The frontman of an Australian band has suggested that Guns N’ Roses could have plagiarised ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’ from him.
James Reyne of Australian Crawl commented after Australian blog Max TV highlighted the similarities between his band’s ‘Unpublished Critics’ and the huge worldwide hit.
“[‘Unpublished Critics’ has] the same chugging chord progression, a similarly-sweeping lead break, the verse melody, and the elongated one-syllable vocal in the chorus,” wrote Australian blog Max TV of the similarities.
‘Unpublished Critics’ is taken from the Australian band’s album ‘Sirocco’, which came out in 1981 on Geffen Records, six years before Guns N’ Roses released ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’ on the same label.
Australian Crawl singer James Reyne told Daily Mail Australia that it is “not inconceivable” that Guns N’ Roses heard the song first, but added, “I’m not about to take on the might of the Guns N’ Roses lawyers”.
Hear ‘Unpublished Critics’ below.
Meanwhile, Slash recently hinted at the possibility of taking part in a reunion of the classic Guns N’ Roses line-up, quoted in a recent interview as saying “never say never”.
The guitarist left the classic rock band in 1996, with the group’s frontman Axl Rose releasing the much-delayed LP ‘Chinese Democracy’ with a new-look line-up in 2008. Having later formed the band Velvet Revolver, Slash more recently released an album titled ‘World On Fire’ with Myles Kennedy and The Conspirators in September 2014.
Asked about rejoining his former band in a recent interview, Slash said: “If everybody wanted to do it and do it for the right reasons, I think the fans would love it. I think it might be fun at some point to try and do that. Never say never.”