Come the start of the 90s, there were few bigger bands in the world than Guns N' Roses and few more bankable Hollywood stars than Arnold Schwarzenegger. Needless to say, then, that when the iconic entities came together for the filming of the video for GnR's latest single You Could Be Mine in early 1991, it created an instant moment of pop culture history.
You Could Be Mine was to be featured in Arnie's imminent blockbuster, Terminator 2: Judgement Day - something that the actor would later claim came about as the result of him personally hosting the band round his house. When it came to shooting a video for the song, which would later be included in the second part of GnR's colossal two-album Use Your Illusion release, it made perfect sense for the band and the man to try and work together for a huge bit of co-promotion.
"They have been big, big fans of Terminator and have expressed it many times, and I have been a fan of their music," Schwarzenegger stated. "So we checked into what it would be like to do a video together."
The video, featuring Arnie in full T-800 garb casing Guns N' Roses as they play a show in LA's iconic Roxy, was an instant hit, carrying the single to top three status in the UK, Australia and a host of European territories, as well as a peak position of Number 2 in the US Billboard Mainstream Rock Chart - the band's highest ever position. As it turns out, the shoot also gave Arnie and Gn'R the chance to consolidate one hell of a friendship.
"We hung out!" said Guns guitarist, Slash. "We got on really, really well. He gave the whole band jackets from the movie, these great, French, leather biker jackets with bullet holes everywhere.
"We shot some footage of us coming out of the dressing room at a stage door at the Roxy in LA," he added, "where we come face to face with Arnold in his Terminator gear. It was all pretty funny."
As former Guns drummer Matt Sorum remembered it when discussing the video in 2019 documentary The Rainbow, the band weren't exactly on their best acting form when it came to finally calling action on their big scenes with The Terminator himself.
"Arnold had a trailer that was parked in the parking lot," he recalled. "We'd all go over there, and I remember we went in there and he was smoking cigars and drinking Goldschläger, and we all did shots with him. So by the time we shot the last scene where Arnold comes out of the Roxy and we're all standing in a line, where it's Slash, me, Duff, Dizzy and Axl, we'd been in [there] for about four hours drinking heavily. By the time we got to the film set, if you watch, we're very wobbly on that last scene, especially Slash!"
Regardless, the video has gone on to become one of Guns N' Roses' most celebrated moments, and a true capsule of 90s pop culture at its absolute zenith.
