Don Dokken discussed the story behind “Alone Again” in an interview with KBAD 94.5 FM in Sioux Falls, South Dakota:
“‘Alone Again’, obviously, was our most famous ballad, and the funny thing was I wrote it when I was 25. And I wrote it on a little four-track recorder, put it on a cassette and it ended up in a box for, like, eight years. And the record company, on ‘Tooth And Nail’, our second album, they said ballads are the thing.
Journey had a big hit with ‘Lights’ and Night Ranger…. Everybody had ballads, and we didn’t have any ballads. So I dug out a bunch of times, and (I went0, ‘What’s this? ‘Alone Again’ I don’t even remember it.’ So I listened to it, and Jeff Pilson, the bassist, listened to it, and he said, ‘That’s a cool chorus. Maybe we (can) revamp it.’
So we recorded ‘Alone Again’. This is a thing I wrote when I was very young, very naïve. Everybody says, ‘Who’d you write about?’ ‘I don’t know.’ ‘What was the girl’s name?’ ‘I don’t know.’ I must have been in love — it’s a very sad song — but I don’t remember who I wrote it about. I don’t know. It was just a song that came out, I always say, from here (points up above his head) — whatever that higher power is.”
source: blabbermouth