Oh My God

by **Soulmonster** Sat Aug 21, 2010 3:04 pm

OH MY GOD

Albums:

End Of Days soundtrack, track no. 5, November 1999.

Written by:
Axl Rose, Paul Tobias, Dizzy Reed.

Musicians:
Axl Rose - vocals
Dave Navarro - guitar
Gary Sunshine - guitar
Paul Tobias - guitar
Tommy Stinson - bass guitar
Josh Freese - drums, percussion
Dizzy Reed - keyboards, synthesizer
Chris Pitman - keyboards, synthesizer

Live performances:
'Oh My God' was played live for the first time at the House of Blues, January 1, 2001. In total it has, as of {UPDATEDATE}, at least been played {OHMYGODSONGS} times.

Lyrics:

It's not how you're thinking
or as you've imagined
to live in a shade of
beliefs that were fashioned
to leave you in slavery and drain out your soul
and What can I do when there's so many liars
That crawl through your veins
Like millions of spiders
That seek out their victims
And who is the wiser
Watch out
Gotcha

Oh my god
I can't deny this
I've been taught just to kill and fight this
don't bury it deeper where nobody can find it
Like nobody wanted to know

So give it away
Like they're not gonna fuck you
How much can you bear him
To come back and haunt you
To run past your demons
And cause you to suffer
You're starting to bleed
if the dont discover
Before its too late
What will you offer
In way of a healing
I'm so confused, confused, misused

Oh my god
I can't deny this
I've been taught just to kill and fight this
dont bury it deeper where nobody can find it
cuz nobody wouldn't know

Ooh, if it opens your eyes
This is better than a strong compromise
I was willing to be lost in the shuffle
If only you had let me know
Ooh, if it opens your eyes
This is better than the last compromise
I was willing to be lost in the shadows
If only you had let me know

And they wont give in
Cause they know what they're after
A kick in the face
Like its all that would matter
and Oooohhhhh

Oh my god
I can't deny this
I've been taught just to murder and fight this
dont bury it deeper where nobody can find it
Cuz nobody wouldn't know

Ooh, if it opens your eyes
This is better than a good compromise
I was willing to be lost in the shuffle
If only you had let me know

Ooh, well when we're done with the show
Like the tides down on the ocean
The waves already set in motion
The only one in the game who's lost is you

Quotes regarding the song

In connection with the release, Axl would release a statement:

So here's the story behind this music...

The chorus: OH MY GOD etc. deals with the societal repression of deep and often agonizing emotions -- some of which may be willingly accepted for one reason or another -- the appropriate expression of which (one that promotes a healing, release and a positive resolve) is often discouraged and many times denied. Emotionally the song contemplates several abstract perspectives drawing from personal expression as well as from the film (End Of Days) and its metaphors. The appropriate expression and vehicle for such emotions and concepts is not something taken for granted.

Musically the song was primarily written by Paul Huge over two years ago, with Dizzy Reed writing the musical hook of the chorus. Former member Duff McKagan as well as former employee Matt Sorum failed to see its potential and showed no interest in exploring, let alone recording the piece. When the demos were played for the new band, Josh, Tommy and Robin were as they say 'all over it.'

Once the opportunity was presented, the song was given priority in our recording process. As the verse, performance and lyrics were decided on, for us (that especially includes Interscope chairman Jimmy Iovine) the choice became obvious. We were more than pleased Mr. Roswell (the film's music supervisor) agreed! Our thanks to Arnold and all for the consideration -- it is an association in which we have always felt honored.

Paul Huge, Gary Sunshine and Dave Navarro appear on the song as well as Robin Finck. Robin's part was written by Paul and extensively manipulated by our producer, Sean Beaven. Robin was not involved in the writing of the final recording though did participate in the arrangement. All lyrics were written by myself. Additional programming (jack boots, screeching tires, etc.) was by Stuart White.

The fight of good vs. evil, positive vs. negative, man against a seemingly undefeatable, undeterrable, unrevealed destiny, along with the personal and universal struggle to attain, maintain and responsibly manage freewill can be and often is frustrating to say the least. In America our country's constitutional right to freedom of expression gives us a better chance to fight for that expression than many in other countries enjoy. It can be a big gig, like kickin' the crap outta the devil!

Power to the people, peace out and blame Canada.

Rolling Stone, September 22, 1999

The song would feature a guitar solo from Dave Navarro [MTV, November 8, 1999] who had been drafted in since Robin had left:

Robin's departure was abrupt, sudden, you know, not expected but at the same time, it's turned out to be a good thing. We've been able to push some of the guitar parts a step farther, that had he been here, it's not something that would have been considered, and I wouldn't have been rude enough to attempt to do that. Robin did a great job, but we've been able to up the ante a little bit. Dave came in and did something great on "Oh My God," and we've had a few other people come in, so that was a setback for a while, but then it's turned out to be a good thing.

MTV, November 8, 1999

Robin would comment upon the track which he had had no part in writing and recording:

We recorded a lot of cool songs and potential tracks. I hope [Oh My God] not very typical of them.

Hartford Courant, May 4, 2000

Axl would talk about Navarro:

I've always been a fan of Dave Navarro, to the point that when we got signed, I had a Jane's Addiction demo tape [laughs] and was actually trying to convince the record company, "No, no, no, no, I suck. We suck. These guys rock!" And I was trying to get Tom Zutaut, at the time [at Geffen], to sign Jane's Addiction, and he was actually in negotiations to sign them at one point. I was just into Jane's Addiction.

[…]

That's really what finally got the public to find some interest in Guns N' Roses, and there was a lot less [interest] for Jane's Addiction. Where now, I think, we would consider Jane's Addiction one of the great rock and roll bands in the last however many years. They were a great band, they were a bit ahead of their time. I was a very big fan of them, and Dave.

Dave's a great guitar player. It's a different style. It's not like Guns N' Roses. It's not blues-based, and it's not all that Guns N' Roses is, and that was done on purpose. There will be elements of blues-based things on the new Guns record. It's a very diverse record. There's a lot of hip-hop beats, there's straight-ahead rock. But if someone says, "Hip-hop beats," what do you mean by that? Well, Radiohead uses beats that are similar to hip-hop beats. There's actual, "official" hip-hop beats and then there's "Radiohead-style" hip-hop beats, there's rock beats. Like I say, "Oh My God" has a disco beat in it. I read a review where somebody caught that. That made me laugh.

MTV, November 8, 1999

And Navarro would talk about the project:

There's no story. We didn't hook up at, like, The Rainbow and said, 'Hey, let's get together and do a song.' They just called me up, and I went down to the studio. I spent about an hour and a half there. I played a guitar solo, and that's it.

MTV News, November 8, 1999

It was an existing track. I played a guitar solo on it. There really wasn't much direction to give me. I think that that's why they called me, because they figured they wouldn't have to give me any direction.

MTV News, November 8, 1999

The truth is, I wish there was an interesting story, but it was honestly like just doing a session. Axl and I had been trying to play for years, and it just never worked out for one reason or another. He just called me and it happened to be a good time, so it worked out. But I just kinda went down there and I spent maybe an hour and a half in the studio, played some stuff, and went home.

Guitar One, September 2001

And Gary Sunshine:

Gary Sunshine, who had been working with Axl for about a year at the time, would talk about how he got to add to Oh My God:

And then [Axl] called, or Del, one of them called, and asked if I would do some sessions. And I said, "Well, yeah, sure." Of course I had done some session work. It's not my forte, as they say, you know what I mean? I can do it, but I play by feel mostly. So it's always a little exhausting for me, but I'm certainly going to give it a shot. So I did go in there. It was super professional and very cool. So it was the two songs. It was at least two songs. So I remember.... But it was, Oh My God, definitely, and there was one other one which may have been IRS and I can't remember. Not that I can't remember, it was instrumental and I never knew. There was no vocal on it. So that's the recruiting.

Appetite for Distortion, December 31, 2018

Talking about the song and the session:

It's a crazy tune. It wasn't easy to learn. I listened to it the other day and I was like, "I don't even know what I played on that thing." I know I played.... I know I reinforced a bunch of chords and played the structure of the song. You know, it was really just to beef it up a bit. I remember that. I know Axl was in the session, me and the engineer, and maybe that was it. Maybe Del, I don't know. I did like two days, two different sessions with them. And all I remember is learning that because what I had was, I think they gave me a cassette tape of the two or three songs to think about for sessions and there was no vocal on them. So I didn't really know what they were going for. It was just an intense, like, crazy instrumental thing. And with very little instruction like, you know, "Here are the changes," or, "this is the part," or, "this is this," or, "this is that." So I just did the best I could. And, you know, a little nerve wracking, especially with a song that's so insane. But it's a great song. I know you have a real affinity for it, but it is a cool song. I agree with you on that. So the only thing I remember is recording the root of the song, you know, the basic rhythms. I was redoing certain parts of this and that. So I didn't do any of the... I think Dave [Navarro] did maybe that wahwah pedal solo and stuff like that and I think, I'm not sure. I think so much was added into those songs, or gone or changed, you never know what's going to end up when they start mixing things. So I am assuming that my chords are there. You know, somewhere, somewhere in that mix. And that's really all I knew. I knew it was for a film. [...] I never heard the vocals. I never heard the vocals at that point. Until, you know, when it was released. That was it. It was like, "Here's your session, talk to you later, let me know if you need anything." And then the record came out and I was like, "Holy shit!" [...] I would imagine there's all kinds of versions. I mean, it was, you know, layers and layers of things. But I never got to hear that until it was done. It was just interesting. That's a different perspective when you're playing without the vocal and the melody. Maybe it brings different things out. I've never thought of that, so anyway.

Appetite for Distortion, December 31, 2018

Sunshine would have liked for it to be on Chinese Democracy:

I mean, it seemed like it's only going to be a soundtrack, I was really disappointed, I wanted to hear it running around a little bit and all that. [...] Yeah, sure [I was disappointed]. Cause that was the one that was clearly stated that I played on. He had mentioned it in a story and other people had written it. So it was a clear, you know, nod that, you know, yeah, I did do this. You know, sometimes you do things and you tell people, "Oh, you know what I did?" and they don't believe you. You think they're not gonna believe you. It's nice when it's in print. It was in print. And then the other song, which I don't know for sure what it was, but I'm not credited with anything because maybe they didn't use it, you know, maybe it was just a layering of parts or whatever. I think that was IRS. Which is another good song. But I don't know. So yeah, I wanted to be on the record, sure, in some form. But I'm on that song, which is cool.

Appetite for Distortion, December 31, 2018

The song would represent a break with the classical sound of Guns N' Roses, and Axl would describe how it came about:

Basically, [I'm] listening to everything that's out there as far as music goes. That was a big difference between myself and Slash and Duff, is that I didn't hate everything new that came out. I really liked the Seattle movement. I like White Zombie. I like Nine Inch Nails, and I like hip-hop. I don't hate everything. I don't think everybody should be worshiping me 'cause I was around before them.

So once it was really understood by me that I'm really not going to be able to make the right old-style Guns N' Roses record, and if I try to take into consideration what Guns did on "Appetite," which was to kind of be a melting pot of a lot things that were going on, plus use past influences, I could make the right record if I used my influences from what I've been listening to that everybody else is listening to out there. So in that sense, I think it is like old Guns N' Roses as far as, like, the spirit and the attempt to throw all kinds of different styles together. If you get to the second guitar solo in "Oh My God," Paul's doing a very Izzy Stradlin-Aerosmith-type riff in the middle of the song, which is a completely different thing than everything else that's going on in the music, but yet it blends. There's a disco drum beat in the post-chorus, in the heaviest section of the song. We blended a lot of things.

MTV, November 8, 1999

Duff would later comment on Axl's statement that he and Slash didn't appreciate new music:

I want to say something against that MTV interview. He said the he likes the Seattle sound, but Slash and me hated the new music that comes out. It's stupid, but let me defend myself. I'm the one who brought ICE-T or Killing Joke etc. in the band and listened to other kind of music. I'm not a country boy from Indiana. I'm from Seattle!

Burrn! Magazine, December 1999; translated from Japanese

Slash would later comment on the song:

I’m not gonna pass judgement. […] Listen, listen. If that’s what [Axl] wanted to do and that’s why – the development of that is what made me quit. […] Whatever it is, it’s not what I was –

The Howard Stern Radio Show, June 7, 2000

Yeah, I heard it when I went to see the movie End Of Days. And I don’t have any real opinion about it. […] And when I heard Oh My God, it convinced me that my departure had been a wise decision and that Axl and I were definitely no longer on the same wavelength musically.

Hard Rock (France), October 2000; translated from French

Axl would also mention that for 'Oh My God' as with other songs they were working on, Axl would write the lyrics after the music was finished:

I write the vocals last, because I wanted to invent the music first and push the music to the level that I had to compete against it. That's kind of tough. It's like you got to go in against these new guys who kicked ass. You finally got the song musically where you wanted to, and then you have to figure out how to go in and kick its ass and be one person competing against this wall of sound.

Why I chose to do it that way is that, you know, I can sit and write poetry 'til hell freezes over, and getting attached to any particular set of words... I felt that I would write to those words in a dated fashion, and we really wouldn't get the best music. "Oh My God" is a perfect example. When we finally got "Oh My God" where it needed to be, then I got the right words to it. With "Appetite," I wrote a lot of the words first, but in, like, "Oh My God," I wrote the words second, but the music was written like "Appetite." We kept developing it until it we got it right. [With] "Appetite," everything had been worked on, and worked on, and worked on. That was not the case with "Use Your Illusion."

MTV, November 8, 1999

Axl would mention a remix of the song:

There’s a remix w/lots of new vocals and a wilder guitar intro but it’s not taken all that seriously.

chinesedemocracy.com, December 14, 2008

And when asked why it sounded like a demo:

Because that's all it was, only at the time having just got it together only Jimmy Iovine knew that who wanted it to sell their soundtrack. I saw segments of the movie which were good. As a whole later not so much but it wasn't ready yet then.

chinesedemocracy.com, December 13, 2008

by 666 Thu May 24, 2012 6:02 pm

lyrics?

by **Soulmonster** Thu May 24, 2012 6:52 pm

Uhm, I added some I found on the Net, I hope they are correct.

by 666 Thu May 24, 2012 7:33 pm

by **Soulmonster** Thu May 24, 2012 8:20 pm

As Bumblefoot would have said it: "No, thank YOU!" Salute

by **Soulmonster** Thu May 24, 2012 8:49 pm

There are probably many mistakes here and there so I really appreciate any constructive feedback Smile

by **Blackstar** Sat Apr 28, 2018 11:18 pm

Tina Johnson wrote:NAVARRO TALKS ABOUT TEAMING WITH GN'R
11/08/1999

Guns N' Roses delivers its first new music in eight years to record stores this week with the arrival of the soundtrack to the new Arnold Schwarzenegger thriller "End Of Days."

In addition to cuts from Rob Zombie, Korn, Limp Bizkit, Everlast, and others, the album also contains "Oh My God," the first original song from the Guns' camp since 1991's "Use Your Illusion" albums. The track sees Guns N' Roses ringleader Axl Rose teaming with a new roster of musicians this time out, including former Jane's Addiction and Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist Dave Navarro.

"There's no story," Navarro recently told MTV News of how he came to hook up with the reclusive Rose. "We didn't hook up at, like, The Rainbow and said, 'Hey, let's get together and do a song.' They just called me up, and I went down to the studio. I spent about an hour and a half there. I played a guitar solo, and that's it."
"It was an existing track," Navarro added while backstage at the ARTISTdirect Online Music Awards last month. "I played a guitar solo on it. There really wasn't much direction to give me. I think that that's why they called me, because they figured they wouldn't have to give me any direction."

This month will also see the arrival of "Live Era '87-'93," a collection of vintage live GN'R cuts as well as a cover of Black Sabbath's "It's Alright".

With the projects arriving and work moving ahead on "Chinese Democracy," the first original GN'R album since '91, Rose may break his lengthy self-imposed silence this week. Stay tuned to MTV News for further developments.

http://www.mtv.com/news/1429775/navarro-talks-about-teaming-with-gnr/

by **Blackstar** Tue Mar 10, 2020 5:51 pm

Sort of review on Music News Of The World (via htgth):

Brian Hiatt wrote:Guns N' Roses Return With Aggressive New Single

"Oh My God" provides glimpse at singer Axl Rose's new incarnation of hard-rock band.

"Oh My God," the first new release in six years from hard-rockers Guns N' Roses, which officially shipped to radio stations Monday (Oct. 11), provides a glimpse at frontman Axl Rose's intense new incarnation of the band.

Some fans who have already heard "Oh My God" embraced the song, which adds electronic effects to a track that is as aggressive and abrasive as anything ever recorded by Guns N' Roses, while radio programmers expressed a mix of enthusiasm and caution.

"We were surprised by how hard it is it's not just hard, but edgy," said Neal Mirsky, program director for Philadelphia active-rock station WYSP-FM, one of several stations nationwide that began playing the song early. "It almost sounds like he spent some time with Marilyn Manson."

Much of "Oh My God" finds Rose screaming rapid-fire lyrics through electronic filters, which does lend the track an occasional resemblance to shock-rocker Manson's earlier work, as well as that of Nine Inch Nails frontman (and former Manson producer) Trent Reznor.

The uptempo track begins with a churning guitar riff that evokes the Guns N' Roses signature sound of such hits as "Welcome to the Jungle", but quickly explodes into thickly distorted rhythm guitars and a pounding, industrial beat.

In the head-banging chorus section, which is introduced with a harsh pulse of feedback, Axl can be heard singing what sounds like, "Oh my God/ I can't deny this ... I can't fight this."

On the slightly more melodic bridge, Axl sings, "Ooh, I opened your eyes," after which the song breaks into a brief, tortured solo from Nine Inch Nails guitarist Robin Finck. The solo's sound is worlds away from the lyrical, bluesy work of former Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash.

Some fans of the band said they didn't mind Rose's new direction. "Although it is completely different than anything we've heard from Axl before, it is still great," Nathan Fink, a fan from Boston, wrote in an e-mail.

Others maintained that "Oh My God" is not a particularly radical departure from the band's past work, even though only Rose is the sole remaining original member. Both Eric Matsuda, 21, of California nd Mike Lyle, 15, of Tennessee said the song could've fit in well on 1991's Use Your Illusion albums.

"This is Guns N' Roses updated for the '90s, and unlike other bands who have tried to update their sound, such as Metallica, they seem to be doing it while maintaining a sense of themselves and their sound," Matsuda wrote in an e-mail.

Still others were disappointed. "This new song is not a Guns N' Roses song," Canadian fan Oliver Rattus, 20, wrote in an e-mail.

Several radio programmers and DJs also said they disliked the song, but declined to speak on the record about it.

But according to Mirsky, whose station has been playing "Oh My God" since the weekend, doubters may eventually change their minds. "When I first heard it, it scared the hell out of me, but by the third or fourth time, I was starting to like it," he said.

Jim McGuinn, program director of Philadelphia alternative-rock station WPLY-FM, said that he hasn't heard the track, but plans on keeping an open mind. "I think I'd like to toss it on and let the audience decide if they're into Guns N' Roses circa 2000," he said.

In a statement released in September, Rose wrote that the song, which will be on the soundtrack to the upcoming Arnold Schwarzenegger action movie "End of Days," "contemplates several abstract perspectives drawing from personal expression as well as from the film ... and its metaphors."

A spokesperson for Interscope, the band's label, could not be reached for comment on the song.

The "End of Days" soundtrack, which also features songs by Limp Bizkit, Korn, Everlast and Eminem, is expected to hit stores Nov. 9.

"Oh My God" is the first original work from Guns N' Roses whose hits also include the power ballad "Sweet Child O' Mine" since the albums Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II were released on the same day in 1991. An album of covers titled The Spaghetti Incident? followed in 1993.

by **Blackstar** Tue Mar 10, 2020 6:51 pm

Review in Los Angeles Times, November 6, 1999:

***VARIOUS ARTISTS

“End of Days” soundtrack

Geffen

The rise of a new generation of hard-rockers could well have spelled the end of Axl Rose’s days as anything but a “Behind the Music” nostalgia subject. Rose, though, seems determined to join the pack of Korn, Limp Bizkit et al. And that’s just where he reemerges after a long absence, with his new Guns N’ Roses lineup featured right alongside those younger acts on the soundtrack (in stores Tuesday) to the upcoming apocalyptic Arnold Schwarzenegger thriller.

But great acts don’t just join the pack, they lead it, and the new GNR song, “Oh My God,” provides few revelations about Rose’s prospects of returning to the forefront when he and the band put out their own album. It’s aggressive, but no more sonically distinctive than Korn’s new “Camel Song” (which adds new shadings to the band’s darkness) or Bizkit’s “Crushed” (almost low-key for Fred Durst and crew).

Still, “Oh My God” effectively links GNR’s pre-grunge metal guitars with furious programmed beats. Without pandering to rock-rap fashion, the song isn’t anachronistic among strong hip-hop-rooted contributions by Everlast (another thoughtful examination of societal conflicts) and Eminem (whose “Bad Influence” extends his mythos in a world already gone wrong). And Rose’s raspy wail, love it or hate it, remains an unmistakable instrument that can’t be ignored. It’s not a lot to go on, and it might not represent Rose’s overall new direction, but “Oh My God” at least hints that GNR may indeed be Y2K-ready.

STEVE HOCHMAN

by **Blackstar** Tue Mar 10, 2020 7:40 pm

Review in NME, November 1999:

END OF DAYS OST (Geffen) is notable for having a new Guns N Roses track, 'Oh My God', on it - a fact that has overshadowed the film. No mean feat given that it's the new Schwarzenegger movie and is basically about all the worst bits from the Book of Revelations as created by state-of-the-art special effects. The GNR track is brilliant - a slash and burn metal track in parts - and if their new album is as good as this then rock n' roll will be saved. The rest? Well, it's all Korn and Limp Bizkit and shit that sounds like them. 8 for Axl, 5 for the rest.

Source: http://www.heretodaygonetohell.com/news/shownews.php?newsid=201

by **Blackstar** Tue Apr 07, 2020 5:22 am

Review in Newsweek, October 24, 1999:

'OH MY GOD'! AXL'S BACK!

As far as career strategies go, this one isn't recommended: (1) Front biggest band in world. (2) Fire all bandmates in huff. (3) Get arrested. Repeat. (4) Vanish for six years. But it's paying off huge for Axl Rose, the moody shriek-box who is now, more or less by himself, Guns N' Roses. When copies of "Oh My God"--Axl's first song since 1991--arrived at radio stations last week, Geffen Records included orders not to play it until this Tuesday. DJs scoffed, plunking "Oh My God" into heavy rotation. The song won't be in stores until Nov. 9 (on the soundtrack for the Schwarzenegger film "End of Days"), but NEWSWEEK has obtained a copy. The verdict: rest assured that GN'R's ear-splitting sound is largely intact. But if Axl needed this long to squeeze out one tune, how long will it take for a full album?

https://www.newsweek.com/oh-my-god-axls-back-168066

by **Blackstar** Tue Apr 07, 2020 5:32 am

Review in Metal Edge, February 2000:

End of Days

The holiday season and an actin-thriller starring Arnold Schwartzenegger. Just roll up the Brinks truck, because this one's got blockbuster stamped all over it. Too bad the movie can't possibly live up to the hype of its soundtrack. Korn? Limp Bizkit? Creed? Hah! Hype? This sucker's got the new Guns N' Roses song on it, the band by which all bands will compare their arena-filling, anthem-spouting, rockstar rap sheets. Yes, all others on this soundtrack pale in comparison as we line up to hear Axl Rose's first offering in the better half of a decade. There's no Slash, no Duff McKagan, no Izzy Stradlin, no Gilby Clarke and no Matt Sorum or Steven Adler--can the all-new Guns live up to the hype?

To the disdain of unwavering purists and naysayers, they do. Rose always said he wanted to evolve with music, leading many to shutter at the thought of a "techno" album, but the resultant "Oh My God" picks up right when teh Use Your Illusion duo left off, building like a steroid-enhanced "coma" and riveting without relent from start to finish. Slash always pushed the envelope as a guitarist, and Axl continues to do the same musically, opting for a team of fret-players that features Dave Navarro (ex-Chili Peppers/Jane's Addiction), Nine Inch Nails' Robin Finck, and Rose's longtime friend Paul Huge. There are no flashy solos, and no mid-song blues actions, but the strings race with unrivaled urgency throughout, as the bombast of former Replacements bassist Tommy Stinson and ex-Vandals drummer Josh Freese provide the maddened backbeat. It's intense, a three-and-a-half minute thrill ride sure to make any scene in End of Days a memorable one.

From there, with the exception of an impressive debut from Professional Murder Music--"Slow" spirals forward like a metallic bastard child of Static X and the Deftones--the rest of the tracks offer little we haven't heard before. Korn's "Camel Song" and Limp Bizkit's "Crushed" sound like leftovers from recent releases, Korn's blending the heavier sounds of their first album with their more commercially palatable side, and Limp swaying farther from rock with beat-driven trip-hop. The rest of the album's harder edge is represented by previously released tracks from Rob Zombie, Powerman 5000, Creed, Prodigy, Eminem and Everlast. Did we mention Guns N' Roses? With the album's glaring lack of other selling points, it's about the only thing that makes End of Days a keeper.

--Paul Gargano

by **Soulmonster** Fri Apr 17, 2020 7:46 am

In Goldstein's letter to Newsweek in January 2000, he states that Axl, Dizzy and Paul Reed wrote this song. I would suspect that the letter was well coordinated and discussed with Axl before sending, so it might as well be Axl talking.

by Voodoochild Mon Jun 01, 2020 8:37 pm

I would like to see the actual Robin quote denying to be on this track.

by **Blackstar** Mon Jun 01, 2020 8:59 pm

Voodoochild wrote:I would like to see the actual Robin quote denying to be on this track.

The information is taken from wikipedia which, I see, is based on a mention (without a quote) at htgth:
http://www.heretodaygonetohell.com/releases/newalbum.htm

So far I know only of this, which isn't a direct quote and is kind of vague:

"We recorded a lot of cool songs and potential tracks," says Finck. But the one released so far, "Oh My God" on the "End of Days" soundtrack last year (a track with which Finck says he was not familiar), "I hope is not very typical of them."

https://www.a-4-d.com/t2503-2000-05-04-hartford-courant-nine-inch-nails-fragile-tour-hits-hartford-robin

by **Soulmonster** Mon Jun 01, 2020 9:00 pm

Voodoochild wrote:I would like to see the actual Robin quote denying to be on this track.

The song section is a bit down prioritised at the moment while I work on the history section. But here is a draft of a chapter about the song that will be included in the history section later:

NOVEMBER 2, 1999

'END OF DAYS' SOUNDTRACK WITH 'OH MY GOD'

In August 1999, it would be rumoured that Guns N' Roses might contribute a song to the soundtrack to the movie 'End of Days' [MTV News, August 8, 1999], and in September the rumours were confirmed [MTV News, September 8, 1999].

Thus, on November 2, 1999, the world would finally hear new music from Guns N' Roses, just over 5 years since the band released 'Sympathy for the Devil.' Again, the music would be a one-off song intended for a movie soundtrack, this time for the movie 'End of Days'. The Guns N' Roses song was 'Oh My God' [MTV, November 8, 1999].

The song was initially claimed to have been written specifically by Axl after seeing an advance screening of the movie [MTV News, September 8, 1999].

G. Marc Roswell, the film's music supervisor, would state:

It’s absolutely classic Axl, but it has a lot of new elements. It fits the movie really well.

Rolling Stone, September 9, 1999

In connection with the release, Axl would release a statement:

So here's the story behind this music...

The chorus: OH MY GOD etc. deals with the societal repression of deep and often agonizing emotions -- some of which may be willingly accepted for one reason or another -- the appropriate expression of which (one that promotes a healing, release and a positive resolve) is often discouraged and many times denied. Emotionally the song contemplates several abstract perspectives drawing from personal expression as well as from the film (End Of Days) and its metaphors. The appropriate expression and vehicle for such emotions and concepts is not something taken for granted.

Musically the song was primarily written by Paul Huge over two years ago, with Dizzy Reed writing the musical hook of the chorus. Former member Duff McKagan as well as former employee Matt Sorum failed to see its potential and showed no interest in exploring, let alone recording the piece. When the demos were played for the new band, Josh, Tommy and Robin were as they say 'all over it.'

Once the opportunity was presented, the song was given priority in our recording process. As the verse, performance and lyrics were decided on, for us (that especially includes Interscope chairman Jimmy Iovine) the choice became obvious. We were more than pleased Mr. Roswell (the film's music supervisor) agreed! Our thanks to Arnold and all for the consideration -- it is an association in which we have always felt honored.

Paul Huge, Gary Sunshine and Dave Navarro appear on the song as well as Robin Finck. Robin's part was written by Paul and extensively manipulated by our producer, Sean Beaven. Robin was not involved in the writing of the final recording though did participate in the arrangement. All lyrics were written by myself. Additional programming (jack boots, screeching tires, etc.) was by Stuart White.

The fight of good vs. evil, positive vs. negative, man against a seemingly undefeatable, undeterrable, unrevealed destiny, along with the personal and universal struggle to attain, maintain and responsibly manage freewill can be and often is frustrating to say the least. In America our country's constitutional right to freedom of expression gives us a better chance to fight for that expression than many in other countries enjoy. It can be a big gig, like kickin' the crap outta the devil!

Power to the people, peace out and blame Canada.

Rolling Stone, September 22, 1999

The song would feature a guitar solo from Dave Navarro [MTV, November 8, 1999] who had been drafted in since Robin had left:

Robin's departure was abrupt, sudden, you know, not expected but at the same time, it's turned out to be a good thing. We've been able to push some of the guitar parts a step farther, that had he been here, it's not something that would have been considered, and I wouldn't have been rude enough to attempt to do that. Robin did a great job, but we've been able to up the ante a little bit. Dave came in and did something great on "Oh My God," and we've had a few other people come in, so that was a setback for a while, but then it's turned out to be a good thing.

MTV, November 8, 1999

Robin would comment upon the track which he had had no part in writing and recording:

We recorded a lot of cool songs and potential tracks. I hope [Oh My God] not very typical of them.

Hartford Courant, May 4, 2000

Axl would talk about Navarro:

I've always been a fan of Dave Navarro, to the point that when we got signed, I had a Jane's Addiction demo tape [laughs] and was actually trying to convince the record company, "No, no, no, no, I suck. We suck. These guys rock!" And I was trying to get Tom Zutaut, at the time [at Geffen], to sign Jane's Addiction, and he was actually in negotiations to sign them at one point. I was just into Jane's Addiction.

[…]

That's really what finally got the public to find some interest in Guns N' Roses, and there was a lot less [interest] for Jane's Addiction. Where now, I think, we would consider Jane's Addiction one of the great rock and roll bands in the last however many years. They were a great band, they were a bit ahead of their time. I was a very big fan of them, and Dave.

Dave's a great guitar player. It's a different style. It's not like Guns N' Roses. It's not blues-based, and it's not all that Guns N' Roses is, and that was done on purpose. There will be elements of blues-based things on the new Guns record. It's a very diverse record. There's a lot of hip-hop beats, there's straight-ahead rock. But if someone says, "Hip-hop beats," what do you mean by that? Well, Radiohead uses beats that are similar to hip-hop beats. There's actual, "official" hip-hop beats and then there's "Radiohead-style" hip-hop beats, there's rock beats. Like I say, "Oh My God" has a disco beat in it. I read a review where somebody caught that. That made me laugh.

MTV, November 8, 1999

And Navarro would talk about the project:

There's no story. We didn't hook up at, like, The Rainbow and said, 'Hey, let's get together and do a song.' They just called me up, and I went down to the studio. I spent about an hour and a half there. I played a guitar solo, and that's it.

MTV News, November 8, 1999

It was an existing track. I played a guitar solo on it. There really wasn't much direction to give me. I think that that's why they called me, because they figured they wouldn't have to give me any direction.

MTV News, November 8, 1999

The truth is, I wish there was an interesting story, but it was honestly like just doing a session. Axl and I had been trying to play for years, and it just never worked out for one reason or another. He just called me and it happened to be a good time, so it worked out. But I just kinda went down there and I spent maybe an hour and a half in the studio, played some stuff, and went home.

Guitar One, September 2001

The song would represent a break with the classical sound of Guns N' Roses, and Axl would describe how it came about:

Basically, [I'm] listening to everything that's out there as far as music goes. That was a big difference between myself and Slash and Duff, is that I didn't hate everything new that came out. I really liked the Seattle movement. I like White Zombie. I like Nine Inch Nails, and I like hip-hop. I don't hate everything. I don't think everybody should be worshiping me 'cause I was around before them.

So once it was really understood by me that I'm really not going to be able to make the right old-style Guns N' Roses record, and if I try to take into consideration what Guns did on "Appetite," which was to kind of be a melting pot of a lot things that were going on, plus use past influences, I could make the right record if I used my influences from what I've been listening to that everybody else is listening to out there. So in that sense, I think it is like old Guns N' Roses as far as, like, the spirit and the attempt to throw all kinds of different styles together. If you get to the second guitar solo in "Oh My God," Paul's doing a very Izzy Stradlin-Aerosmith-type riff in the middle of the song, which is a completely different thing than everything else that's going on in the music, but yet it blends. There's a disco drum beat in the post-chorus, in the heaviest section of the song. We blended a lot of things.

MTV, November 8, 1999

Duff would later comment on Axl's statement that he and Slash didn't appreciate new music:

I want to say something against that MTV interview. He said the he likes the Seattle sound, but Slash and me hated the new music that comes out. It's stupid, but let me defend myself. I'm the one who brought ICE-T or Killing Joke etc. in the band and listened to other kind of music. I'm not a country boy from Indiana. I'm from Seattle!

Burrn! Magazine, December 1999; translated from Japanese

Slash would later comment on the song:

I’m not gonna pass judgement. […] Listen, listen. If that’s what [Axl] wanted to do and that’s why – the development of that is what made me quit. […] Whatever it is, it’s not what I was –

The Howard Stern Radio Show, June 7, 2000

Yeah, I heard it when I went to see the movie End Of Days. And I don’t have any real opinion about it. […] And when I heard Oh My God, it convinced me that my departure had been a wise decision and that Axl and I were definitely no longer on the same wavelength musically.

Hard Rock (France), October 2000; translated from French

Axl would also mention that for 'Oh My God' as with other songs they were working on, Axl would write the lyrics after the music was finished:

I write the vocals last, because I wanted to invent the music first and push the music to the level that I had to compete against it. That's kind of tough. It's like you got to go in against these new guys who kicked ass. You finally got the song musically where you wanted to, and then you have to figure out how to go in and kick its ass and be one person competing against this wall of sound.

Why I chose to do it that way is that, you know, I can sit and write poetry 'til hell freezes over, and getting attached to any particular set of words... I felt that I would write to those words in a dated fashion, and we really wouldn't get the best music. "Oh My God" is a perfect example. When we finally got "Oh My God" where it needed to be, then I got the right words to it. With "Appetite," I wrote a lot of the words first, but in, like, "Oh My God," I wrote the words second, but the music was written like "Appetite." We kept developing it until it we got it right. [With] "Appetite," everything had been worked on, and worked on, and worked on. That was not the case with "Use Your Illusion."

MTV, November 8, 1999

by Voodoochild Mon Jun 01, 2020 10:08 pm

Thanks Soulmonster. Very informative Smile

Blackstar wrote:So far I know only of this, which isn't a direct quote and is kind of vague:

"We recorded a lot of cool songs and potential tracks," says Finck. But the one released so far, "Oh My God" on the "End of Days" soundtrack last year (a track with which Finck says he was not familiar), "I hope is not very typical of them."

https://www.a-4-d.com/t2503-2000-05-04-hartford-courant-nine-inch-nails-fragile-tour-hits-hartford-robin

That's good enough for me, thanks. Not sure why would Finck lie about it, but I doubt he just forgot that actually had worked on it.

Knowing all the other stuff we had on the Village leak last year, I believe Robin was hinting at less overproduced industrial songs. The instrumentals all sound very much like the "AFD on steroids" that was promised back in 1999.

by **Soulmonster** Sat Apr 06, 2024 7:44 am

Gary Sunshine, who had been working with Axl for about a year at the time, would talk about how he got to add to Oh My God:

And then [Axl] called, or Del, one of them called, and asked if I would do some sessions. And I said, "Well, yeah, sure." Of course I had done some session work. It's not my forte, as they say, you know what I mean? I can do it, but I play by feel mostly. So it's always a little exhausting for me, but I'm certainly going to give it a shot. So I did go in there. It was super professional and very cool. So it was the two songs. It was at least two songs. So I remember.... But it was, Oh My God, definitely, and there was one other one which may have been IRS and I can't remember. Not that I can't remember, it was instrumental and I never knew. There was no vocal on it. So that's the recruiting.

Appetite for Distortion, December 31, 2018

Talking about the song and the session:

It's a crazy tune. It wasn't easy to learn. I listened to it the other day and I was like, "I don't even know what I played on that thing." I know I played.... I know I reinforced a bunch of chords and played the structure of the song. You know, it was really just to beef it up a bit. I remember that. I know Axl was in the session, me and the engineer, and maybe that was it. Maybe Del, I don't know. I did like two days, two different sessions with them. And all I remember is learning that because what I had was, I think they gave me a cassette tape of the two or three songs to think about for sessions and there was no vocal on them. So I didn't really know what they were going for. It was just an intense, like, crazy instrumental thing. And with very little instruction like, you know, "Here are the changes," or, "this is the part," or, "this is this," or, "this is that." So I just did the best I could. And, you know, a little nerve wracking, especially with a song that's so insane. But it's a great song. I know you have a real affinity for it, but it is a cool song. I agree with you on that. So the only thing I remember is recording the root of the song, you know, the basic rhythms. I was redoing certain parts of this and that. So I didn't do any of the... I think Dave [Navarro] did maybe that wahwah pedal solo and stuff like that and I think, I'm not sure. I think so much was added into those songs, or gone or changed, you never know what's going to end up when they start mixing things. So I am assuming that my chords are there. You know, somewhere, somewhere in that mix. And that's really all I knew. I knew it was for a film. [...] I never heard the vocals. I never heard the vocals at that point. Until, you know, when it was released. That was it. It was like, "Here's your session, talk to you later, let me know if you need anything." And then the record came out and I was like, "Holy shit!" [...] I would imagine there's all kinds of versions. I mean, it was, you know, layers and layers of things. But I never got to hear that until it was done. It was just interesting. That's a different perspective when you're playing without the vocal and the melody. Maybe it brings different things out. I've never thought of that, so anyway.

Appetite for Distortion, December 31, 2018

Sunshine would have liked for it to be on Chinese Democracy:

I mean, it seemed like it's only going to be a soundtrack, I was really disappointed, I wanted to hear it running around a little bit and all that. [...] Yeah, sure [I was disappointed]. Cause that was the one that was clearly stated that I played on. He had mentioned it in a story and other people had written it. So it was a clear, you know, nod that, you know, yeah, I did do this. You know, sometimes you do things and you tell people, "Oh, you know what I did?" and they don't believe you. You think they're not gonna believe you. It's nice when it's in print. It was in print. And then the other song, which I don't know for sure what it was, but I'm not credited with anything because maybe they didn't use it, you know, maybe it was just a layering of parts or whatever. I think that was IRS. Which is another good song. But I don't know. So yeah, I wanted to be on the record, sure, in some form. But I'm on that song, which is cool.

Appetite for Distortion, December 31, 2018

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