Welcome To The Jungle

Song Meaning and Background of Welcome To The Jungle by Guns N Roses

“Welcome to the Jungle” by Guns & Roses, released as the first single from their debut album Appetite for Destruction in 1987 flopped at first until the mainstream success of their following up single “Sweet Child o’ Mine”.

The song’s inspiration, according to Axl Rose, was a hitchhiking trip that landed him in the Bronx, where a stranger approached him and said, “You know were you are? You’re gonna die, you’re in the jungle, baby!” Rose took this mockery and turned it into an anthem.

Axl Rose wrote the lyrics while visiting a friend in Seattle: "It's a big city, but at the same time, it's still a small city compared to L.A. and the things that you're gonna learn. It seemed a lot more rural up there. I just wrote how it looked to me. If someone comes to town and they want to find something, they can find whatever they want."

Slash describes it composition from when Rose remembered a riff Slash had played while he was living in the basement of Slash's mother's house.

He played it and the band quickly laid down the foundations for the song, as Slash continued coming up with new guitar parts.

"It was really the first thing we all collaborated on…" the guitarist recalled. "In that whole 'discovering ourselves' period from '85 through '86 – when we were living together very haphazardly and getting together and jamming – there was something going on that not a lot of people had. And this song just had this natural feel that was very cool."

According to Slash, the song was written in approximately three hours.

Rose claimed the lyrics were inspired by an encounter he and a friend had with a homeless man while they were coming out of a bus into New York. Trying to put a scare into the young runaways, the man yelled at them, "You know where you are? You're in the jungle baby; you're gonna die!"

"It was a very telling lyric – just the stark honesty of it," said Slash. "If you lived in Los Angeles – and lived in the trenches, so to speak – you could relate to it."

Lyrics of Welcome To The Jungle by Guns N Roses

Oh my God

Jump

Welcome to the jungle, we got fun and games

We got everything you want, honey, we know the names

We are the people that can find whatever you may need

If you got the money, honey, we got your disease

In the jungle, welcome to the jungle

Watch it bring you to your shun-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-knees, knees

Muah, ah, I wanna watch you bleed

Welcome to the jungle, we take it day-by-day

If you want it you're gonna bleed, but it's the price you pay

And you're a very sexy girl, who's very hard to please

You can taste the bright lights, but you won't get them for free

In the jungle, welcome to the jungle

Feel my, my, my, my serpentine

Oh, ah, I wanna hear you scream

Welcome to the jungle, it gets worse here every day

You learn to live like an animal in the jungle where we play

If you got a hunger for what you see, you'll take it eventually

You can have anything you want, but you better not take it from me

In the jungle, welcome to the jungle

Watch it bring you to your shun-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-knees, knees

Muah, I'm gonna watch you bleed

And when you're high, you never ever wanna come down

So down, so down, so down, yeah

You know where you are?

You're in the jungle, baby

You're gonna die

In the jungle, welcome to the jungle

Watch it bring you to your shun-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-knees, knees

In the jungle, welcome to the jungle

Feel my, oh my, my, my serpentine

Jungle, welcome to the jungle

Watch it bring you to your shun-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-knees, knees

Down in the jungle, welcome to the jungle

Watch it bring you to your—it's gonna bring you down, huh