if there’s one song that defines Guns

and Roses

it’s the song appears on the 1991 album

Use Your Illusion but the story behind

it starts way earlier back in

1983 rose loved playing piano he wasn’t

exactly the most disciplined student

he’d learn whatever the teacher showed

him then ditch it and start playing

whatever came to mind for years the

melody of November Rain lived in his

head he’d play it whenever he found a

piano at parties in studios anywhere he

was a huge Elton John fan and he dreamed

of writing something like your song

 

or someone saved my life tonight

 

but the big question was how do you make

a soft piano ballad work with the raw

power of Guns and Roses then came the

light bulb moment in 1985 Axel saw Tommy

Lee from Metley Crew playing piano on

Home Sweet Home

it was emotional stripped down and still

sounded like rock that’s what Axel

wanted at the time axel was in a

relationship with Aaron Everly daughter

of Don Everly from the legendary Everly

Brothers the ones who made songs like

this

dream

 

and to her they dedicated songs like

this

 

but their relationship quickly spiraled

into something obsessive and toxic that

chaos inspired a close friend Dell James

to write a short story called Without

You

essentially the short story is about a

rock star who was inspired by Axel who

writes a song called Without You about

the woman who he loves but he can’t

really have it told the story of a

famous musician who despite his fame

lived in deep depression after being

left by his girlfriend she couldn’t take

the cheating in excess anymore and left

him when she sees he hasn’t changed

without her she decides to end her life

overcome by guilt and despair the

musician ends his life as well that

story became the emotional foundation

for the lyrics of November

Rain the song could have been part of

Guns and Roses debut album Appetite for

Destruction but Axel didn’t feel it was

ready we went in to do the

album it was

uh coming down between that and Sweet

Child and I knew November Rain wasn’t

done i didn’t really want anybody to

help me write it and at the same

time I knew that it was going to take a

lot of work to do what I wanted to do

and I really didn’t feel capable and

that the people around me were capable

of understanding what I was trying to do

and that there was enough time to do it

so we decided to save it he had a clear

sound in his head he wanted drums that

felt like Nigel Olsen’s on Elton John’s

Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me

 

one of Nigel’s trademarks back on those

albums was uh the way he played the same

fill a bunch of times it’s the only time

that Axel ever said play it sort of like

this since he couldn’t figure out how to

explain his orchestral ideas he recorded

the string sections using synthesizers

so I only had one week and there’s no

way I was going to learn how to

communicate with an orchestra so we

brought in

like eight synthesizer for eight hours i

just sat there played strings to

November Rain over and over and over and

picked every single string sound to

create my own 130 piece orchestra

through like 3,000 sounds i have to sit

there and go “Wait does that one sound

more real than that one?” For me putting

the orchestra in the video I don’t think

it was faking anything because they were

really playing it when they were there

the sound you’re hearing when you see

the video is what I played but when we

did the video they were actually playing

and it was a way for me to be around an

orchestra and see that cuz it’s not like

I have time or cash to just blow and go

set up an orchestra somewhere it has to

be for something productive and this

definitely

 

was

slash’s guitar solo was imagined from

the very beginning from the moment Axel

first played the melody on the piano he

already had that solo in mind and it

stayed that way until the final

recording in Axel’s mind the original

version of November Rain lasted almost

20 minutes but he eventually trimmed it

down to 9 even so it was a rare length

for commercial radio yet despite that it

became a massive success and remains one

of the longest ballads to ever break

into the Billboard Hot 100 top

10 while Dell James was writing without

you Axel was working on Aranged a deeply

personal track that also ends with the

phrase without you when it came time for

the video the band planned a full

trilogy based on the story Don’t Cry

November Rain and Aranged all directed

by Andy Morahan the November Rain video

had a $1.5 million budget the most

expensive rock video ever made at the

time it was eventually beaten by another

Guns and Roses video Aranged the video

was a massive MTV hit but it left people

asking one big question how did the

bride die in the story she dies by

suicide in the video we just see her in

a casket half her face covered with a

mirror some think that was a way to hide

a gunshot wound but nothing was ever

confirmed estranged was supposed to

explain everything don’t cry which was

beautiful kind of segueed into Without

You then if budget allows we’ll film the

next parts of the story but Axel broke

up with Stephanie Seymour the model who

played the bride where we had intended

to make the sequel or the followup or

the conclusion of November Rain things

changed plans changed you know at first

there was that pressure to um to come up

with the uh you know part three of the

uh the trilogy and you why did Steph die

which was you know the big question and

so that was the initial pressure and

obviously there’s a lot of stuff that

Axel was going through at the time which

actually you know pushed us away from

that there

was an

evolving that took

place

that’s very hard to

um rise to to transcend the story that

we had and that we intended but um kind

of been put in a situation where that’s

what was necessary to make the right

video so we kind of went you know way

over somewhere else and tried this thing

and then that thing you know just in

terms of discussions and stuff and then

um Axel suddenly got you know suddenly

saw a way through in terms of the

conceptual way of dealing with it for

himself so that’s how uh strange

developed plans changed and the story

was left open to

interpretation oh and yeah one mystery

remains forever unsolved why does this

guy dive into the wedding cave

yeah I showed up i showed up to do my

deploy solo november Rain became the

most watched rock ballad on YouTube and

the first music video from the 90s to

hit 1 billion views one of the greatest

rock ballads ever and one of the most

fascinating stories behind a song if you

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