In 1992, Guns N' Roses released a video for their hit ballad "November Rain" and successfully confused an entire nation of fans. In a recent interview with HuffPost Live, former lead guitarist of the band, Slash, admits that he has no idea what was going on in the 9-minute music video (see below).
"To tell you the truth, I have no idea," Slash said in response to a question about the video's subject matter. "Well, it was a concept. The song itself is pretty self-explanatory, but the video is so complex. And I remember when Axl [Rose] was writing it, it just became...It was so epic, it was like a movie. And I, not being a huge fan of videos and making videos especially, I just showed up for my scenes. I'd write my own scene and this is what I want to do in my section. I never paid attention to the rest of the whole production. So at the end of the day, I never really knew... I knew there was a wedding in there somewhere and I was not into the concept of the wedding."
In the music video, the band is shown playing live in a ballroom and hanging out in bars in Los Angeles before Rose gets married and Slash solos outside of a small church in the desert. The song, which was included on Use Your Illusion I, is actually based on a short story by longtime GN'R associate Del James, who is now the band's road manager. The video reportedly cost $1.5 million to make, all of which the band paid for out of their own pockets.
Slash and Rose haven't spoken to each other in 18 years when the guitarist left the band, but they tend to have plenty to say about one another to the media. "There's zero possibility of me having anything to do with Slash other than by ambush, and that wouldn't be pretty," Rose told James in an interview for Spinner. "Slash either should not have been in Guns to begin with or should have left after Lies. In a nutshell, personally I consider him a cancer and better removed, avoided, and the less anyone heard of him or his supporters, the better."
Check out the interview below followed by the music video.
