Guns N’ Roses Meet Johnson & Johnson
Speaking to Eddie Trunk in 2006, Axl Rose described his original vision for the music video for “Sweet Child O’ Mine.” He told Trunk:
“What I really wanted to do for that… that was having about this woman from the Orient bringing her baby and getting it you know through customs and stuff, and carrying this baby and everything, but at the end, some guy splits it in half cuz it’s dead and filled with heroin. But the record company wouldn’t let me do it. That’s what ‘Sweet Child’ was supposed to be about.”
Well, now Axl has gotten half his wish: a cover of “Sweet Child O’ Mine,” recorded by London’s Capital Children’s Choir, appears in a new ad for Johnson & Johnson, along with a bunch of babies (natch), at least one of whom does appear to be descended “from the Orient.” Unfortunately, no one splits that baby in half to find heroin at the end, probably because the people at Johnson & Johnson are total pussies. Will anyone EVER understand Axl Rose’s genius vision?!?!
Although Rose no doubt received a hefty sum for the use of the song in this commercial, it’s worth noting that he may have had very little say in the matter: in 2004, his former bandmates, Slash and Duff McKagan, sued him over lost soundtrack opportunities, including offers for GN’R music to appear in such films as Ridley Scott’s Black Hawk Down, Danny DeVito’s Death to Smoochy, and Mel Gibson’s We Were Soldiers*. A settlement was reached out of court, and since then, it’s been incredibly common to hear GN’R music in films and advertisements. It’s totally possible that at this point, Rose lets anyone who can pay the appropriate fee have the music, lest he be taken back to court.
*The story I always heard about Black Hawk Down was that Rose agreed to let the filmmakers have “Welcome to the Jungle” — if they’d use a version re-recorded by his new, Slash and Duff-less band. The song was consequently replaced by Faith No More’s “Falling to Pieces.” What the hell GN’R music would have been doing in We Were Soldiers is totally beyond me… the movie takes place during Vietnam, well before there was any such band as Guns N’ Roses.
[via Bring Back Glam!]
