"[Oklahoma] was inspired by a court date with ex-wife Erin Everly. 'I was sitting in my litigation with my ex-wife, and it was the day after the bombing, [April 20th, 1995]' Rose remembers with a wince. 'We had a break, and I'm sitting with my attorneys with a sort of smile on my face, more like a nervous thing - it was like, 'Forgive me, people, I'm having trouble taking this seriously.' It's just ironic that we're sitting there and this person is spewing all kinds of things and 168 people just got killed. And this person I'm sitting there with, she don't care. Obliterating me is their goal.'" (Axl, Rolling Stone, 2000)

"As the far as the songs go: 'Oklahoma' was pretty much written by the time they got to the studio. Axl wrote that with inspiration from the Oklahoma City bombing (more as a tribute to those who died, if I'm not mistaken). [...] (Dave Dominguez, Sp1at, 02/07/05)

[...] Song after song combines the edgy hard rock force and pop smarts of vintage Guns N Roses with surprisingly modern and ambitious music textures. In addition to the album's almost grungy title track, tentative song titles include 'Catcher in the Rye,' 'I.R.S,' 'The Blues', [...] 'Oklahoma' - heard tonight only as an instrumental, [...] and 'TWAT,' which he says stands for 'there was a time.'" (Rolling Stone, 01/00)

Q:-What's a Riad/Bedouin and can you clarify for the last time if the song is Oklahoma or not?

A: Another one step at a time question! It’s not Oklahoma which later became Berlin and subject to change. (Axl Rose, chinesedemocracy.com, Dec. 2008)

Q: Axl, here's a list of rumored song titles.  Can you tell us which ones are bogus and which ones are real?

Ides Of March ('98), Oklahoma ('98), Atlas Shrugged ('99), Closing In On You ('99), Cock-A-Roach Soup ('99), Friend Or Foe ('99), Hearts Get Killed ('99), No Love Remains ('99), Oh My God ('99), Something Always ('99), Suckerpunched ('99), Zip It ('99), Silkworms ('00), Down By The Ocean ('01), Leave Me Alone ('02), Seven ('02), The General ('02), Thyme ('02), Quick Song ('05), Zodiac ('05), Motormouth ('06), We Were Lying ('06)

A: Ides Of March, Oklahoma, Atlas Shrugged,  Oh My God, Silkworms , Down By The Ocean (Izzy), Leave Me Alone, Seven , The General , Thyme , Quick Song , Zodiac Most all titles subject to change w/out warning and r considered working titles. (Axl Rose, chinesedemocracy.com, Dec. 2008)