HIM‘s Ville Valo sat down to have a chat with Revolver’s Christina Rowatt about everything from the music that has built him to his new solo album. During the conversation, the singer shared that the only song he sang in karaoke was Guns N’ Roses‘ ‘Sweet Child of Mine’ which he shared that he struggled to catch up to Axl Rose‘s vocals.
The vocalist explained that on the few occasions, he has done karaoke, his first choice has always been ‘Sweet Child of Mine.’ When Rowatt asked whether he could nail it, Valo responded with a definite ‘no.’ He gave details of the time he won a carton of Marlboro, but the vocalist didn’t quite know whether it was because he was good or he had walked off the stage, so they just gave it to him.
Valo also shared that Rose’s natural baritone that he has allows him to speak most of the track. It’s not about Rose having that high of a pitch, but more so the tone that was hard to emulate since Valo doesn’t intrinsically have the baritone in his vocals like the Guns N’ Roses vocalist.
Ville Valo’s words about emulating Axl Rose:
“The only song I have sung in karaoke, which I’ve done several times, is ‘Sweet Child of Mine.’ Once, I think I won on a ferry. Oh no, I won a carton of Marlboro singing it, so I’m not sure if it was because I sang it or because I got off the stage or whatever, but you know where you put one and one together that well yeah yeah, it was great it fit that particular moment it’s done perfectly also the carton served as my pillow, so the pillow got smaller and smaller and smaller by the trip. It was a festival trip, a weekend in Denmark at a place called Roskilde.”
“But then again, Axel Rose supposedly is a natural baritone; yeah, he’s like speaking most of the stuff it’s not super high.”
Although Valo doesn’t think he was able to emulate Rose in his attempts to sing ‘Sweet Child of Mine’ since the vocalist is in his new era with his solo album ‘Neon Noir,’ as Rowatt said, a cover of the track would be something that fans would like to hear, to get a taste of his version.
