"Get in the Ring" is a confrontational hard rock composition written by Axl Rose, Slash, and Duff McKagan, recorded during the Use Your Illusion sessions in 1990 and released on Use Your Illusion II in 1991. The song is a direct, profanity-laden attack on specific music journalists and critics whom Rose felt had spread lies about the band, naming writers from publications including Circus, Spin, Kerrang!, and Hit Parader. The composition opens with a sampled audience chant loop taken from a live Guns N' Roses concert, immediately establishing a raw, arena-ready combativeness. Musically, the track is built on driving rhythms, heavy power chord riffs, and aggressive vocal delivery, with Rose's lyrics escalating from pointed accusations to explicit challenges of physical confrontation. Slash's guitar work provides both the rhythmic foundation and lead passages that punctuate Rose's tirades, while McKagan's bass anchors the song's relentless forward momentum. The composition reflects a particular moment in rock culture when the relationship between bands and the music press had become openly hostile, and it stands as one of the most unfiltered expressions of that antagonism in the Guns N' Roses catalog. The song has rarely been performed live since the early 1990s, partly due to its intensely personal lyrical targets, and it remains a deep cut known primarily for its notoriety rather than widespread musical influence.
