Ya gotta keep pushin for the fortune and fame
“Ya gotta keep pushin for the fortune and fame” – Paradise City by Guns N Roses.
The Appetite For Destruction album was Guns N Roses debut and Paradise City was one of their main hits off of the album, reaching Top 5 status in the US. This was the first song that Axl, Duff McKagan, Slash, Steven Adler and Izzy Stradlin are all credited as writers. Slash had the lyrics for this song written out on a notebook, with Axl’s collaboration coming with the “Ya gotta keep pushin for the fortune and fame” as an affront to his parents for telling him he’d never make it big in the music business and that there was nothing for him in Los Angeles.
Oh the irony. I grew up in and out of the flower shop my Mom owned back in the 1980s in the little town of Dexter Maine. I can still remember my Mom getting an order in her shop where a customer wanted a flower arrangement made up with CDs and one of them was the Appetite For Destruction album. My parents thought this “hard rock” music was all about sex, drugs and rock n roll (they were right), and wanted 8th Grade Mitchell nowhere near that scene. As I began getting older I began listening to Guns N Roses more and more. Fast forward to the summer of 1993, I’m closing in on 19 and completed my first year of college, still living at home for the summer and my friend got two tickets for us to see Guns N Roses and Metallica together in concert just a couple hours away. Upon hearing this news, my parents forbade me to see Guns N Roses live with Metallica that summer, and I haven’t lived at home again since.
The parallels of youth. I mentioned earlier that I hadn’t lived in my parents house since that summer, and I also in fact moved to LA to pursue my fortune and fame several months after that parental disagreement. I’m sure you may have a similar story. Ya gotta keep pushin for the fortune and fame, or truly whatever it is you want in life. Fast forward to the Guns N Roses reunion tour in the mid 2010s, and I finally DID get a chance to see them live in Sacramento, California of all places. How have you pushed for your fortune and fame, and how did you fulfill what you wanted from your youth?