer and multi-instrumentalist.
Some recording had to fit around the touring schedule. Guitarist Gilby Clarke told Guitar World in 2020 that “Since I Don’t Have You” was recorded in Boston using rented equipment because the band’s own gear was being shipped between shows. Clarke added acoustic guitar to the arrangement. For his rhythm-guitar overdubs elsewhere on the album, he remembered having a single day with producer Mike Clink, working out his parts without advance rough mixes.
The duet on “Ain’t It Fun” began with another musician sharing records. Michael Monroe, formerly of Hanoi Rocks, told Classic Rock in a 2023 interview that he had made Rose a cassette of the Dead Boys’ first two albums. They were listening in Rose’s car in Hollywood when “Ain’t It Fun” caught his attention. Rose called Slash about getting the band together to record it, with Monroe joining him on vocals. For Monroe, the song also offered a way to remember his friend Stiv Bators, the Dead Boys singer who had died in 1990.
The two singers faced each other inside a circle of candles, repeating a studio ritual Monroe had shared with Bators. Monroe said he didn’t ask for a fee. He wanted a dedication to Bators in the album credits, and Guns N’ Roses included it.
There was a practical reason to record these songs, too. McKagan explained that sales could generate royalties for musicians the band admired. The album also included an unlisted cover of Charles Manson’s “Look at Your Game, Girl,” whose presence prompted objections about Manson receiving royalties. Geffen Records announced that its own share from that track would go to the Doris Tate Crime Victims Bureau. Questions about who would benefit from the recordings became part of the album’s public reception.
For Brian James, who wrote “New Rose,” the financial benefit was personal. The Damned guitarist told Guitar World he had been short of cash and wanted to move from England to France. He described the income from Guns N’ Roses’ recording as particularly useful at that point in his life.
