Maps of Music

The Spaghetti Incident? (1993)

Where the lyrics of The Spaghetti Incident? take you, and where it was really made.

The album title comes from a 1989 incident in which drugs hidden in a fridge next to takeout Italian food became a code word for the band.

Key places

Record Plant Studios, Los Angeles (1993)

Recording site Record Plant (Los Angeles) — Record Plant Studios is listed as a recording location for this album. The point sits on the studio's building. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Rumbo Recorders, Los Angeles (1993)

Recording site Rumbo Recorders — Rumbo Recorders is listed as a recording location for this album. The point sits on the studio's building. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Sound Techniques, London (1993)

Recording site Sound Techniques — Sound Techniques in London is listed as a recording location for this album. The point sits on the studio's building. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Conway Recording Studios, Los Angeles (1993)

Recording site Conway Recording Studios — Conway Recording Studios is listed as a recording location for this album. The point sits on the studio's building. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Fifth studio album by American hard rock band Guns N' Roses
• Mostly covers of older songs in punk rock and hard rock genres
• Only studio album with rhythm guitarist Gilby Clarke, who replaced Izzy Stradlin during the Use Your Illusion Tour in 1991
• Last studio album featuring Slash, Duff McKagan and Matt Sorum before their departures in 1996 and 1997
• Final album to date with longtime producer Mike Clink
• Only Guns N' Roses album release not backed by a tour
• Band's worst-selling studio album, with one million copies sold in the United States by 2018

Background

• Band first planned an EP of covers for 1992 or 1993, then decided on a full album
• Recording began as jam sessions on old songs to ease the pressure of making the Illusions records
• Many tracks recorded during the same sessions as the Use Your Illusion albums
• Stradlin's guitar parts reportedly re-recorded entirely by Gilby Clarke
• "Pension Fund" considered as the album title
• Songs by punk artists such as U.K. Subs, The Damned, New York Dolls, The Stooges, Misfits and Dead Boys, plus T. Rex and Soundgarden
• Lead single "Ain't It Fun" featured Hanoi Rocks singer Michael Monroe as guest vocalist

Recording

• Band recorded 13 songs in total, starting from four songs
• Instrumental tracks for "Beer and a Cigarette" recorded, but vocals never recorded and the song left off
• Instrumental version of The Stooges' "Down on the Street" also went unreleased

Cover

• Title refers to a 1989 incident in which Steven Adler stored drugs in a refrigerator next to takeout Italian food in a Chicago apartment
• Adler's code word for his stash was "spaghetti"
• Zodiac Killer code message at the bottom of the cover, later decoded as "Fuck 'Em All"

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Formed in Los Angeles, California, in March 1985 by Axl Rose, Izzy Stradlin, Tracii Guns and others from L.A. Guns and Hollywood Rose.
• The classic lineup of Rose, Slash, Stradlin, Duff McKagan and Steven Adler was finalized in June 1985.
• Signed with Geffen Records in March 1986.

Members

• Current members include Axl Rose (vocals), Slash (guitar), Duff McKagan (bass), Dizzy Reed (keyboards), Richard Fortus (guitar), Melissa Reese (keyboards) and Isaac Carpenter (drums).
• Rose is the only constant member since the band's formation.

Career

• Debut album Appetite for Destruction (1987) sold more than 30 million copies worldwide and became the best-selling debut album in the U.S.
• Use Your Illusion I and II (1991) debuted at numbers two and one on the Billboard 200.
• Chinese Democracy (2008) was the long-delayed album reportedly costing $13 million.
• The Not in This Lifetime... Tour (2016–2018) grossed $563.3 million.
• Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012; the band has sold more than 100 million records worldwide.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Reviews in the specialist press were cautious
• Kerrang! judged the album "average"
• Melody Maker critic Caren Myers dismissed the band's push for credibility as a sincere but misguided tribute to their roots
• Select critic Clark Collis described the result as pub rock taken to an extreme
• NME's Roger Morton said the album works on a primal, drunken level, with a mix of swagger and nihilism
• Rolling Stone's Jonathan Gold called it a mostly punky set of covers of drunk rock classics

Reappraisal

• AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine called it a complete delight as a Guns N' Roses album
• Classic Rock's Howard Johnson said it has stood the test of time rather well
• Uncut ranked it 141st in its 2025 list of the 200 Greatest Heavy Rock Albums

Records

• Debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard 200, selling about 190,000 copies in its first week
• Reached No. 2 on the UK Albums Chart
• Certified platinum by the RIAA on January 26, 1994

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• Hidden track: a cover of Charles Manson's "Look at Your Game, Girl", kept secret and left off advance tapes sent to reviewers
• Rose said he would donate all performance royalties from that song to a nonprofit environmental organization
• Adler's lawyer asked the band to "tell us about the spaghetti incident", which the band found amusing and used as the album title
• "Down on the Farm" was performed once in full at Farm Aid IV in 1990
• Slash said of the Sex Pistols' "Black Leather" that the band did a much better version than the Pistols' guitarist
• Guns N' Roses' cover of "Ain't It Fun" revived interest in the Dead Boys, according to co-writer Gene O'Connor

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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