<P> Contrary to the 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 ." Slash stated, "People think it's about one of our old girlfriends, but it's actually about Axl's dog ." </P> <P> Before murdering his wife in 2002, Justin Barber downloaded the song off the Internet . Immediately before turning his computer to the police, Barber deleted it off his computer . In 2012, Thomas Wilhelm drunkenly sang the lyrics to the song minutes before killing his girlfriend . </P>

Who wrote i used to love her but i had to kill her