"You Could Be Mine" is a song by American rock band Guns N' Roses, featured on their 1991 fourth studio album Use Your Illusion II. It was released as the band's seventh single, and the first from the Use Your Illusion albums, in June 1991. Backed with "Civil War" from Use Your Illusion II, the single reached number 29 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart^[1] and number three on the UK Singles Chart.^[2]

History [link]

Contrary to popular belief, "You Could Be Mine" was not originally going to be the official theme of Terminator 2: Judgment Day. However, the references to Guns N' Roses that were made in the film (from John Connor's friend's Guns N' Roses t-shirt to the T-800 taking out his shotgun from a box of roses, thus playing a pun on the band's name) were so clear and obvious that it was a wise business decision to make when director James Cameron decided to recruit the band to perform a song. As it would turn out, "You Could Be Mine" was selected to be included in the film. Arnold Schwarzenegger had the band members over for dinner at his own home to negotiate the deal.^{[3][citation needed]}

The lyric "With your bitch slap rappin' and your cocaine tongue you get nothin' done" from the chorus appeared on the inner sleeve of Guns N' Roses' debut album Appetite for Destruction, released in 1987 (the song had already been written by then). This "tradition" was followed by the line "Ain't It Fun" on the Use Your Illusion albums released in 1991 - two years later GN'R cover of the song "Ain't It Fun" appeared on "The Spaghetti Incident?" album. The end of first verse, "we've seen that movie too", is a reference to Elton John' song "I've Seen That Movie Too", from the album Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. Slash states that the song's writing began at the first preproduction session for Appetite for Destruction.^[4]

The song has a minute-long drum and guitar intro. It was played during the ending credits of Terminator 2 and was heard in the film itself in early scenes with John Connor. The original script called for The Ramones song "I Wanna Be Sedated" to be played instead.^[5] The song also featured in another part of the Terminator series, Terminator Salvation.

Music video [link]

Schwarzenegger appears in the music-video as the T-800 Terminator from the film who arrives at a Guns N' Roses concert, having mission orders to assassinate the band members.^[6] When the song is finished, the Terminator confronts the band and individually assesses each member except for Izzy Stradlin, as he was conspicuously absent in this section of the video. He gets to Axl and assesses that killing him would be "a waste of ammo." He then stares at Axl Rose for a while and walks off. Edited by Jeffrey Abelson, it was one of the most requested music videos during that period, and contributed to the hype surrounding Terminator 2. At the end of 1991, MTV placed it at #1 on their top 100 videos for that year.

As the video features clips from the movie, it could not be put on the DVD Welcome to the Videos due to licensing issues. The video was also not included on any of the DVD releases of Terminator 2: Judgment Day, although it was included with a special double tape edition of the film, released on VHS in 1993.

Live [link]

Early live versions of "You Could Be Mine" featured Slash using a B.C. Rich Mockingbird (as in the video) instead of his usual Gibson Les Paul, due to his use of a tremolo during the solo. It was first played live at Rock in Rio II on January 20, 1991 and has been a staple ever since.

Track listing [link]

CD single Geffen 19039

1. "You Could Be Mine" - 5:45
2. "Civil War" – 7:41

7" Single Geffen GES 19039

1. "You Could Be Mine" (LP version) - 5:48
2. "Civil War (LP Version)" – 7:38

Personnel [link]

• Axl Rose – lead vocals, production
• Izzy Stradlin – rhythm guitar, backing vocals, production
• Slash – lead guitar, production
• Duff McKagan – bass, backing vocals, production
• Matt Sorum – drums, backing vocals, production

Chart positions [link]

References [link]