The reported $1.5 million-plus production showcases the band playing the song in a theater with an orchestra and backing vocalists, and both wedding and funeral scenes featuring Rose's girlfriend at the time, Stephanie Seymour. The 'November Rain' video, meanwhile, is similarly epic. The story appears in James' book The Language of Fear, whose 2008 edition features a forward by Rose. 'November Rain' is also considered of a piece with 'Don't Cry' and 'Estranged' as a trilogy inspired by the 'Without You' short story (James also served as GNR's road manager for a time). Watch Guns N' Roses' 'November Rain' Video he'd spend however long it took to ensure that the sonic drama was perfect.'

'He'd sit there for hours to get the right sound for one section of a song. ' was like a kid in a candy store with all those banks of keyboards he'd had installed in the studio,' Slash recalled in his memoir. The group's part was just the beginning, however, as Rose then constructed the orchestrations and choir-like backing vocals from the whole band, as well as his brother Stuart Bailey and Blind Melon's Shannon Hoon, who also sang on four other Illusion songs. The band, according to Slash in his book, tracked 'November Rain' in one day at the Record Plant, though 'we put in long hours ahead of time to get all of the arrangements just right.' The guitarist further noted that 'the guitar solo that ended up on the record is the exact same one that I played the first time I heard the song years ago.' Rose - whose lyrics were inspired by 'Without You,' a short story by his friend and occasional song collaborator Del James - had the track in mind during a 1987 interview with Music Connection, talking about its epic arrangement and saying he would quit the music biz if he couldn't record 'November Rain' the way he wanted. The Scottish guitarist remembered Rose telling him at the time that, 'I'm saving this one for the second album,' and Slash noted in his memoir that that version stretched to a whopping 18 minutes. GNR worked on the song during June 1986, while recording a demo tape with Nazareth's Manny Charlton at Sound City Studio in Hollywood.

Guns, recalled (in the book Watch You Bleed: The Saga of Guns N' Roses) hearing Rose play the piano introduction as early as 1983, declaring 'someday this song is gonna be really cool.' Tracii Guns, who played with Rose in an early incarnation of L.A. Like other songs on Illusion - notably ' Don't Cry,' ' Bad Obsession,' 'The Garden' and ' Back Off Bitch' - 'November Rain' had a lengthy history before its release.

'I don't know if it represented Guns in my head, but it sounded amazing regardless.' Slash, meanwhile, documented some ambivalence about what he called 'the grandiose production thing' in his own 2008 autobiography. 'What ended up with at the end of the day was fucking brilliant,' the guitarist admitted. 'Axl wanted to take the band to a stadium level, and he knew that with epic songs, epic videos and larger-than-life imagery, we could do it,' drummer Matt Sorum, who joined GNR during 1990 in time for the Illusion sessions, wrote in his memoir Double Talkin' Jive. GNR telegraphed the more sophisticated aim of Illusion with its performance of 'Civil War' at Farm Aid in 1990, but 'November Rain' is the pinnacle of the vision the band, and particularly frontman Axl Rose, had for its anxiously awaited second album. A power ballad on steroids, the song is dominated by piano and synthesizer-created orchestrations, but retains some crunch in the dynamics and leaves room for three searing guitar solos by Slash.

November rain guns n roses