But the video itself picked up only one competitive trophy, for cinematography. “When a musician starts to use the term ‘mini-movie’ to describe a video, it’s time to quit.”Īt the Video Music Awards that September, where Rose and Kurt Cobain famously clashed offstage, Guns N’ Roses was honored with the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award, the MTV equivalent of a lifetime achievement award. To that band’s drummer, Dave Grohl, “November Rain” was a “train wreck,” as he recalled in “I Want My MTV: The Uncensored Story of the Music Video Revolution,” by Craig Marks (now The Times’ pop music editor) and Rob Tannenbaum. Fans may have embraced the video, but it was regarded by many cultural tastemakers as excessive, indulgent, bloated - particularly in contrast to Nirvana’s gritty, low-budget “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” released a few months earlier. “November Rain” cost a reported $1.5 million, making it the most expensive music video of its time - a milestone that was quickly surpassed but that drew much negative media attention because of Rose’s increasingly volatile reputation. The spotlight wasn’t what she hopedīefore reuniting with her “Real World” cast mates, Julie Gentry had to grapple with the very public life of a ‘naive’ 19-year-old from Birmingham, Ala.,: herself. Television ‘The Real World’ made ‘Julie from Alabama’ a star. The second in a loosely connected trilogy of videos helmed by Morahan - the others being “Don’t Cry” (the one where Slash drives a car off a cliff) and “Estranged” (the one where Axl jumps off an oil tanker and swims with dolphins) - “November Rain” was based on the story “Without You,” written by Del James, a journalist, road manager and permanent fixture in the band’s orbit. 3 on the charts, where it landed behind two other memorably romantic anthems (Boyz II Men’s “End of the Road” and TLC’s “Baby-Baby-Baby”). Is this the best music video of all time?”ĭirected by Andy Morahan, “November Rain” quickly went into heavy rotation on MTV and helped the single - a lushly arranged power ballad that shifts into an ominous metal dirge at the seven-minute mark - climb to No. “How did Stephanie die?” “Why did that guy dive into the cake?” “Did he kill Stephanie?” “What is Slash doing in the desert?” and “Oh, my God. The video, unveiled on MTV’s “Headbangers Ball” and broadcast later that night on Fox, left a generation of music fans with questions that linger to this day.
Thirty years ago this week, the “November Rain” video premiered on MTV - a baroque nine-minute rock opera starring Guns N’ Roses frontman Axl Rose and his then-girlfriend, supermodel Seymour, in a timeless tale of love gone wrong.
Maybe for you it’s the mirrored coffin covering half of Stephanie Seymour’s face, or the long-haired guy hurling himself face-first into a wedding cake, or Slash’s guitar solo in front of a remote church. Maybe you remember the mullet wedding dress.
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