Bob Dylan performing while a camera flashes in Don't Look BackImage via Leacock-Pennebaker, Inc.
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Teguan Harris
Published 15 minutes ago
Tehuan Harris is a news and features journalist at Collider, reporting and writing about all things music and reality TV (sometimes). She is a talented journalist and a natural storyteller who writes with curiosity and interest. After graduating from university, she jumped straight into journalism, with one goal in mind: to tell stories that matter.
Away from the newsroom, Teguan runs her own. She runs her own newsletters on Substack and Medium and recently became the Editor in Chief of her brand new Substack newsletter, Channel 25, which covers TV and movies. The T Word, a Substack newsletter that covers pop culture, trends, and society, was also launched in March (it's about time anyway).
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Bob Dylan’s discography is packed with iconic hits, which also happen to be some of the most covered songs. While Dylan’s original songs were climbing the charts, some covers of his songs were better received, as Jimi Hendrix’s rendition of “All Along The Watchtower” became bigger than the original and even inspired Dylan himself. Dylan has shared his love for the cover of his songs, but not every artist was lucky enough to receive Dylan’s very important stamp of approval; Guns N Roses’ cover of “Knockin' on Heaven’s Door” left Dylan less than satisfied.
Guns N' Roses Covered Bob Dylan’s “Knockin' on Heaven’s Door” Early in Their Career
Bob Dylan onstage in front of a microphone.Image via Nancy Leane
Dylan released “Knockin' on Heaven’s Door” in 1973 as part of the soundtrack for the movie released in the same year, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. After the song’s release, it peaked at number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100, with the song’s highest placement on any US chart being at five on the US Adult Contemporary. As of 2025, “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” is Dylan’s highest-streamed song on Spotify, receiving over 777 million streams.
Many artists such as Eric Clapton, Randy Crawford, and Neil Young covered “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door,” but only Guns N Roses’ version of the hit song had a fighting chance on the charts. In 1987, the band, still fresh and new to the rock scene, started to perform the song, and a live version was released on the 12-inch single of “Welcome to the Jungle” the same year. Three years later, Guns N' Roses recorded a studio version for the soundtrack for the movie Days of Thunder, and it reached number 18 on the US Billboard Album Rock Track chart.
Guns N Roses’ studio version of Dylan’s “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” was slightly edited for the band’s 1991 album Use Your Illusion II, and was released as the second single from the album. Their version peaked at number two on the charts in the UK, Ireland, and New Zealand, and topped the charts in Portugal, the Netherlands, and Belgium. The band performed the song at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert in 1992, and used the performance as the B-side for the single release.
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Posts By Teguan Harris Sep 5, 2025Why Was Bob Dylan Dissatisfied with Guns N Roses’ Cover?
Guns N' RosesImage via Guns N' Roses
On stage, Guns N Roses’ frontman Axl Rose claimed that Dylan asked him and his bandmates to cover “Knockin' on Heaven’s Door”. “Bob asked me, ‘When you gonna record ‘Heaven’s Door?’ and I said, ‘I don’t know, but we really love that song,’” Rose claimed. “And then he said, ‘I don’t give a f-ck. I just want the money.’ True story.”
However, Dylan revealed he was less than pleased with Guns N Roses’ rendition of the classic. In an interview at the time, Dylan said, “Guns N’ Roses is okay, Slash is okay, but there’s something about their version of the song that reminds me of the movie Invasion of the Body Snatchers.” The synopsis of Philip Kaufman’s 1978 movie reveals a small town doctor who learns that “the population of his community is being replaced by emotionless alien duplicates,” meaning that Dylan called Guns N Roses’ cover “emotionless”.
“I always wonder who’s been transformed into some sort of a clone, and who’s stayed true to himself,” he continued. “And I never seem to have an answer.”
Before Dylan reacted to Guns N Roses’ cover of “Knockin' on Heaven’s Door,” Slash was in the studio with Dylan, but he did not recall a good experience. In fact, he branded Dylan as “impossible” as he said, “I came down to the studio and met Bob. He was as indifferent as indifferent gets – impossible to work with. On top of that, I did one of my best one-off solos ever, one take – it was killer. When the advance cassettes went out, it was still on there, but he took it off on the official release. He said it sounded too much like Guns N' Roses. I was like, ‘What the f-ck was I there for?’”
Bob Dylan Labeled This Astonishing Cover of “Knockin' on Heaven’s Door” as “Incredible”
More music legends covered “Knockin' on Heaven’s Door”, with the song receiving many versions. However, only one person received praise so high that it almost matched the praise Hendrix received for “All Along the Watchtower.” In 2015, Bruce Springsteen was joined by Tom Morello of Rage Against The Machine to cover the iconic track, and Dylan hailed the performance as “incredible”.
“Springsteen did that song like the record, something I myself have never tried,” he said. “I never even thought it was worth it. Maybe never had the manpower in one band to pull it off. I don’t know, but I never thought about it. To tell you the truth, I’d forgotten how the song ought to go.”
“Bruce pulled all the power and spirituality, and beauty out of it like no one has ever done. He was faithful, truly faithful to the version on the record, obviously the only one he has to go by.”
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