“Sweet Child of Mine” might be one of Guns N’ Roses’ most popular songs and one of the most iconic rock tracks of all time, but Slash has a mixed relationship with it.
Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash “did have a thing with it,” he told Guitar World last year. “It was a riff I came up with, and I didn’t know what I was going to do with it. I wasn’t really thinking about it at the time, but it inspired the whole song.”
In 2014, the iconic guitarist told WEBN radio host Kidd Chris that while he didn’t “hate” “Sweet Child of Mine,” he certainly was not its biggest fan of it.
“I didn’t hate it, but I wasn’t fond of ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine.’ And that gives you a good idea of how credible my opinion is … The actual riff itself I love, but the song itself …” the muscian, real name Saul Hudson, quipped.
“You know, Guns N’ Roses was always a real hardcore, sort of, AC/DC kind of hard rock band with a lot of attitude. If we did any kind of ballads, it was bluesy. This was an uptempo ballad. That’s one of the gayest things you can write” he explained.
Slash added: “But at the same time, it’s a great song — I’m not knocking it — but at the same time, it just did not fit in with the rest of our, sort of, schtick. And, of course, it would be the biggest hit we ever had.”
According to a 2024 Songcraft podcast appearance by Duffy McKagan, reported by NME, Slash wrote the intro as a form of sabotage, saying he “did not like” the chords presented to him by then-guitarist Izzy Stradlin.
“Izzy had the three chords,” McKagan recalled. “OK, well that’s… ‘What do you do with that?’ Axl liked it: ‘OK, well let’s try to make this work somehow.’ The intro for “Sweet Child o’ Mine,” Slash just did not like the three D, C, G [chord progression].”
He then recalled Slash telling him, “We’ve got to get rid of this song somehow.”
Slash then wrote “this twisted, just atonal thing”, but his efforts to ruin the song didn’t quite go to plan. “Of course that part to try to get rid of the song, totally worked,” revealed McKagan. “It was this amazing intro to the song, and suddenly we had this ballad. … It just goes to show that everything was clicking with that band at that point.”
