You Could Be Mine

The writing of "You Could Be Mine" began at the first preproduction session for Appetite for Destruction, according to Slash, giving Guns N' Roses one of their oldest compositions by the time it finally surfaced. The song appeared on the band's fourth album, Use Your Illusion II, and came out on June 25, 1991 as the album's first single, backed with "Civil War". It reached number 29 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and number three on the UK Singles Chart, while topping the charts in Finland and Spain and becoming a top-five hit in more than ten other countries.

The song was selected for James Cameron's science fiction action film Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Arnold Schwarzenegger invited the band members to dinner at his home to negotiate the deal. Writers described the track as hard rock and heavy metal, with Sam Law of Kerrang! calling it "unchained".

The music video was directed by Andy Morahan, Stan Winston and Jeffrey Abelson. It showed a T-800 Terminator, given Schwarzenegger's appearance, dispatched to assassinate the band at a concert. After the performance, the machine confronted the group at a back door and analyzed each member. Izzy Stradlin was absent, replaced by keyboardist Dizzy Reed. Scanning Axl Rose last, the Terminator concluded that killing the band would be a "Waste of Ammo", lowered his shotgun and walked away. Because the video contained clips from the film, licensing issues kept it off the DVD Welcome to the Videos and the Terminator 2 DVD releases, though it appeared on a special double tape VHS edition of the film in 1993.