Used to Love Her

"Used to Love Her" is a song by American rock band Guns N' Roses from the 1988 album G N' R Lies. The song was used as a B-side on some releases of the "Paradise City" single.^[2]

Contrary to popular belief that the song is about a girlfriend of Axl Rose, the song was written as a joke. Izzy Stradlin stated, "I was sitting around listening to the radio and some guy was whining about a broad who was treating him bad. I wanted to take the radio and smash it against the wall. Such self-pity! What a wimp! So we rewrote the same song we heard with a better ending."^[3] Rose would later say that the song that inspired Stradlin was from the band Great White.^[4]

The band debuted the song live at CBGB in October 1987, during the Appetite for Destruction Tour.^[5] The song has been a live staple at Guns N' Roses concerts.^[6] After last being played with the previous lineup in 1993, the song re-debuted in 2006 during the Chinese Democracy Tour.^[7] It was played at every tour since, being played by the reunited lineup in 2016 during the Not In This Lifetime... Tour stop at Coachella.^[8]

Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic described the song as a "country-fried boogie", but criticized it as misogynistic.^[9] Rolling Stone described it as a "hilarious countryish number that will probably have feminist hot lines jammed across the country".^[10]

In 2016, Spin ranked the song 42nd out of 79 on their rankings of every Guns N' Roses song, saying "strip away the misogynist, dark, and twisted fantasy, though, and you’ve got a terrific, rootsy little mimic of an Allman Brothers’ on-the-road jam."^[11] That same year, Medium ranked the song 20th out of 80, stating "The crowning achievement of the “remember this was written in 1988 [1987]; that doesn’t make it right, but still” manifesto that encompasses so much of Guns' oeuvre."^[12] L.A. Weekly ranked the song 18th of 64,^[13] and Ultimate Classic Rock ranked it 28th out of 80.^[14]

In 2018, Loudwire ranked the song 83rd out of 87, stating "This song feels like their attempt at the Stones’ “Dead Flowers”... The song was likely meant to be taken with a grain of salt, but that was tough to swallow given that Axl’s ex-wife Erin Everly accused him of domestic abuse."^[15] Houston Press named the song 5th on their list of "10 Worst Guns N' Roses Songs".^[16]

White Lung covered the song as part of a SiriusXMU live session.^[17][18][19] In February 2018, Guns N' Roses rhythm guitarist Richard Fortus joined Blackberry Smoke on stage to cover the song.^[6] L7 released a cover of the song as the B-side to their 1992 single "Monster", changing the lyric and title to "Used to Love Him".^[20]