MOST BRILLIANTEST DIRECTOR OF ALL TIME SPEAKS OUT ABOUT HELMING CLASSIC GN’R VIDEO TRILOGY
Sam Strange is a director of such momentous talent that after he once screened his latest film for Spielberg, Spielberg got a job at Jack in the Box, and had to be talked into returning to the business to direct his masterpiece, The Lost World: Jurassic Park. A little-known fact is that Strange also directed Guns N’ Roses’ infamous video trilogy, “Don’t Cry,” “November Rain,” and “Estranged.”
Now Strange has opened up about his experience to C.H.U.D. in a special guest blog. Apparently, the concept for the video came about via inception, the now-famous method of dream invasion portrayed in Christopher Nolan’s Inception. Strange writes of his encounter with rock’s most dangerous front man:
The strangest story I have involves this guy Axl Rose (Real Name: Hacksel Rosenbaum). When Axl came to us he was leader of an struggling local Rock n Roll band called Guns n Roses. Axl felt destined to rock stardom, but some unhappiness deep in his subconscious kept this fate out of reach.
“So Mr. Rose, please tell us what IDEA you want us to Incept in your brain and how many tickets you think it will sell.”
“I dunno. I just wanna be a rock guy.”
“Do you know how hard it is to Incept someone? An IDEA like that is far too broad. You’ll have to think of something more specific.”
“That’s the best I can do. Here’s two billion dollars.” (Axl was super rich because his dad had been an extra in Pump Up the Volume.)
Strange also offers an analysis of each individual video, for the benefit of those of us who always found the storyline a tad confusing. Here’s an excerpt of his explanation of the “November Rain” clip (above):
