Guns N Roses remove song with homophobic and racist lyrics from album

Guns N Roses have removed their track "One in a Million" from the reissue of their album Appetite for Destruction which contains racist and homophobic language.

The '80s hard-rock icons have not commented on why they removed the track, but it seems like the lyrics may have prompted them to make the decision.

The track features racist lyrics, "Police and n******, that's right/ Get outta my way/ Don't need to buy none of your gold chains today."

Guns N Roses uses homophobic language later on saying: "Immigrants and f******/ They make no sense to me/ They come to our country/ And think they'll do as they please/ Like start some mini-Iran/ Or spread some f****** disease/ And they talk so many g****** ways/ It's all Greek to me."

"One in a Million" was first featured on their 1988 EP G N' R Lies, which was released when their debut album Appetite for Destruction topped the charts and sold more than 5m copies.

Guns N Roses vocalist Axl Rose addressed the track in a 1988 interview with Rolling Stone saying the language was influenced by African American con artists in Los Angeles.

He told the magazine: "Why can black people go up to each other and say, ‘n*****', but when a white guy does it all of a sudden it’s a big putdown? I don’t like boundaries of any kind. I don’t like being told what I can and what I can’t say. I used the word ‘n*****’ because it’s a word to describe somebody that is basically a pain in your life, a problem. The word ‘n*****’ doesn’t necessarily mean black.”

One year later, Rose said that the track stemmed from his anger about "some black people that were trying to rob him" so he wanted to "insult those particular black people."

With regards to the immigrants portion of "One in a Million," Rose said: "A lot of people from countries like Iran, Pakistan, China, Japan, et cetera, get jobs in these convenience stores and gas stations. Then they treat you like you don’t belong here."

He explained that the "f*****" line came from Rose's "very bad experiences with homosexuals."

In a 1991 interview with Rolling Stone, Guns N Roses guitarist Slash also commented on the track saying, "I don't regret doing 'One in a Million,' I just regret what we've been through because of it and the way people have perceived our personal feelings."

The reissue of Appetite for Destruction is set to arrive June 29.