Wayne’s World Turned Down Guns N’ Roses For Surprising Reason

0
3890

Wayne’s World director Penelope Spheeris discussed why she and Mike Myers did not want a Guns N’ Roses song to appear in the first Wayne’s World film in a new Yahoo interview.

“I had just done Decline II, and Guns N’ Roses were supposed to be in it, and at the last minute their manager decided that he didn’t want them in the movie, so I went and I got Megadeth. ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ was written into the script when I got it, and then the studio said, ‘Oh, we got this hot band now. We want to put Guns N’ Roses in there.’ And Mike kicked up about it and said, ‘No, we don’t want Guns N’ Roses, we want Bohemian Rhapsody,’ so you can imagine where I was at with that one. I was like, ‘I don’t want Guns N’ Roses. They didn’t want me.’ That’s what that battle was all about.

But the fact of the matter is, when we shot the scene in the car, I had been hanging out with these people, and I know what it’s like in a car when everybody gets in the same beat with a song. I exaggerated it with the head-banging scene, and we shot all night long. These poor guys, their necks were so sore. Mike was almost quitting and said, ‘I need Advil. I have a headache.’ It was a difficult night, and I was actually accused of the scene not being funny while I was shooting it. And I’m like, ‘Please do it. Please.’ I was begging. And, obviously, it worked. It actually revitalized Queen, not just that song, but their career.”

She also said, “Cinderella, the band, did not respond well to the movie when I screened it for them on the Paramount lot. I did end up using one of their songs, ‘Hot and Bothered,’ in the film. But when I showed it to them, they said, ‘We don’t get it. It’s not funny.’ They were not nice afterwards, and I felt so disheartened. When we started having these test screenings is when it really came to light that it was something standout and special. Either you get it or you don’t.”