Rock N' Roll...

The story behind the epic Guns N' Roses song 'Don't Cry' and the music video. Podcast on Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-rock-n-roll-true-stories-podcast/id1876614383 My second YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/@RockNRollTrueStories2 In 1991, Guns N' Roses weren't content to just release a follow-up to Appetite for Destruction. They released two albums on the same day, debuted at No. 1 and No. 2 on the Billboard 200 simultaneously, and then spent a reported $7 million turning three ballads into a three-part cinematic epic that fans are still arguing about 35 years later. This is the story of where that trilogy actually began. Long before the helicopters, the rooftop shoots and the shut-down streets of downtown Los Angeles, there was just a song written in about five minutes. Axl Rose and Izzy Stradlin put it together around 1985 after a real goodbye — a woman ending things with Axl outside the Roxy, or on a park bench depending on which telling you believe, and the simple words she offered him that became the hook. The band tracked early demos at Hollywood Sound, the same room where Led Zeppelin cut Led Zeppelin II, and that session ended with a studio owner allegedly pulling a real gun over an unpaid bill. The band grabbed their tapes and left. The song didn't make Appetite for Destruction. It circulated on bootlegs for years as a hardcore fan secret before finally arriving in 1991 in two different versions, on two different albums, with two different sets of lyrics — an early sign of how big Axl's ambitions had become. Then came the video. Working with director Andy Morahan and writer Del James, Axl built the first chapter of a story loosely drawn from James' short story "Without You" and from his own collapsed marriage to Erin Everly. What ended up on screen was deeply personal and genuinely unsettling: a struggle over a handgun that Axl later confirmed was pulled straight from real life, a therapy room featuring his actual therapist, a blizzard, a kilt, a drowning sequence shot with four scuba divers that left him in tears in his trailer, and a graveyard scene where the headstone carries his own name and the year 1990 — a year he flatly described as suicidal. And on the rooftop, a sign reading "Where's Izzy?" — a public acknowledgement that the co-writer of the song never showed up. Izzy got sober, took one look at the excess and the control, and was gone by November 1991. He'd later call the whole thing a pointless indulgence. We also break down the drum fill Matt Sorum played across all three videos at Axl's request, inspired by Nigel Olsson's work on Elton John's "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me," the hidden band tributes to Jane's Addiction, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Nirvana, the St. Louis Cardinals hat referencing the Riverport riot, Shannon Hoon's appearance on the roof, and why the babies at the start and end have different coloured eyes. Masterpiece or peak rock star excess? Even the director shrugged when asked what it all meant. Tell me your interpretation in the comments. Have a video request or a topic you'd like to see us cover? Comment below or send in your idea: https://bit.ly/3stnXlN CONNECT ON SOCIAL TIKOK:https://www.tiktok.com/@rocknrolltruestory Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rnrtruestories/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RNRTrueStories Twitter: https://twitter.com/rocktruestories Blog: www.rockandrolltruestories.com #gunsnroses #axlrose #slash These videos are for entertainment purposes only. DISCLAIMER https://rockandrolltruestories.com/youtube-disclaimer/