Slash’s guitar intro to Guns N’ Roses’ ‘Sweet Child Of Mine’ was originally written “to get rid of the song”

Guns N’ Roses bassist Duff McKagan has revealed Slash‘s iconic guitar intro to ‘Sweet Child Of Mine’ was written to “get rid” of the song.

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On the latest episode of the Songcraft podcast, McKagan said that Slash wrote the intro as a form of sabotage, saying that he “did not like” the chords presented to him by then-guitarist Izzy Stradlin at the time.

“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 said that Slash apparently told 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 remained in vain. “Of course that part to try to get rid of the song, totally worked,” said 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.”

McKagan recently defended the band playing lengthy three-and-a-half-hour sets, saying: “Don’t get me wrong – my body would love it if we only played two-and-a-half-hours. Most bands, like, play two hours. Two hours and 10 minutes or something, and we’re playing three [hours and] thirty [minutes]. I’d love to play shorter because, just, I’d be in less pain the next day.

“But, there’s just too many songs, and people stay for the whole thing. Nobody leaves, so it’s like, “Okay, they must be enjoying this.” We’ll whip out ‘Coma’ or ‘Locomotive’.”

In other news, Slash played a Guns N’ Roses deep cut for the first time ever. He treated fans in Mexico to a surprise performance of ‘Don’t Damn Me’ from 1991 album ‘Use Your Illusion I’.