Nicole Atkins and Mark Lanegan covered “November Rain” by Guns N’ Roses. The recording was shared by Stereogum in advance of its official release this Friday, November 23.
Atkins corresponded with Stereogum regarding the recording of the song that originally appeared on 1991’s Use Your Illusion I. Detailing a dream that inspired the cover, the vocalist wrote:
A couple summers ago, I was staying at this really cool inn I found online in Vermont. It was called Grunberger Haus. A little cozy Santa cabin made of wood with Thurston Moore record’s on the wall in the lobby. It was a magical retreat in the woods and a total score online from my usual chain hotels I get on tour.
I had some really weird dreams during my two nights there.
In one of them I dreamt that I was in an old tower and I was singing an old ’60s country-style duet of the Guns N’ Roses song “November Rain,” and it sounded awesome. I immediately woke up and sang it into my phone the way I heard it.
When I got back to Nashville, I called a couple friends and went into our friend JD’s home studio and recorded it. Everything came together really quickly.
I still didn’t know who I’d get to sing it with me and then I thought, “well who’s the best loving singer?” For me, it’s Mark Lanegan. We became acquainted back in ’06 when he sent me a MySpace message about my demo of my song “Neptune City.” Oddly enough that was the same month I’d just gotten turned onto his Here Comes that Weird Chill EP.
Mark and I have been talking about singing together now for over 10 years so this seemed like the perfect time to do it. I figured I didn’t have anything to lose by asking and it turned out exactly as I’d pictured.
The best thing with this cover is that I’ll play it and people don’t realize what they’re listening to until 30 seconds in. My dad thought it was a Conway Twitty cover. Then they all go, “Wait, is this November Rain?! I love that song!!!!
Stream “November Rain” below:
