Were things changing and evolving as you were shooting?
“It was quite interesting as the band was pretty much in a state of flux anyway. It was at that time where the Use Your Illusion albums had come out, but [guitarist] Izzy Stradlin had left the band, which Axl was very upset about. Izzy had taken himself out of the loop, Axl was getting pretty… cranky about the dynamic of the band and trying to keep the whole thing together, and there were a lot of personal issues going on. The whole thing was a bit fractured. I think the videos, if they are a reflection of anything, show the fractured nature of where the band were at that time. It was all falling apart at the seams. In that sense, the videos are less of a coherent story and more a reflection of the band.”
How did that play out on set?
“It was difficult; I’ve always said they were a bit like vampires. It was very hard to get them to do anything during the day – their hours were from when dusk falls to when the sun rises. Literally, things like that final scene in November Rain, we were filming all night and we had to keep them up just to get a daylight scene the next morning. The dynamic was difficult. I was wrangling not only the creative forces – Axl and Slash at that point – while also having to go and have meetings with the other members of the band to tell them what was going on. I’d have Duff [McKagan, bass] asking, ‘Axl has his big bit, Slash has his big bit, what’s my big bit?’ It was a constant state of juggling everything.
“To go back to the vampire comment, one of the days on November Rain, for instance, they just didn’t turn up [to set] – that was the day we shot the funeral scenes. Axl eventually came once it got dark, which is why you see him by the grave in his cape (at the end of the video) and it’s night time. He’s not in the scene with the priest and the extras. It was constantly trying to keep the whole show on the road. And of course, when things like that happen, the costs escalate, so the videos have these reputations as being the biggest, most expensive videos of the time – which was pretty much accurate! But they didn’t start like that. They just… evolved.”
What was with the dolphins?
“By that time, Axl had split up with Stephanie Seymour, and he was like, ‘I don’t want any more beautiful girls in my videos; I’d rather have a dolphin.’ We knew that we were deliberately doing that so people would go, ‘What’s all that about?!’ There was a sense that it was throwing up a lot more questions than answers, and that suited everybody – it created a myth and intrigue around the whole trilogy.”
Was it fun to work on, in that regard?
“It was fun, but it was bloody hard work. I look back on the things like dolphins flying out of aeroplanes and now, the effects look very unsophisticated… There was also a desire at the time to make things as cutting-edge as possible, and make it wondrous and fantastic and surreal. Axl drove a lot of that; he wanted to be as mysterious and surreal as possible. I think he realised that it made the enigma more powerful.”