1993.06.22 - Don't Cry: Makin' F@*!ing Videos Part I

Transcript:
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[Intro titles]

[Footage from the preparation of the “frozen man” scene]

Axl: The frozen man, it was more metaphoric. So it’s more metaphoric, and I just kind of saw what he should wear. And I wanted a sense of another time, to show somebody trapped in a place in time – you know, frozen there, stuck there. That wasn’t even the exact reality of where that person was now; you know, like caught in a pattern of, like, a past life or something.

[Footage from the preparation of the “frozen man” scene - dialogues]

Axl: It was a lot of fun to do it and it was exactly what I wanted.

[Footage from the preparation of the “frozen man” scene

Axl (during the preparation): If it works, you know, if it transfers to film right – I mean, each individual scene will, but it’s how the scenes flip together. It’s gonna be important. It took the motherfucker long enough time to write (laughs)]

Axl: If it works, it’s the first step towards bigger type of projects, not necessarily meaning just for videos, but if we really want to film, you know, something feature-length, this is our first try at it. Because, I mean, there’s no, like, real rehearsals. It’s just, like, rehearsed one day, “Go!” (laughs).

[Footage from the filming of the “frozen man” scene]

Axl: For me it’s a (?), because I’ve never been in a full movie set or anything like that. This is really easy. I mean, they have a good concept of what we’re doing. Working with this kind of budget, we want to make sure we get it right. Andy [Morahan] is great. This shredded plastic, this is really fun to breath. We’re back to work.

[Cut to clips from interviews with Duff, Axl, Dizzy, Shannon Hoon and Josh Richman]

Duff: It’s one of the first songs that we started playing as a band in the incarnation, and it really kind of put us across in the clubs.

Axl: You know, they liked Welcome to the Jungle and stuff, but Don’t Cry was, like, the most popular song.

Dizzy: As a matter of fact, it’s one of the only songs I remember from the old days - the club days – because it was, like, the only audible song, because the guys were so loud (laughs). You got into a little club, like the Troubadour, and, you know, you couldn’t really hear anything. And so they went to Don’t Cry and you get to kind of make something out there.

Duff: It was something we would have recorded on the first record, but –

Axl: It never came out feeling just right.

Duff: Money wasn’t allotted to do as much as we wanted to do, and we decided –

Axl: - since it was our most successful song, to save it –

Duff: - for the next record. We know it’s gonna be records.    

Josh Richman: See, I had the demo. And I was like, “Oh, wow. I’d really love to hear this at home in my own stereo (?).” I still have it.

Shannon Hoon: I got it on this shitty-ass tape from someone, who knew someone, who knew someone.

Duff: It’s been bootlegged. I mean, there’s bootlegs; I’ve heard, like, twelve generations, you know?

Shannon Hoon: I used to play in a cover tune band in Indiana, and we used to cover the song Don’t Cry, cuz it was a song that no one back there – everybody was into GN’R, but these were songs that weren’t on the Appetite album.

Josh Richman: And it has Don’t Cry on there, it has Heartbreak Hotel on there.

Duff: We didn’t play it for four years. We just started playing it, so it’s real fresh to us again.

Dizzy: It’s cool. I mean, anytime – like, anyone, cuz Shannon is a great guy, you know. He’s a friend of mine.

Shannon Hoon: I’m a redneck from Lafayette, Indiana. There’s a few other rednecks around here from Indiana. There went one.

Dizzy: Any time that you get an opportunity to play with someone that is a friend –

Shannon Hoon: It was kind of accident. It was kind of just open mic night at the Record Plant in Hollywood.

Duff: We’ve added a lot of new life to it, especially with Matt playing drums.

Shannon Hoon: I was singing along with it and I think – I don’t know, I’m not sure how it came about, but Axl came in, and Izzy said something, I think, to Axl that I was singing along with it. Then Axl asked me if I knew the song and I said yes. So he had a couple of background parts to do, and I went and sang a couple of background parts, and it sounded cool. And then he was like, “Well, fuck it. Sing the whole song.”

Duff: It was great. It was great, yeah. Well, yeah, I played on it.

Shannon Hoon: I do a lot of whoo-whoo’s.  I do a lot of whoo-whoo’s, not in the studio as a matter of fact.

Josh Richman: (inaudible)

Shannon Hoon: No, that’s Izzy.

Duff: It’s kind of taken a new life, which is, you know, cool.

Dizzy: He [Shannon Hoon] is a fabulous singer, so, you know, it’s a pleasure.

Shannon Hoon: “(sings) Whoo-whoo.” Is that it? That’s it (chuckles).

[Footage from the filming of the car scene]

[Cut to interview with Slash and Brighdie (the model/actress who played in the scene)]

Slash: My plan was, I was gonna sit there and I was gonna hold the steering wheel as casually as possible, and ignore all her bitching. And she gets in the car and kicks my ass, and I have to defend myself at this point. So it’s developed into a real situation - although she’s really cool, and after we’re done everything’s cool. But when we were in the car, we were really fucking into it.  

Josh Richman: Me and Andy were looking over and we were going, “Slash is acting!”

Slash: It’s not really acting. I can’t act.

Josh Richman: Those screams, where are they coming from?

Brighdie: Straight from the heart, baby.

Josh Richman: Is it from the past, or is it just from this moment?

Brighdie: Well, I think it’s a little bit of both, psyching myself out and pondering of some things that had pissed me off in the past.

[...]

Slash: I actually fuckin’ started saying something back, you know? (laughs)

Brighdie: When I was talking (?). You tried to defend yourself.

Slash: I tried watching these blows, because they were coming out of nowhere, right? She’s kicking around. [...] So it energizes the whole fuckin’ scene.

[Footage from the filming of the car scene – Dialogues

Slash (to Andy Morahan): Okay, I’ll do it. But she’s getting me going, because what I’m doing is I’m trying to follow the road, so I am concentrating and she’s, like, freaking me out. Did you just see the cigarette scene?]

Slash: It’s in her eyes, and she’s just got this attitude, and I was like, fucking, “She is a bitch.” I mean, she can do it. I mean, I could just see it.  

[Footage from the filming of the car scene - dialogues]

Josh Richman: What are some of your guys pet names for each other?

Slash: “Fuck you.” (laughs)

Brighdie: Asshole, dickhead...

Slash: Asshole, cunt, fuckin’ pussy...

Josh Richman: Have you ever met a 17-year-old like that?

Slash: No. No, I haven’t. Except for, well...

Josh Richman: Except for yesterday.

Slash: No, no, no. Long time ago. That’s probably where this whole idea came from, as far as me wanting to drive a blonde. Remember when I first came up with this? Because my last girlfriend was, like, insane.

[Footage from the filming of the bar scene – dialogues – Axl gives directions]

[Cut to interview with Axl]

Josh Richman (to Axl): Stephanie, your present girlfriend, sidles up to you in the piano bar, acting in a way that she’s never acted to you.

Axl: It blew my mind. [...] It made me like – you know, about Stephanie, it made me like... (makes surprised expression)

Josh Richman: And it shows up on the screen.

Axl: You know, it freaked me out, because she’s never been that way.

[Dialogues between Josh Richman and Andy Morahan]

[Cut to interview with Axl]

Axl: You know, there’s a lot of things on the record and the past records that people call my “demon voice” or, like, that I’m going into certain moods and that’s the demon, so I kind of wanted to put that into an actual character and show it. And I feel like there’s a part of me.

[Footage from the filming of the “demon” scene

Axl: It’s not easy]

Axl: You know, everybody has their demons that they have to deal with, and most people don’t, and you have to face these things.  

[Footage from the filming of the “demon” scene – dialogues]

Axl: There’s a song we have, Perfect Crime, which says “Keep the demons down.” And it’s like, most people do that; in one form or another they try to keep everything down and not understand why there are certain ways or why they feel certain ways.

[Footage from the filming of the “demon” scene – dialogues

Axl: It’s not really make up, though. It was a chemical peel.]

Axl (from another interview): It’s also a bit to do with reincarnation, whether anyone believes in that or not.

[Footage from the filming of the “demon” scene – dialogues]

Axl: This was, like, a part of me and going to have to come back again. And it’s recognizing the light and, you know, at first it’s scared of it, and then, the second time, it just sighs away, “I like this, this feels good, this is warmth and I haven’t seen warmth in a long time.”

[Footage from the filming of the “demon” scene – dialogues

Axl: This is how I’m doing the next leg of the tour: naked and green]

Axl (from another interview): It’s also to symbolize that if you didn’t get it right you get to try again; or not get to try again. You might have to try again, you might get trapped somewhere, you might get trapped inside yourself. You know, in real life you might get trapped inside something when you die. I don’t know, I’m just in this life, I have no idea what’s truth and what’s not about things I’m learning.

[Footage from the filming of the “demon” scene – dialogues]

Axl: I kind of like this. I kind of like this a lot. I think this is the new me. “Don’t fuck with me,” “Don’t fuck with me.” That’s what I’d like to tell everyone in St. Louis: “I’m fuckin’ green, so don’t fuck with me.” Me and others like me will probably climb up through your intestines and keep the lining out of your stomachs.  

[Footage from the filming of Duff’s scene - dialogues]

[Cut to interview with Claire (the actress/model who played in the scene)]

Claire: 4:00 in the morning Josh calls me, as usual, asking me could I play secretary for him. He and Axl were casting the video and they didn’t want the girls to be scared away by going up to the Chateau Marmont and meeting Guns N’ Roses. So they thought I could be a good front for them. There I was in my little Miss Moneypenny outfit, ushering 16-year-old models, which was not really something that I looked forward to, but at the end of the day they just decided that they wanted to use me.

[Clip from the video]

Claire: He was the sweetest of them all.

Josh Richman: Really?

Claire: Yeah. He was very simple, very sweet and just like really into it.      

[Footage from the filming of Duff’s scene - dialogues]

Claire: I got to smash a bottle over Duff’s guitar, so I could get out all my aggressions on all those pop stars that had fucked me over (laughs). I’m so excited that we got it right. He was, like, high-fiving me.

[Footage from the filming of Duff’s scene - dialogues]

[...]

[Footage from the filming of the grave scene

Axl: “I’m back.”]

Axl: The reason it says 1990 [on the tomb stone] is because 1990 was, you know, a very suicidal year. Some things were really good, and then with the marriage not working and stuff like that, it just made me realize all kinds of things haven’t ever really worked, and I got to get through it and figure out why so many things continually go wrong.  

[Footage from the filming of the grave scene – Dialogues:

Axl: It’s pretty trippy.

Stephanie Seymour: It freaks me out. I looked at it and I went, “Uh, I don’t like that.”

Axl: (laughs)

Josh Richman: Why it said 1990?

Axl: I wanna break it with a big sledge.]

[Footage of Axl breaking the tomb stone with a sledge – dialogues

Axl: I feel good!]

[Cut to the clips from the interviews with Dizzy, Shannon Hoon, Axl and Josh Richman]

Dizzy: I was doing this thing called “the couch tour” and it was like getting (?), I was, like, squatting in this apartment. And I had one day left, and the phone was getting turned off, and they’re gonna make sure that, you know, 'we always have your number'. And I was just like, I had no money, no food, nothing to drink; like, there’s no furniture in this joint, right? Finally, I got ahold of Axl and go, “Dude, man, it’s like, tomorrow there’s not gonna be a place to get ahold of me.” Quite frankly, man, I was starting to give up hope on the L.A. scene and the L.A. life. It’s just like it’d be really tough.

Shannon Hoon: I’m in a band on Capitol Records called Blind Melon.

Dizzy: The next day I got a call, and he said, “Dude, congratulations, you’re in the band.”

Josh Richman: And you’re like, “Nah, I don’t think I can make it.”

Dizzy: I said, “Let me sleep on that.” (laughs)

Axl: When we first wrote the song, it was the first song written for Guns N’ Roses.

[...]

Axl: Actually we weren’t Guns N’ Roses yet, but, you know, it was starting to become a reality. And Izzy and I wrote a song and decided we needed to get back together.  

Josh Richman: And it was something said to you, it’s not you that originally –

Axl: Yeah, it was a girl that Izzy and I went out with. You know, she’s tattooed on my arm.

[...]

Axl: And I was really attracted to her, and they split up –

Axl (from a different interview): and we wrote that songs, which was, like, our most Hanoi Rocks influenced song. We knew we had something.

Dizzy: I think that all it has to do is just a hope. You can’t give up hope, and you can’t give up your dreams.

Josh Richman: Everyone’s, like, “I’m into the Jungle,” you know, “I’m into It’s so easy,” “I’m into Sweet Child.” And I was like, “I’m into Don’t Cry.” They were like, “What?” “This is just a cool song.”

[Footage from the filming of Matt’s scene – Dialogues]

Axl: I was sitting outside the Roxy and I was, like, really in love with this person, and she was realizing this wasn’t going to work, she wanted to do other things. And she was telling me goodbye and I, like, sat down and just started crying in a little bit, and she was telling me “Don’t cry.”

Dizzy: Giving up is too easy, you know. It’s something I always wanted. I never actually thought that I would be in the band, you know. But, I mean, six years later, here I am.

Axl: The next night we got together and we wrote the song in five minutes.

Josh Richman: And that was a girl that he Izzy] had been with before.

Axl: Yeah, and, you know, he’d been through some things with her and stuff, and so we had another form of common ground.

Josh Richman: Axl always told me something about how they wanted to wait, because it was the mega song and it’s also the song that got them signed.

Axl: We’d open for speed metal bands and we’d do all our fast songs. We’d do Don’t Cry and these guys with spikes all up their arms, they’d come up and love that song.

Dizzy: No, I didn’t do anything at the studio. But it sounds great live. Sounds awesome.

Josh Richman (to Shannon Hoon): Your first big Guns N’ Roses show was at the Forum.

Shannon Hoon: Yeah, the Forum. I was very tripped out. I’d never been in - I was at the Pantages, but I didn’t have time to get nervous at that, because it was real spontaneous. But at the Forum, man, my mind was blown away. I was so scared. My knees were really shaking.

Josh Richman (to Duff): If this song had any, like, metaphoric thing in connection with L.A, what do you think that would be? Just off the top of your head.

Duff: Off the top of my head... From experience?

Josh Richman: Yeah.

Duff: Our love life in Los Angeles is pretty much non-existent.

Josh Richman (to Dizzy): Look back behind you too for a little thought in this.

Dizzy: Don’t cry, it’s only L.A. It could be worse.

Josh Richman: I remember Axl and Slash both talking about it recently. Don’t Cry to them really ends up retrospectively being a real L.A. song for them.

Shannon Hoon: It think I was just really, really fucking nervous, and it got the best of me. It kind of shook me up, but I learned a lot that night.

Axl: A whole new set of words for the verses and a melody for these words started happening while I was singing the parts. I started hearing this stuff in my head, and I was like, “Mike, put me on another track.” He’s like, “Why?” and I go, “I don’t know, just I gotta go with this, it’s too strong to stop.”

Josh Richman: Hearing the new version was a stone cold trip for me, cuz you’re, like, singing the words along to words that aren’t happening, and then you feel stupid.

Axl: I prefer the new version, because the original is kind of like a nostalgia piece for me that takes me through, like, the history of Guns N’ Roses.

Josh Richman (to Axl): It’s reflective of L.A., too.

Axl: Yeah, and everything I’ve been through in L.A.

Josh Richman: The first time Axl played it, I was like, “What?!”

Josh Richman (to Dizzy and Duff): Does it trip you out?

Dizzy: Yeah, it does trip me out. But they’re really cool.

Duff: It doesn’t trip me out to hear it, cuz I played on it.

Josh Richman: It pops on the radio now and I don’t know which one it is until the words come in, so it’s always this hedgy-sketchy guess.

Duff: The first few times I was, like, kind of skeptical, but now I really love it.

Axl: The band didn’t even quite realize it until we were playing it in recording the performance footage for this video.

Axl (from another interview): We did the old one a few times, and when we did the new one, everybody just cut loose and we rocked so much harder, because it’s where we are now.

Josh Richman: I love the song. I always have. These are the cousins of that bird from the night when Axl was the hawk.

[Footage from the filming of the “demon” scene with the bird

Axl: This is Larry Bird]

Josh Richman: We were under the grave that night, and there was that bird.

[Footage from the “demon” scene – dialogues]

[...]

Josh Richman (to Axl): And I just wonder if you’re tripping off Izzy not being here.

Axl: No, I’m not really tripping off it right now, cuz I’m just like, Izzy’s cool. You know, Izzy’s always been the fastest person in Guns N’ Roses to decide what it is they want to do and what it is they’re going to do. So, you know, whatever Izzy’s doing or whatever he’s not doing is cool. I just want the guy to be happy, and that makes me happy; you know, it makes me feel good inside.

[Footage from the filming of the Axl-Stephanie fight scene]

Axl: It’s gonna be a real bitch to do this, because the other scenes were a lot easier; with the makeup and everything it was a lot easier to get into the character. The fact that this situation, the scene is very close – you know, it’s somewhat of a dramatized reenactment of something that really happened.

[Footage from the filming of the Axl-Stephanie fight scene - dialogues]

Axl: So it’s really hard emotionally to do it, and to put myself in that place and think about it, because I was really upset that day. The room here and stuff is nothing like where I lived, but it’s what we could get to do this. It looks cool, it’s fine; we’re making the best of it. We might as well not establish it with any of my stuff, because, it’s like, nothing in here is anything of my stuff, so it doesn’t really fucking matter. So when I first got here tonight, I saw it and I was just like, “This blows. I want the fuck out of here” (laughs). Every scene is getting completely different than what we sat down and talked about, so I’m loving it.

[Footage from the filming of the Axl-Stephanie fight scene – dialogues]

Josh Richman (to Stephanie): What’s it like working with your boyfriend?

Stephanie: It certainly makes things a lot nicer. I mean, I’m a lot happier when he’s around. I think he’s a lot happier when I’m around.

Josh Richman: Did you ever have to do a scene like that that has that much, you know, physical stuff involved?

Stephanie: No, I’ve never had to do a scene before. But it was weird, because we’ve never fought.

Josh Richman: You and Axl.

Stephanie: Never. I mean especially not physically, but never even verbally or – we’ve never had a disagreement.

Josh Richman: Wow. Seriously, I mean, I watch you guys and you both look so vicious in that fight. It’s pretty strange, you know?

Stephanie: It’s fun.

Josh Richman: To see it, cuz I know you don’t fight.

Stephanie: I like to see that side of him.

Josh Richman (to Axl): Axl, we were just talking about how you guys are doing a fight scene, yet you and Steph don’t fight. That’s correct?

Axl: Oh, yeah. It’s really wild. Last night was very strange, cuz it was like, I’m gonna be next to this person with this attitude to me. I don’t care who she is (laughs).

Josh Richman: Oh, that’s right. She’s never dealt with you with any of that attitude like she did in the bar scene.

Axl: I thought it was gnarly (laughs).

[Footage from the filming of the Axl-Stephanie fight scene – dialogues]

[...]

Josh Richman (to Andy Morahan]: Andy, what did you think of me and us and our project when I met you in New York city that night, many months ago?

Andy Morahan: I thought you were joking.

[...]

Josh Richman: You told me you loved their story boards.

Andy Morahan: I did. I wanted the gig.

[...]

Josh Richman: What was your favorite thing that you’d never done and you got to do this time around?

Andy Morahan: Car crash. Over the side of the cliff.

[...]

[Footage from the filming of the car crash scene – Dialogues]

[Footage from the filming of scene at the hospital with the three versions of Axl]

Axl: The scene we did the other night was originally written with Izzy in it, and he didn’t want to be here. So we had to improvise and we changed the way the room looked – anyway, that was something that came up.

[Footage from the filming of the hospital scene - dialogues]

Axl: The characters that I was playing were much different, because it was originally written, like, just sitting in a hotel room kicking it, and then it would change to, like, being in a hospital – you know, kind of to represent a mental ward downstate and trying to work on things. And then, like, to me it’s there he walks, like that’s on stage and stuff, and he walks in. And that was supposed to be Izzy, and it wasn’t Izzy, so we had to come up with that, like, on the spot, and figure out what to do and how to make it all fit together.  

[Clip from the video]

Axl: What was also heavy was, you know, I didn’t really plan on this being completely “the Axl video,” and now, in ways it’s kind of turning out to be. So that was really hard, because I want the band to be happy, and everything for us to gel, and get along there. And the Izzy thing was a very emotional thing, cuz it is real and I’ve known him for 15 years, and he’s one of the people that I care about the most in the entire world.

Josh Richman (to Axl): This pool scene that we’re gonna do tonight? Do you want to talk about the metaphor a little bit of Stephanie wrapped around your leg?

Axl: Well, I mean, hopefully on film she’s supposed to look very peaceful. And it’s like, right after the fight seems, like, mellowed out, and I feel like I’m being drowned by this relationship, because this person has calmed down, the gunfight thing is over, and they’re completely calmed down, and I’m freaking out thinking, you know, this person’s at ease and I’m still drowning in this mess.

[Footage from the filming of the pool scene - dialogues]

Axl: It’s also kind to pull us out of this thing, but this person is somewhat comfortable with where they are at, their agenda of things.

[Footage from the filming of the pool scene – dialogues

Axl (to Stephanie): There’s, like, the whole reason I really wanted to meet you, that tat. And wear your neckless for the scene. I’m going to wear a pair of pants like that, and biker boots, and that shirt I wear all the time now (laughs)]

[Footage from the filming of the band playing on the roof - Dialogues

...

Axl (talking to Matt): Dude, I kicked him in the balls once, by accident, before we got signed. And right while he had my knee, he stood up and came like this and he went, “Ooh!" and I felt so bad. And he’s never forgiven me.

...

Axl: This is really hard, because we’re playing along with the song. It’s like lip-syncing but you’re actually doing it. It’s not like going on the stage with a tape and, like, moving your mouth. I’m actually singing. It’s a bitch.]

[Video of Don’t Cry alt.]

[Cut to the clips from the interviews with Duff, Dizzy and Shannon Hoon]

Josh Richman (to Duff): Who wrote Don’t Cry?

Duff: It was written before Axl started the band, Axl and Izzy.

Josh Richman (to Dizzy): Who wrote Don’t Cry?

Dizzy: Um, I don’t know.

Josh Richman (to Duff): I’m gonna ask you again. This just for a joke we’re gonna do in the documentary. I’m gonna say, “Who wrote Don’t Cry?” and you’re gonna go, “I did.”

Duff: I didn’t!

Josh Richman (to Shannon Hoon): Who wrote Don’t Cry?

Shannon Hoon: Axl and Izzy, I think.

[Cut to clip from interview with Axl before the filming of the scene at the hospital with the three versions of Axl]

Axl: It’s very self-indulgent. Extremely self-indulgent. So self-indulgent, that I’m gonna film three versions of myself tonight (laughs).  

[Footage from the filming – Dialogues – End titles]

I want to know who Axl is talking about here:

Axl (talking to Matt): Dude, I kicked him in the ball by accident before we got signed. And right while he had my knee, he stood up and came like this and he went, “Ooh!" and I felt so bad. He’s never forgiving me.

I know he kicked Steven in the balls (repeatedly according to Steven), but from the context I wonder if it might be Slash. Anyone have an idea?

I don't know, but my first thought was Steven, because from the way he describes an incident of Axl kicking him in the balls in his book, I think it could have been accidental (although Steven, of course, thinks it was on purpose).

I listened to it again and it sounds like he said "he's never forgiven me" (not "he's never forgiving). He also said "once". I corrected it:
Axl (talking to Matt): Dude, I kicked him in the balls once, by accident, before we got signed. And right while he had my knee, he stood up and came like this and he went, “Ooh!" and I felt so bad. And he’s never forgiven me.

Maybe Steven had said something in an interview or in his lawsuit, and that's why Axl was talking about it.

Steven would claim Axl kicked him in the balls many times:

"I'd say, 'What are you doing?' And he would kick me in the balls, which he had done numerous times. The first week I knew Axl, he kicked me in the balls, out of nowhere! It was over some girl he was fucking with, and I said, 'Leave the chick alone!' "

Not sure Steven is trustworthy, though