During an appearance on the Songcraft podcast , Duff McKagan revealed that Slash initially disliked the famous Guns N' Roses , "Sweet Child O' Mine".
McKagan explained that rhythm guitarist Izzy Strandlin “ had three chords ready,” and that he thought they made sense, but didn't know how to develop the composition further. He stated that Axl Rose liked them and that they should develop them somehow.
The band began to develop the composition, but somehow Slash didn't like it. "In the introduction to 'Sweet Child O' Mine', Slash simply didn't like the whole D-C-G note progression thing," stated the legendary bassist. He added that the guitarist told him, "We have to get rid of this song somehow."
Slash then created the iconic intro riff, and McKagan suggested using it in an attempt to sabotage the song. "Of course, that attempt to get rid of the song totally worked. It was an incredible intro, and suddenly we had this ballad."
McKagan emphasized that the circumstantial way in which "Sweet Child O' Mine" came about reflected that phase Guns N' Roses was going through at the time. "It just shows that everything was going right at that moment," he stated.
Why didn't Slash like "Sweet Child O' Mine"?
Slash stated that he didn't like Sweet Child O' Mine at first because he found the song "too sentimental".
Duff McKagan's account of the story behind the intro doesn't quite match what the virtuoso guitarist said. "I was sitting in the house where Guns N' Roses lived, maybe in 1986, and I created the riff. I was messing around with the notes, like any riff," the guitarist revealed to Eddie Trunk in 2022. "Izzy started playing the chords in the background, Axl heard it, liked it, and that's how it all began."
"Sweet Child O' Mine" became a huge hit and reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 .
Slash is touring Brazil in early 2024 with Myles Kennedy & The Conspirators , with shows in Belo Horizonte , São Paulo , Rio de Janeiro, and Porto Alegre.
READ ALSO : Duff McKagan talks about the day he met Slash: “It was a culture shock”
