Gary Sunshine gave some of the best details behind the recording of the 1999 Guns N’ Roses song “Oh My God” in a new Appetite for Distortion interview. “Oh My God” was the first song from Axl Rose’s new Chinese Democracy Guns N’ Roses lineup without Slash and Duff McKagan. Dave Navarro recorded guitar parts for it shortly after leaving the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Sunshine revealed the part that he thinks Navarro played. Alternative Nation transcribed his comments.
“We would come across each other’s paths, we had a tour manager who did Lollapalooza. One of our early tour managers did Lollapalooza with Perry [Farrell from Jane’s Addiction], Dave we would run across a bit in California too. It was cool to be a part of that, however I never saw him at the sessions. The sessions were all a mystery, this guy goes in, this guy goes out. I don’t know what was going on. I did my part, and that was it. So I didn’t come across Dave, and I haven’t seen him since, or spoken to him about it really, it’s a big world. But he’s a great player, he’s really good.”
“It’s a crazy tune, it wasn’t easy to learn. I listened to it the other day, and I don’t even know what I played on that thing. I know I reinforced a bunch of chords, and played the structure of the song, really to beef it up a bit. I remember that, and I know Axl was in the session, and me, and the engineer, maybe Del [James], I don’t know. I did two days, two different sessions with them. All I remember is learning that, because I think they gave me a cassette tape of two or three songs to think about for sessions, and was no vocal on it, so I didn’t really know what they were going for.
It was just an intense crazy instrumental thing, with very little instructions, like ‘here are the changes, or this is the part, this is this, and this is that.’ I just did the best I could, a little nerve wracking, especially with a song that is so insane. It’s a great song, I know you have a real affinity for it, it is a cool song. I remember recording the root of the song, the basic rhythms, I was redoing certain parts, this and that. I think Dave did the wah pedal solo I think, I’m not sure.”
