This video of pop superstar Sabrina Carpenter, aged 10, cosplaying Axl Rose to cover Guns N' Roses classic Sweet Child O' Mine is the cutest thing you'll see online this week

Sabrina Carpenter as Axl Rose — (Image credit: Sabrina Carpenter UK YouTube channel)

Regardless of how fanatical and undiluted your love of rock and metal is, you cannot possibly be unaware of the existence of pop superstar Sabrina Carpenter.

A former Disney TV star, the 26-year-old singer's 2024's album Short n' Sweet, topped the national charts in no fewer than 18 countries, and included three UK number one singles: her upcoming seventh album, Man's Best Friend, is due on August 29, has already yielded one UK/US chart-topper in the form of single Manchild.

Basically, she's kinda a big deal.

But before international superstardom beckoned, Carpenter, like almost every 'overnight success' in the music industry, worked for years honing her craft. And as part of her musical education, she was schooled in classic rock - Queen, The Beatles, Rush, Guns N' Roses, Ozzy Osbourne and more - by her father David.

"The Trees is the longest song I’ve ever heard," the singer joked to Rolling Stone earlier this year about Rush's classic single from 1978's Hemispheres album. "I heard it my whole childhood."

Remarkably, there's no shortage of visual evidence of Carpenter's early years in existence online. Want to see her perform The Beatles' Come Together, back in 2009? Here you go. Wonder what she sounded like, aged 12, channelling her inner Prince Of Darkness? Wonder no more.

Ah yes, you cry, but I bet she wouldn't have dared try to emulate Axl Rose's distinctive vocals, by covering a Guns N' Roses classic? But that's where you're wrong, friend.

Behold, Sabrina Carpenter, aged 10, and her cover of Sweet Child O' Mine.

If, by chance, hearing this has made you wonder what other unusual or unheralded covers of this Gn'R classic exist out there on the World Wide Web, here are 10 of the most interesting covers of Sweet Child... , ranging across the musical spectrum from jazz to house, ska to goth, electro to metalcore.

A music writer since 1993, formerly Editor of Kerrang! and Planet Rock magazine (RIP), Paul Brannigan is a Contributing Editor to Louder. Having previously written books on Lemmy, Dave Grohl (the Sunday Times best-seller This Is A Call) and Metallica (Birth School Metallica Death, co-authored with Ian Winwood), his Eddie Van Halen biography (Eruption in the UK, Unchained in the US) emerged in 2021. He has written for Rolling Stone, Mojo and Q, hung out with Fugazi at Dischord House, flown on Ozzy Osbourne's private jet, played Angus Young's Gibson SG, and interviewed everyone from Aerosmith and Beastie Boys to Young Gods and ZZ Top. Born in the North of Ireland, Brannigan lives in North London and supports The Arsenal.

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