14 Years

"14 Years"
Song

"14 Years" is the second track on the Guns N' Roses album Use Your Illusion II.

Background

The song is one of the few Guns N' Roses tunes sung almost entirely by Izzy Stradlin with Axl Rose singing the chorus.

"14 Years" was only performed live when Stradlin was still in the band. It has been speculated to be about Rose's and Stradlin's friendship, with people pointing out that they'd known each other for 14 years by the time the song was supposedly written, but this has never been confirmed by the band, and many of the lyrics contradict this idea.

It is more likely that this song about a guy that has had a long relationship with a girl that has been a constant burden to him and he lets out all of his feelings in this song. Izzy was still very young when he wrote this song and never had such a relationship of his own so he must have used someone else's relationship as an inspiration for this song.

An earlier demo had different lyrics. However, the first verse and the chorus were only slightly modified, while the second and third verses were given a complete makeover. Parts of the demo's second verse would be used in the third verse of the final version, while the demo's third verse is a slightly modified version of the demo's first verse.

The song was part of the set list at a few live concerts in 2012 featuring Izzy Stradlin.

Personnel

• W. Axl Rose - piano, backing vocals, production
• Slash - lead guitar, production
• Izzy Stradlin - lead vocals, rhythm guitar, production
• Duff McKagan - bass, backing vocals, production
• Matt Sorum - drums, production
• Dizzy Reed – organ, production

External links

• Template:MetroLyrics song