GN’R Video Director Reveals Original Concept Behind ‘Sweet Child’

One of Guns N’ Roses’ video directors Nigel Dick has revealed the original concept behind the “Sweet Child O’ Mine” music video.

In an appearance on the Appetite for Distortion podcast discussing his new memoir Music Video Mischief: Ozzy to Britney, Oasis to Gn’R, McCartney to Cher: A Lifetime of Rock and Chaos, Dick described the initial idea for the video as “very dark.” He’d discussed it during a meeting with Axl Rose and the band’s then-manager Alan Niven, but they didn’t end up using that concept in the end.

“The original idea came together over the one social meeting I had with Axl and Alan over lunch and was very dark. [It] involved him being in a mental institution and looking through a window and there he sees his girlfriend on the other side of the glass,” Dick recalled, adding that it’s not unusual for artists to come up with several video concepts before settling on one.

“Eventually somebody says, ‘You know what? This is too dark’ or ‘This is too expensive’ or ‘This just needs to be done in one day.’ Whatever the conversation is, often the first idea is not the best.”

Dick worked on Guns’ videos for the songs on their first two releases, Appetite for Destruction (1987) and GN’R Lies (1988). Because he had a good relationship with Niven at the time, he knew what the band envisioned for their prospective music videos before even becoming involved in the process for them.

The band worked with Andy Morahan on their later videos, particularly for the Use Your Illusion tracks including “Don’t Cry,” “November Rain” “Estranged” and some others.

READ MORE: Have You Been Singing the Wrong Lyrics to ‘Welcome to the Jungle’?

Check out the rest of the conversation below and keep scrolling to learn about another idea Rose had for the “Sweet Child” video.

Guns N’ Roses Video Director Reveals Original Concept Behind ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’

Axl Rose’s Other Concept for ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’ Video

Back in 2006, roughly 18 years after the “Sweet Child O’ Mine” video came out, Rose told Eddie Trunk about another concept he had for the video that was ultimately turned down.

“What I really wanted to do for that [back] in the day was have it about this woman from the Orient bringing her baby through customs and stuff and caring about this baby and everything, but at the end some guy splits it in half because it’s dead and filled with heroin,” Rose elaborated [listen to the audio here].

“And the record company would not let me do it. That’s what ‘Sweet Child’ was supposed to be about.”

Sebastian Bach, Anthrax’s Scott Ian and Fozzy’s Chris Jericho were part of the conversation as well.

Guns N’ Roses, ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’

See some other wild stories from Guns N’ Roses’ early days in the gallery below.