Album '4', interview with Slash and Miles Kennedy: 'That point where you wave the white flag'

SLASH: “C'est La Vie” is one that I remember from soundchecks – it might have been in Australia, I’m not sure. But I had that main opening riff, and it all came together – the verse, the chord changes, the bridge part – just jamming for an hour at soundchecks before every gig. When it came time to do the demo, it really followed the lines of what the arrangement was out on the road. Then when we actually went in to record it, I'd had this idea of doing the opening riff with a talk box, although I hadn't actually ever done it that way. But when we started pre-production, I just put it on there, and that’s what you hear on the record.

KENNEDY: We were in some arena doing soundcheck and it just evolved. It was an interesting one for me, because when I got the demo from Slash two years later, I remembered what I was singing years ago. My brain automatically recalled where we were – the way the arena looked and everything that was happening. And the lyric on the track basically tells a story of someone in this abusive, toxic relationship and their decision to leave. Hence the title, “C’est La Vie.”