While the Not in this Lifetime Guns N’ Roses tour continues, we can’t forget former drummer Steven Adler’s selected guest appearances. According to him, he was supposed to play a lot more than he wound up playing. That, and an appearance from Izzy Stradlin would’ve been amazing, but alas, it was not meant to be. Adler reflected his guest performances from last summer in an extensive interview during a recent episode of One On One With Mitch Lafon‘s podcast.
Adler mentioned what it was like reuniting with Axl, Slash, and Duff after twenty-six years last July (transcribed by Blabbermouth):
“It was, ‘Thank you, God, for this beautiful present.’ I’d been playing Appetite live, Use Your Illusion, and the songs that, obviously, I didn’t get to play on Use Your Illusion, I was practicing them… I was playing twenty-five songs twice a day for two years. ‘Cause once I found out [the reunion] was probably gonna happen, I was, like, ‘Yes! I’m gonna be ready and on top of it.’ And then second rehearsal, I hurt my back and I had to have a minor surgery. I had a pinched nerve in the L4 [nerve root], and within an hour, I was out of the hospital and I was all better. And I talked to them [and said], ‘Let me come back,’ but it didn’t happen, and I was resentful. And then I talked to my sponsor and I was, ‘Okay, you’re right. I’m not gonna give in to resentment.’ And then they called me, and I [went], ‘Holy shit! Here it comes. This is gonna be so awesome.’ I’m still smiling about it. I have dreams about it. My wife goes, ‘What are you smiling about? You’re sleeping and you’re smiling.’ And I go, ‘I was on stage in front of seventy thousand people with Slash and Duff and Axl.’ I just wish Izzy was there, but, shit, I got to do it. Thank you, God. ‘Cause I wanted it for twenty-six years. All I did every day was, ‘Please, God, let this happen. Let this happen. I wanna play with them again. I wanna do this.’ For twenty-six years, every time I’d go out, people — not just one or two, but five, six, ten people, especially when I’d do a show, it was hundreds — [they’d ask me] ‘When are you going to get back together?’ And I wish I could say it would have been… Well, we would have never broke up, if I had a say.”
Adler opened up about his exit from Guns N’ Roses in 1990:
“If people think that I got kicked out of Guns N’ Roses for doing drugs, they are so mistaken. Everybody in that band was doing drugs. I was doing less than anybody. I got kicked out of the band, and Izzy got kicked out of the band, and then Slash and Duff did, because Axl wanted to take control of everything — he wanted to own the name, he wanted to be the only person who gets paid for the songs. He wanted to be the manager, the accountant and everything, when all he needs to do is get up there and sing like a motherfucker that he does. But he wanted to own and control everything. Like Elton John — he wanted to be like Elton John or Billy Joel. That’s where the whole piano thing came in. He wanted to be a piano man, which is cool, but that’s not Guns N’ Roses. Leave Guns N’ Roses the way it is, and then you do solo albums, like all musicians in other bands do. But that’s what he wanted to do, and that’s what happened. So I was the first to go, ’cause I was the easiest one; I was the nicest guy. They tricked me. They had me sign some contract with my lawyer there at the office. And I was completely sick at the time. And I had no idea I was signing my rights away, rights to the name, my royalties. They wanted to basically give me two thousand dollars and throw me in the street. And thank God my mom realized what happened and she got a lawyer for me. And thank God everything got taken care of.”
The conversation moved back to the reunion tour, discussing initial plans for Adler to perform Appetite, Lies, and Use Your Illusion, while current Guns N’ Roses drummer Frank Ferrer would perform Chinese Democracy material.
Adler explained how those plans changed:
“I was ready to do The Troubadour show [on April 1, 2016]. Like I said, I had been playing twenty-five songs twice a day for almost two years — every day. So I was ready to go. And then the second rehearsal… I came into rehearsal in January, February, March. And the fucking second day, I just stretched… All I did was stretch — I put my arms in the air to stretch — and I go, ‘I just did something.’ And we played another seven songs, and then my back was really sore. And I came home about eight at night, and then by midnight, I couldn’t even stand up. It was just terrible. I was out for two weeks, and then I got the epidural after about a week, and then I had the surgery about two weeks… I was ready when they did The Troubadour show. And Duff called me and said, ‘Dude, you’re not gonna play with us anymore. You’re not gonna do these shows.’ And I was, like, ‘You’re the worst fucking person in the world.’ And I hung up on him. And I tried to call him back and left a message, saying, ‘I’m so sorry I said that.’ When I said that he was the worst person in the world, I didn’t mean he was, ’cause I was thinking I was the worst person in the world — that I couldn’t even fucking get back with my fucking guys after they gave me this opportunity. But I said it to him. And when you have resentments, you say things that you’re feeling. And I was feeling that about me, and I said it about him, and I couldn’t apologize to him enough, because he knows I love him more than anything. And I got to apologize, ’cause, obviously, I’d seen him last year and we did shows together. And he understood.”
Adler admitted why GNR chose Frank Ferrer as the drummer for most of the shows:
“They already had Frank, so God forbid I couldn’t do it, then there was Frank. So it’s not an insurance thing. They just didn’t give me the opportunity. It’s cheaper to just have Frank. I mean, they were only paying me… not that much. I was doing it — ’cause, thank God, I don’t need the money that bad — I was doing it because I wanted to play with them, and I wanted to play for the fans.”
Adler discussed why he played one song with GNR during the shows in Buenos Aires and Argentina last November:
“I got there. And I got my wife [who is Argentinian], all her family, her parents, her sisters, her sisters’ babies, their mothers, their aunts… I got, like, nine of ’em, and I was up there and I was ready to go up. And Axl says, ‘What the fuck is he doing here? He’s not supposed to be here ’till tomorrow?’ So I was, all, ‘Excuse me? I just flew fifteen thousand miles.’ So they played a few more songs, and I came up, he introduced me, I played one song and they turned the lights out on me. I went back behind the drum riser. And I was all, ‘What the fuck?’ And everybody in the crew came around and started hugging me and going, ‘Dude, we love you, Steve. It’s okay.’ I mean, the whole crew — there was, like, twenty people who came up to me and talked to me. And then the next night, I did one more song again. Other parts I don’t even wanna talk about. All I know is the best of it is was me and my wife got to be together with her family for the first time in fifteen years.”
Despite everything Adler had to put up with, he admitted having no resentment towards anyone in GNR:
“No, no, no. Not at all. I love those guys. It is what it is. What I want it to be is the five of us, and what Axl wants it to be is what he wants it to be, and I respect him for it. I’m just glad I got to be a part of it for the good part — when it was fun and exciting.”
Adler mentioned he’s still willing to share the stage with GNR even if it’s for one song. But don’t look for another Adler’s Appetite album:
“No, no, no. Dude, rock and roll doesn’t sell. Unless I get into a band that’s already established, there’s no point in doing it, dude. It’s such a pain in the ass to fly all over the world, and you play little clubs or bars… Dude, I am so tired of driving up to the gig and going… I have pair of dice in my hand and I go, ‘C’mon, seven. Let there be people here. C’mon!’ I walk in and I go, ‘Fuck! There’s twenty people.’ It’s not the same. So unless I get in an established band, there’s no point in doing it. There’s no money. And my whole goal is to play for as many people as possible. Don’t get me wrong — I love and appreciate playing for that one or ten or hundred people. I was thankful. But I wanna do it right.”
You can hear the rest of the interview below:
