Don't Cry

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"Don't Cry"

Single by Guns N' Roses
from the album Use Your Illusion I & II
Released	1991
Format	CD
Recorded	1991
Genre	Hard Rock
Length	04:45
Label	Geffen
Writer(s)	Axl Rose/Izzy Stradlin
Guns N' Roses singles chronology
"You Could Be Mine" (1991)	"Don't Cry" (1991)	"Estranged" (1994)

"Don't Cry" is a song by Guns N' Roses. It appears in two different versions: the fourth song on Use Your Illusion I and the thirteenth on Use Your Illusion II. It uses the "Original" lyrics in the former, and "Alt. lyrics" on the latter, the only difference is in Axl's vocal track in the verses. The choruses are identical and the rest of the music tracks are the same.

[edit] Song

The song features Shannon Hoon of Blind Melon, who grew up with Rose in Indiana, on backing vocals. He also appears in the video for the song.

Noted as a segment of the Illusions Trilogy, "Don't Cry" was the first song ever written by the Guns, according to singer Axl Rose. Along with "Estranged" and "November Rain", it made up a complex story inspired in part by the short story "Without You" by Del James.^{[citation needed]}

Axl quoted that the song is about a girl that Izzy Stradlin used to go out with. Axl was attracted to the girl himself.^{[citation needed]} Axl was sitting outside The Roxy and was crying when she was saying goodbye and then she told Axl, "Don't cry".^{[citation needed]} Axl and Izzy got together the next night and wrote the song in five minutes.

Bumblefoot, one of the guitarists of the newly assembled Guns N' Roses line-up, plays a solo instrumental version of the song on the 2006 tour.

[edit] Music video

The video for this song, like several videos for the Illusions albums, was much more cinematic than their former work, and depicted the central character in his courtship with his eventual wife as well as his internal battle with emotional issues. Although a sharp turn away from what fans were used to, it is still regarded as one of the best videos the band produced in their short time together.

Guitarist Izzy Stradlin, who is credited as one of the co-writers of the song, is absent from the video, but Slash can be seen with a hand-written poster that reads, "Where's Izzy?" Axl can be seen very briefly, at around the same point in the video, wearing a St. Louis Cardinals baseball cap. This may be a reference to the famous incident in 1991 where Rose dove into a St. Louis crowd in the middle of a song after a man with a video camera, was arrested, and incited a subsequent riot.

A Nirvana baseball hat is visible to the side of Axl's left leg when he is laying down in the psychiatrist's office. Axl was a big fan of Nirvana and even asked them to play at his 30th birthday party.^{[citation needed]} The band hated Guns N' Roses 1 and turned down Axl's offer, starting the beginning of the feud between the two bands.