Songfacts®:

• This is the opening song and title track of former Guns N' Roses lead guitarist Slash's second solo album. The record features Slash's touring band, which consists of vocalist Myles Kennedy (who also plays rhythm guitar), drummer Brent Fitz and bassist Todd Kerns. They are collectively billed on the album as "Myles Kennedy and The Conspirators."
• Slash worked with a variety of vocalists on his first studio album, including Kennedy on two tracks. He told Toronto radio host Dave "Bookie" Bookman of 102.1 The Edge why he stuck he decided to stick with just one singer for his second set. "The last record was a great project.," he said. "I got to work with great people. It was very liberating experience. In that process, I met Myles Kennedy. He floored me as a singer. I thought he was fantastic and so we sort developed a relationship. I asked him if he wanted to go do a tour and so he signed up and it was right from Alter Bridge. So then I met Brent Fitz and he introduced me to Todd Kerns and at rehearsal for this tour, I realized this really magic moment of recognizing that this was a really well put together group and it was fantastic. So we went out and started touring and I thought, 'If I was gonna do another solo record, I would just do it with these guys.' So the whole record was written on the road. We came out with all the songs, arranged everything, a really grueling pre-production period, and then we went in and recorded the whole album live in the studio."
• This was the first song that Slash handed onto Kennedy and the other band members in late 2010, or early 2011. He told MusicRadar.com: "I would make up stuff here and there and record it in GarageBand or Pro Tools in my laptop. I would get the basic ideas I had – be it two parts, three parts or a whole song – then send it to Myles and he would come up with melodies."
• Slash told Rolling Stone regarding the album: "I completely left the lyrics to Myles. As far away from lyric writing as I can get, the better. He's a good lyricist, so it's not an issue."
• Slash decided to name the album after this song, despite the fact it's hard to say. He explained why to Jam! Music: "I couldn't think of a phrase or a word or even a sentence that really encompassed the whole album conceptually that really did that for me," he said. "So then it was like 'Slash II?' and I thought that's just too generic so finally I said, 'Well, I'll do the other method of titling your record which is using a track off the record.' And 'Apocalyptic Love' was actually the first song that we wrote together, sort of a tongue and cheek stab at love in the final moments of the our existence on the planet. It had a good ring to it. It was only until after I decided to make that decision I realized how hard it was to pronounce. A lot of people have a hard time. Apocalyptic sometimes just didn't fly out easily."
• Kennedy told Noisecreep how this song came about: "'Apocalyptic Love,' that is pretty from the hip in the sense that one day Slash and I were talking - I think it was Slash and I - about the end of the world and the Mayan calendar and all that crazy stuff. Everybody's got that apocalypse fever right now. I remember thinking, 'Well what if that was true? What if December 21 came about and it was the last day on earth, what would you do? What would do with your last few moments remaining on earth? That's what that's about."