Trivia: Axl Rose Performed “November Rain” at a Wedding Two Years Before the Song Was Released

So Uproxx is doing a three-part mini-documentary about Guns N’ Roses, the debut episode of which you can peep below. Honestly, it’s pretty silly: it follows Marc Canter, the owner of the legendary Canter’s Deli, who was friends with the band before they ever got famous*, and who believes he can get the classic line-up to reunite simply by shoving them back into the same small, crappy rehearsal space where they started. Which is obviously a pretty weak plan.

Not helping me take this strategy any more seriously is the fact that the entire video is set to the most obnoxiously, pompously saccharine score, as though Canter were plotting not to reunite Guns N’ Roses, but to raise John Lennon and George Harrison from the dead for the purpose of getting The Beatles back together.

Still, the video is worth checking out, if only for this fun piece of trivia: Axl Rose played “November Rain” was Canter and his wife walked down the aisle at their wedding… two years before the song was released on Use Your Illusion I, and three years before the video for the song — which is centered around a wedding!!! — became ubiquitous on MTV.

Did the Canter nuptials inspire the “November Rain” video? As far as I can tell, at no point did anyone at the party leap through the cake to avoid bad weather, but it’s hard to imagine that there’s no connection whatsoever.

You can watch the episode below. The remaining two episodes will be released on Wednesday, April 29, and Wednesday, May 6.

*He eventually released a really fun book about that time, Reckless Road, which he’s now trying to turn into a movie; you can read my interview with him about that book here)