STEVEN ADLER On Early Days Of GUNS N' ROSES – "It Was Just Such A Wonderful Time; Even Our Worst Shows Were Great"

In a new interview with music writer Joel Gausten, former Guns N’ Roses drummer Steve Adler discusses a number of topics including his new fine art series (50), the return of his band Adler and how letting go of his resentment over his 1990 firing from the band helped him achieve sobriety. Some excerpts from the feature appear below:

In addition to the unwavering support of his wife, Carolina, perhaps the biggest key to Adler’s recent success at sobriety was repairing his relationship with his childhood friend, Slash.

“I had all these resentments towards him because he was a part of Guns N’ Roses getting rid of me,” he shares. “We grew up together, and we accomplished our dreams. We’ve known each other since we were 12 years old. From the second we met each other, that was our dream – to become successful, travel the world, sell millions of records, make out with all these girls and party. Our dream came true, and I resented that he didn’t stick up for me. But then I realized everybody was in a bad state of mind at that time; nobody could stick up for anybody. It’s really great that I have a reasonable amount of sobriety time, and Slash himself has been like 11 years sober. Now that I’m (more than 400 days) sober, he’s my friend again, and we hang out. I didn’t understand why we wouldn’t before, but now I do understand why.”

Fortunately, Adler was able to reach this realization while all five original Guns N’ Roses members are still alive.

“If I wasn’t able to apologize to those guys and make amends, it would have bothered me for the rest of my life,” he says.

Appetite For Destruction’s enduring status as one of the most successful and influential rock albums of all time leads to two big questions for its legendary timekeeper: What made that album work? What was the magic that can’t be duplicated again?

“Five individuals who were wild children who wanted to do what they wanted to do the way they wanted to do it,” Adler replies. “Nothing was going to stop us. We were going to do it this way or no way. I think what made it happen and be so magical is there’s five individuals with five different styles. I liked the Queen and the pop music and the KISS. Axl liked Elton John and ELP, and then we got Izzy with The Rolling Stones and Slash with the Aerosmith and Zeppelin and Duff with The Stooges and The Fartz and things like that. All together, it worked really well. That, and me and Duff really worked together so well because he’s originally a guitar player. He doesn’t play bass like a bass player; he plays bass like a guitar player. That’s how I learned how to play drums – with a guitar player, which was Slash. He fit right in perfectly. It was magic; we could do no wrong. Even if we went out of our way to do wrong, God would stop it and make it right. It was just such a wonderful time. Even our worst shows were great.”

The complete interview is available at this location.