"Civil War" was the brainchild of the Guns N' Roses artists Slash, Axl Rose, and Duff McKagan. Slash stated that the song was an instrumental he had written right before the band left for the Japanese leg of its Appetite for Destruction world tour. Axl wrote lyrics and it was worked into a proper song at a sound check in Melbourne, Australia.[1]. On September 27, 1993, Duff McKagan explained where the song came from in an interview on Rockline: "Basically it was a riff that we would do at sound-checks. Axl came up with a couple of lines at the beginning. And... I went in a peace march, when I was a little kid, with my mom. I was like four years old. For Martin Luther King. And that's when: "Did you wear the black arm band when they shot the man who said: 'Peace could last forever'?. It's just true-life experiences, really."
Song interpretation
The United States was involved in a major military operation at Iraq at time of its recording.
The song also mentions John F. Kennedy's assassination with the lyrics: "and in my first memories they shot Kennedy," as well as the battle for civil rights and the Vietnam War. Rose was only a year old when Kennedy was killed. Duff and Slash were born after that. It could also refer to Robert Kennedy's assassination.
The song ends with the telling line, "What's so civil about war anyway?", a word play on the dual meaning of the word "civil".
"Civil War" reached number four on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart in Billboard magazine.
"Civil War" is the last song on which drummer Steven Adler played for Guns N' Roses before being replaced by Matt Sorum.
The opening speech was reused by the band in the song "Madagascar" which appeared on Chinese Democracy, mixed in with other quotes.
Guns N' Roses performed the song at Farm Aid IV on April 7, 1990, which was their last concert with Adler on the drums. This performance was televised.
It also quotes a Peruvian militant general's speech ("We practice selective annihilation of mayors and government officials, for example, to create a vacuum, then we fill that vacuum. As popular war advances, peace is closer").
