Former WWE Composer Jim Johnston recently appeared on the RRBG podcast, where he revealed that the DX theme song was actually created for WWE Hall of Famer Shawn Michaels.
Jim Johnston said:
“D-Generation X was originally written, I wrote for Shawn Michaels.” “Then by the time it was out there, he hooked up with Hunter. It had become a group entity very quickly.”
Jim Johnston then talked about how Chris Warren did the signing for the DX theme music and how he got the inspiration from Rage Against The Machine, but that the introduction came as an accident.
Jim Johnston said:
“Chris Warren, who did the singing, that’s what he did. I definitely was trying to do something in that style, it was the white rock/rapper vibe. It was fun to do.” “What is the best trivia about that piece of music, somehow I got away with something that there’s no way I would get away with. Themes have an Undertaker bell, boom, music. Glass break, music. It’s right into it, it’s not like, ‘Hey, let’s hang out and have a nice little intro thing.’ I just became fascinated. I think part of it was Chris’ voice. He just has this snide, implied, go screw yourself thing with everything he says.”
“Just really the kick drum only, it was playing in the studio and I was doing something else. Then I was just thinking, ‘Wait a second, this might be.’ Boy do I love happy accidents, I wasn’t trying to write an intro.” “I accidentally left the machine still running and so I just find myself getting into the mood of that. I found myself sort of just starting to say stuff, ‘You can’t tell us what to do.’ So I set up a long loop of that. I set up two microphones, one with Chris facing me, I just said, ‘Chris, with your snide, crazy voice, just repeat everything I say.’ We stood there for, I bet 15 minutes, of my just thinking of anything I could think of.”
You can check out Jim Johnston's comments in the video below. H/T to Wrestling Inc. for transcribing the above quotes.