Sweet Child O' Mine: from a rehearsal joke to Guns N' Roses' defining hit

Collider reports that Guns N' Roses' 1988 single "Sweet Child O' Mine" began as a joke during a 1986 rehearsal and became the band's only US number-one single.

According to the account, Slash was warming up with what he called a silly, circus-like guitar exercise when Axl Rose began riffing lyrics, Izzy Stradlin added chords and Steven Adler supplied a groove, creating the song's skeleton within minutes. Rose's tender lyrics were largely written about his then-girlfriend Erin Everly and lifted from his love letters and poems; the track appeared on Appetite for Destruction, the album later described as the best-selling debut album of all time. The music video also featured the band members' girlfriends at the time: Everly, Mandy Brix, Angela Nicoletti, Cheryl Swiderski and Sally McLaughlin.

Boasting one of rock's most recognizable guitar intros and more than two billion streams on Spotify, "Sweet Child O' Mine" is presented as Guns N' Roses' most defining tune, notable for balancing a hard-rock edge with emotional softness decades after its release.