The Story Behind Axl Rose’s Sex Recording Session With Ex-Drummer Steven Adler’s Girlfriend for Guns N’ Roses’ “Rocket Queen”

Sex, drugs, and rock and roll coalesced on more than one occasion during the making of Guns N’ Roses‘ 1987 debut Appetite for Destruction. All of the debaucheries molded one of the most ferociously trashy rock and roll albums in history and opened the floodgates for GN’R, with the deliverance of the band’s trinity of holy hits—”Welcome to the Jungle,” “Paradise City,” and “Sweet Child O’ Mine.”

And when it came to the closing Appetite track, Axl Rose also wanted specific “noises” to fill any gaps.

It Needs “Sex Noises”

To capture the right sounds, Rose had sex with original drummer Steven Adler’s then-girlfriend Adriana Smith in a recording booth, and excerpts were spliced into the bridge of the closing “Rocket Queen.” At the time, Smith wanted to get back at Adler for cheating on her and exacted her revenge by having sex with his bandmate.

“I would do anything Axl asked me to do,” said Smith in a 2007 interview. “He’s f–kin’ magical.” However when Adler found out about the session, he “f–king freaked out,” according to Smith, who was 19 and a stripper at the time.

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Steve Thompson, who helped mix Appetite for Destruction remembers the helping bring the porn-like recording session to life. “That was a very interesting part of the session,” said Thompson. “We’re doing ‘Rocket Queen’ and Axl comes up to me and says, ‘Steve, I need some sex noises on this.’ Okay, no problem. I think I had tapes of ’70s porno movies that I would splice together to get the audio, and I’d give him the sex noises he needs.”

Thompson continued, “He goes, ‘No, I need real sex noises.’ And I forgot her name, she was at the studio. Adler’s girlfriend [Adriana Smith]. And Axl says ‘OK, let’s mic it up, I’m gonna f–k her in the studio and just record the moans.’ And I felt kinda weird for the fact that it was Adler’s girlfriend—’I don’t want to get involved in this s–t.’”

If I say I don’t need anyone
I can say these things to you
‘Cause I can turn on anyone, just like I’ve turned on you
I’ve got a tongue like a razor
A sweet switchblade knife
And I can do you favors but then you’ll do whatever I like

Here I am
And you’re a Rocket Queen
I might be a little young but honey, I ain’t naive
Here I am and you’re a Rocket Queen, oh yeah
I might be too much but honey, you’re a bit obscene

I’ve seen everything imaginable
Pass before these eyes
I’ve had everything that’s tangible
Honey, you’d be surprised
I’m a sexual innuendo
In this burned-out paradise
If you turn me on to anything
You better turn me on tonight

A “Ron Jeremy Set”

The mics were put together and they “did their thing,” said Thompson. “The lights were low, and Axl’s doing his thing with the girl, we got a little noise together, and then we just edited what he wanted,” he said. “Classic! Total classic! Sex, drugs, and rock and roll definitely went on that record.”

Michael Barbiero, who was also mixing the album wanted nothing to do with the steamy sessions and tasked assistant Vic Deyglio with adjusting the microphones. Deyglio, who described it as a “Ron Jeremy set,” even had to enter the booth and fix them when Rose and Smith knocked them over at one point.

A Message of Friendship

“Rocket Queen” was originally inspired by Barbi Von Greif, a woman Rose was infatuated with at the time who was a fixture in the Los Angeles underground scene. “She kinda kept me alive for a while,” recalled Rose about Greif in an interview with Hit Parader in 1988. “The last part of the song is my message to this person or anybody else who can get something out of it. It’s like there’s hope and a friendship note at the end of the song.”

I see you standin’
Standin’ on your own
It’s such a lonely place for you
For you to be
If you need a shoulder
Or if you need a friend
I’ll be here standing
Until the bitter end
No one needs the sorrow
No one needs the pain
I hate to see you
Walking out there, out in the rain
So don’t chastise me
Or think I, I mean you harm
Of those that take you leave you strung out
Much too far, baby, yeah

Rose continued, “For that song, there was also something I tried to work out with various people—a recorded sex act. It was somewhat spontaneous but premeditated—something I wanted to put on the record.”

Photo: Guns ‘n’ Roses performing at the Marquee Nightclub, London, Britain – 1987 / Peter Brooker/Shutterstock