‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’ The Song That Made GNR

You never know what can happen in the songwriting process. In the case of Guns N' Roses 'Sweet Child O' Mine,' a song that started as a poem. What began as placeholder lyrics literally asking the producer the question, "Where do we go from here?" ended in key lyrics for Guns N' Roses first monster hit. Sound crazy? It's the story behind Guns N' Roses 'Sweet Child O' Mine.'

Back in the late '80s-early '90s, Axl Rose was dating Erin Everly, daughter of Don Everly of The Everly Brothers. Axl started out writing the lyrics to what would become 'Sweet Child O' Mine' as a poem for Erin. In an early interview Axl said, "'Sweet Child O' Mine' is the first positive love song I've ever written. But I never had anyone to write anything about before."

The poem originally had a third verse. It was edited out because the record company felt it made the song too long, leaving the ending unfinished.

The couple dated for four years and got married in Vegas. Just nine months after their wedding, the marriage was annulled, Erin citing abuse as the reason.

With the third verse cut from the song, Axl wasn't sure of how to wrap the song. The whole band contributed to the song, but with the third verse cut, how was the song supposed to end? As the story goes, When Guns N' Roses "Sweet Child O' Mine' was in early recording sessions, Axl got to the end of the second verse. He started asking the producer, Spencer Proffer, "Where do we go now? Where do we go from here?" singing it as he went. Spencer loved it and told Axl to make that the ending lyrics.

According to Duff McKagan's 2012 autobiography, Slash hated the song and thought it was the band's worst song. Slash had an interview on the Eddie Trunk podcast just a few years ago. The guitarist talked about Guns N' Roses 'Sweet Child O' Mine.'

Slash said, "We're sort of blessed that we have something that's become as memorable as that. You can't really mock that. You have to appreciate that you have something like that in your career. That you have a song that is really that effective. So it's cool."

Guns N' Roses released two songs from Appetite for Destruction ("It's So Easy" and "Welcome to the Jungle"). Both songs flopped. The third release was 'Sweet Child O' Mine' and at that point, the band took off. "Welcome to the Jungle was re-released after the success of 'Sweet Child."

Appetite for Destruction has sold roughly 28 million albums. It is part of the elite Double Diamond club and rolling up on Triple Diamond.