To find out more about what life was like as a female member of Guns N’ Roses back in their wilder days, Rolling Stone called on backup singer, Roberta Freeman. During the chat, she also spoke about her time singing background in Pink Floyd, Cinderella, Joe Cocker’s group, and the Pink Floyd tribute band Brit Floyd. An excerpt follows:

Rolling Stone: Can you talk a bit about “November Rain” and what makes that song so special to play live?

Roberta Freeman: "I remember during one of the shows, I think it was in South America, it started down-pouring during the song. That is, to me, what I hold near and dear to my heart. That was such a magical moment. Just to see the fans. Sometimes when you’re at a concert and it starts raining, people get bummed out. But it just fueled people and got them going even more. They were more excited. I remember for a brief moment thinking, “Huh, there’s a lot of electrical equipment on this stage and it’s raining pretty hard.” I don’t think anyone even cared. It was such an incredible moment. It was magical.

"My favorite song though was 'Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door' because that’s the song where Axl introduced me and Traci every night. He had us coax the audience to sing along with us. That’s the song that put me on the map because people were hearing my name."

Rolling Stone: I really think Axl is one of the best rock vocalists of all time. What did you learn by just watching him work every night?

"First of all, I wasn’t a real Guns N’ Roses fan when I started with them. When I got the call, obviously I had heard of them, but I wasn’t a fan. When I got on the tour, I was expecting these little bad-boy rock & rollers to be goofing off and not taking it very seriously since they were really young at the time. But I got on that tour and Axl was really serious about his vocal coach and his exercises and his discipline. He was working out and eating really healthy. He was really determined to be the best he could be. Not only that, he was singing on stage while he was running on stage. That really impressed me.

"It’s one thing to stand there and dance while you’re singing, but you’re staying still enough to remain by the microphone. But Axl was running around these steep ramps built into the stage. And these weren’t small stages. He sang in the falsetto and then he had this beautiful baritone voice as well. I was pleasantly surprised to see him do what he did. It was very impressive."

Rolling Stone: In Slash’s book, he wrote that a documentary crew shot a lot of behind-the-scenes footage from the tour that’s never been seen. Do you recall that?

Roberta Freeman: [Laughs] "Yeah! I remember them always trying to get their cameras into the dressing room while we were getting dressed! We’d slam the door in their faces. They were filming everything. They filmed everything from being on the jet to being backstage in the green rooms, being backstage getting ready when we weren’t undressing or dressing. They were everywhere and it seemed like forever. I don’t remember if they started immediately. I think we were well into the tour when they started filming, but I remember that it was annoying at times. It felt invasive, but at the same time, they were trying to document their time. Now it’s a historical time. That was a one of the longest tours in rock & roll history to date."

Read the complete interview with Roberta Freeman at RollingStone.com