"Shotgun Blues" is a punk-inflected hard rock track written solely by Axl Rose, released as the sixth track on Guns N' Roses' Use Your Illusion II in 1991. The song was inspired by a backstage altercation between Rose and Motley Crue frontman Vince Neil at the 1989 MTV Video Music Awards, channeling the resulting animosity into a scathing musical response. Rose wrote the composition without the band's usual collaborative process, and he also plays rhythm guitar on the recording, stepping in during a period when Izzy Stradlin had distanced himself from the group. The track is notably concise compared to much of the Use Your Illusion material, clocking in at under three and a half minutes, reflecting its punk sensibility and preference for directness over elaboration. Musically, the composition prioritizes aggressive rhythmic drive and hostile vocal delivery over harmonic complexity, aligning it more closely with the raw energy of the band's debut Appetite for Destruction than with the orchestral ambitions found elsewhere on the Use Your Illusion albums. The lyrics extend beyond the specific Neil feud to capture Rose's broader combative mindset during this turbulent period, described by commentators as reflecting his angry and paranoid disposition at the time. Despite its intensity, the rivalry it documents never escalated beyond verbal challenges, making the song's confrontational posture ultimately more theatrical than consequential.
