Bassist Duff McKagan has shared details about the creation of the Guns N’ Roses song “Sweet Child O’ Mine” (1987). As a guest in “Songcraft Podcast” He said guitarist Slash tried to sabotage the work at the time.
Duff McKagan: Slash wanted to get rid of Song
“Izzy [Stradlin – damaliger Rhythmusgitarrist] had the three chords,” he recalled. “But what do you do with it? Axl [Rose – Sänger] liked it, so we wanted to try to make something out of it.” Little by little they put together today’s hit – but Slash wasn’t interested. “Slash just didn’t like that DCG note progression in the intro,” says McKagan. The guitarist is said to have told him: “We have to get rid of this song somehow.”
Attempted sabotage becomes a hit
Slash then suggested today’s intro to the song – according to McKagan, not as an improvement, but as an attempt at sabotage. “He just wrote something crazy, atonal. And of course that totally worked for the song,” said McKagan. “It was a great intro and suddenly we had this ballad.”
The bassist pointed out how the song’s genesis was indicative of a whole phase in Guns N’ Roses’ band history. “It just shows how everything clicked with the band back then.” As if to illustrate this, “Sweet Child O’ Mine” reached the top spot on the US Billboard Hot 100 charts.
This is how Slash explains the creation of “Sweet Child O’ Mine”
Duff McKagan’s story doesn’t really fit with Slash’s version of the story, which he last shared in 2022. “I was just messing around and throwing notes together like I do with any riff,” he said in conversation with music historian and radio presenter Eddie Trunk. “Then Izzy put chords behind it, then Axl heard it, and that’s how it started.” What’s consistent in the band members’ stories, however, is the fact that Slash wasn’t a fan of the song to begin with. Slash has also admitted several times in the past that he initially didn’t think much of “Sweet Child O’ Mine”. “For me at the time it was just a very cheesy ballad,” is his verdict.