“Don’t Cry” is a Guns N' Roses melodic ballad off their 1991 album Use Your Illusion I.

It was one of the first compositions written by Axl Rose and Izzy Stradlin while in Los Angeles, being present in the band’s demo tape to Geffen in 1986. Axl once described the song as being about “A woman leaving a man.” The girl is someone who Izzy Stradlin once dated, and who Axl was attracted to. Axl really liked this girl, but things couldn’t work out between them, which really hurt him and inspired him to write the song.

The music video started a trilogy, and translates how Axl’s life was going awry:

With our video for “Don’t Cry,” and the fight that Stephanie Seymour, (his then-girlfriend) and I had over the gun, you don’t necessarily know what’s going on. But in real life that happened with Erin Everly (his ex-wife) and myself. I was going to shoot myself. We fought over the gun and I finally let her win.

According to Matt Sorum, “November Rain,” “Don’t Cry” and “Estranged” were conceived as one song, and the three tracks form a trilogy of sorts. Sorum played the same drum fill throughout those three songs and took some criticism for doing so—notably from former Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy.

Sorum points out that this was intentional, a way of unifying the songs. “That was my part in tying enough songs together to make it one voice,” he told us.