“November Rain” remains one of the most beloved, over-the-top music videos of all time. But for Slash, the making of the iconic music video will remain one of the scariest moments in his career.
In a new interview with Yahoo!, Slash detailed filming the scene where he exits the church and then proceeds to play his blistering solo in the middle of the desert. Directed by Andy Morahan, the scene was filmed from a helicopter that got too close for Slash’s comfort.
He said, “[Morahan] didn’t tell me that they were going to be doing bomb shots with me with a helicopter! And when I got out onto the set and did my thing, I noticed that this helicopter would come back and forth at extremely fast speeds and get really, really low. And I thought, ‘Well, this’ll be my last day on Earth.’ …It was the kind of thing where you’re just resigned to the fact that you’re probably gonna die.”
Slash added, “.And at that point in time, I was pretty much had that [mentality] — I didn’t have very much fear of death in those days. Anyway, we shot it and I had no idea what it was going to look like afterwards. But it ended up looking pretty cool. But I didn’t know it was going to be as memorable as it turned out to be.”