The Story Behind 'November Rain'

A song that was different became a smash

As soon as November comes around, there is one song that instantly comes to the top of my playlist:

November Rain by Guns N’ Roses.

This song is so old I can remember a friend letting me listen to it on his Sony Discman.

I was never a big Axl Rose fan (despite his Midwestern roots, he didn’t exactly come across as a nice guy), but I loved this song.

I still do.

But where did November Rain come from?

I was curious…

In the late 1980s, there were few bands who rocked harder than Guns N’ Roses.

GNR was known for Axl Rose’s screeching vocals, Slash’s epic guitar solos, and the band’s wild antics – both onstage and off.

After a slow start, their 1987 release Appetite for Destruction became the best-selling debut album of all time, with more than 18 million copies sold in the US.

The album sold 30 million copies worldwide, and made GNR global superstars.

That success gave them a lot of control and freedom as they began working on their ambitious double album, Use Your Illusion.

How would the band follow their hard rock hits like Welcome to the Jungle, Paradise City, and Sweet Child o’ Mine?

Lead singer Axl Rose wanted to do something different.

He had been working on a song called November Rain since the early 1980s.

His former bandmate Tracii Guns remembered Axl playing it on the piano back in 1983.

“He’d go, ‘Someday this song is gonna be really cool,’” Guns said. “And I’d go, ‘It’s cool now.’”

“But it’s not done,” Axl responded.

Guns recalled how Rose kept at it – working on November Rain anytime the band would be at a hotel or place with a piano.

It is rumoured that the song was originally 25 minutes long, and that an 18-minute version of the song was recorded in the 1980s.

The band experimented with various arrangements, and recorded both a 10-minute version with piano and vocals, and a five-minute acoustic version in 1986.

They considered adding the song to Appetite for Destruction – but decided to keep working on it.

November Rain was Axl’s baby, and he cared about it so deeply that in 1988 he told Rolling Stone magazine:

“If it is not recorded right, I’ll quit the business.”

Fortunately, the band recorded a version Axl was happy with, and November Rain was released as a single in February 1992.

Clocking in at nearly nine minutes, this version of November Rain took inspiration from a diverse group of artists, including Elton John, Led Zeppelin, Mötley Crüe, and Queen.

It built on the foundation of the 1986 piano version, and added strings and kickass guitar solos – elevating November Rain from a ‘cool song’ to an epic power ballad.

Supported by an elaborate, dramatic music video (that cost a staggering $1.5 million to make), November Rain received heavy rotation on both MTV and radio.

It went to #3 in the US, and was the longest song in history to enter the Top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Who doesn’t bring their guitar to a church in the middle of nowhere?

November Rain was a drastic departure from the songs the band was known for – and it became the biggest hit of the album.

But sadly, as Axl’s lyrics in the song warned us, ‘Nothing lasts forever.’

November Rain also marked the end of GNR's dominance on the charts – and the band as we knew it.

Guitarist Slash quit in 1996, followed by bassist Duff McKagen in 1997.

In 2012, Axl Rose was asked when a potential GNR reunion might happen.

He responded:

“Not in this lifetime.”

But as November Rain also told us, ‘Hearts can change.’

And in 2016, Axl, Slash, and Duff reunited to tour for the first time since 1993.

Fans turned up en masse, and GNR ‘Not in This Lifetime…’ became the third highest-grossing tour in history.

And in 2018, November Rain showed it still had staying power when it became the oldest song to surpass one billion views on YouTube.

In 2023, it became the first hard-rock video to reach 2 billion views.

I have just added another view to the tally.

You can, too:

One more thing…

Planning a wedding reception?

You can hire the beautiful venue where Axl Rose and Stephanie Seymour had their wedding reception in the November Rain video.

I actually attended a wedding reception here many years ago (and instantly recognized it from the video).

Thankfully, it did not rain the day of the ceremony — and no one dove into the wedding cake either!

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Stay Curious!

-Beth