Drummers - Steven Adler
Steven 'Popcorn' Adler is an American rock drummer. He
is most famous for his tenure as a member of the hard rock band Guns N'
Roses, with whom he performed and recorded from 1985 to 1990.
Biography
Adler was born on January 22, 1965 in Cleveland, Ohio, and moved to Los
Angeles with his mother Deanna and older brother Kenny, as a young
child. His mother re-married to Melvin Adler and had another child,
Jamie. Steven's older brother also had a child, Steven's nephew, Max
Adler.[1]
Guns N´ Roses era
Adler met future GN'R guitarist Slash at the age of twelve at their
school in California[2] after Steven had a skateboarding accident.[1]
The two became fast friends, and as Slash took up guitar, Steven took up
drums (he played guitar before meeting Slash) in order to form a band
(albeit missing some components), Road Crew. The two placed an ad in a
newspaper searching for a bassist, resulting in Guns N' Roses bassist
Duff McKagan, not only responding to the ad, but introducing the two to
Axl Rose and Izzy Stradlin, who were the only original members remaining
from their band Guns N' Roses, with other original members, lead
guitarist, Tracii Guns, bassist Ole Beich, and drummer Rob Gardner.
The three joined Axl Rose and Izzy Stradlin to create the most famous
and "original" line-up of Guns N' Roses. Adler drummed on the first
three GN'R albums: their 1986 EP Live ?!*@ Like a Suicide, the
multi-platinum Appetite for Destruction and G N' R Lies. Adler's work
also appeared on one song on Use Your Illusion II, the opening track
"Civil War", although his drum track is said to be heavily edited. [3]
At the 1989 American Music Awards, where Guns N' Roses performed their
latest single, "Patience," Don Henley filled in for Adler on drums.
Officially, the absence was attributed to a case of the flu; it was
later revealed that Adler had actually been in a drug rehabilitation
program at the time.
Problems continued in 1990, as the band recorded "Civil War" for
Nobody's Child, an album benefitting the Romanian Angel Appeal. Axl Rose
has said in interviews that "Civil War was recorded a good 60 times" due
to problems with Adler[citation needed] ; Slash, in another article,
stated that the band had to edit the drum track to "Civil War" simply to
be able to play along with it. [3] By Adler's own admission, he tried to
play the song "20, maybe 30 times." [1] During the recording of "Civil
War" Adler was still trying to stop using drugs.[2]
Adler was briefly fired from the band, but was reinstated after signing
a contract promising to stop using drugs. [4] In April 1990, he
performed with Guns N' Roses at Farm Aid IV in Indiana. It would be his
last appearance with the band. He was formally fired in August, during
the recording of the Use Your Illusion I & Use Your Illusion II albums,
and replaced with Matt Sorum. The official reason for his departure,
according to various members of the band, was his heavy substance abuse
which impeded his ability to work. Geffen A&R rep Tom Zutaut, who worked
with Guns N' Roses, corroborated this claim, stating in a 1999
interview, "Steven Adler would show up at the recording studio
completely high. Recording sessions would abort for several days when he
couldn't put it together." [5]
According to Adler, his departure from the band was based on other
reasons. In a 2005 interview he stated, "Doug Goldstein called me into
the office about two weeks later. He wanted me to sign some contracts. I
was told that every time I did heroin, the band would fine me $2,000.
There was a whole stack of papers, with coloured paper clips everywhere
for my signatures. What these contracts actually said was that the band
were paying me $2,000 to leave. They were taking my royalties, all my
writing credits. They didn't like me anymore and just wanted me gone.
That's why I filed the lawsuit - to get all those things back.". [1]
Post-Guns N´ Roses era
GN'R fans are often divided into two camps: one favouring the
brighter-sounding early GN'R with Adler, the other preferring the
heavier sound GN'R acquired with replacement drummer Matt
Sorum.[citation needed] Izzy Stradlin, who quit the band (citing Axl's
dominance) a year and a half after Adler was fired, insisted later that
Steven's drumming was crucial to the band's sound, and agreed to an
interviewer's comment that replacing him with Sorum turned GN'R from a
hard rock band to a heavy metal one. He also famously stated in the same
interview: "After Steven left, nothing worked."[6]
In 1991, Adler formed a new version of his old band, Road Crew. However,
the project was unsuccessful. When ex-Guns N' Roses members Slash and
Duff McKagan began creating Velvet Revolver in the late 1990s, Adler
expressed hope that history would repeat itself and that once again he
would be in a band with them. Velvet Revolver was created with Adler's
replacement, Matt Sorum, instead, due largely to the fact that it was
Sorum who had initiated the new band.
Adler's lawsuit against his former Guns N' Roses bandmates was settled
in 1997. He earned a back-payment check of $ 2,250,000.00 USD and was
granted 15% of the royalities for everything he recorded prior to his
departure.[7]
In 2003, he started the band Suki Jones, which would later be renamed
Adler's Appetite, and released an EP, Adler's Appetite. The band still
performs live sporadically, performing sets heavy with Guns N' Roses
covers. He was recently featured on an episode of VHI's The Surreal
Life: Fame Games as a judge for a hotel crashing challenge.
Adler appears to have repaired his relationships with most of his former
Guns N' Roses bandmates. In 2005, he played a one-off show with Izzy and
Slash at the Key Club in Los Angeles. In September 2006 Adler attended a
Guns N' Roses show in Las Vegas and spoke to Axl Rose for the first time
in over a decade. [8][9] While Adler has claimed that there has been
talk and encouragement for a reunion among the other original members,
this appears to be unfounded: in a 2007 interview with Guitar Edge
magazine, for instance, Slash stated "I’ve obviously moved on and have a
lot to do with Velvet Revolver, so that’s where my head is. Obviously
it’s not an idea that I’m entertaining in any way, shape, or form at
this point. I think the more time that passes, the less likely it will
happen—and it was pretty unlikely five years ago." [10]
Personal life
Adler's substance abuse issues continued after he was fired from Guns N'
Roses.[9] In interviews as recent as 2006, he has stated that he has, at
times, used $300 worth of drugs in one night.[7] In 1996, Adler suffered
a stroke after taking a particularly potent speedball, a cocktail of
heroin and cocaine used intravenously.[11] He survived, but now lives
with a speech impediment as a result.
In 1997, Adler was convicted on a domestic violence charge for attacking
a woman with whom he had been living, and was sentenced to four days in
jail, three years of probation and mandatory drug counseling. A year
later, he pleaded no contest to attacks on two other women and was
sentenced to a 150-day term in prison and a year of domestic violence
counseling. [12]
Adler currently resides in Las Vegas, Nevada.
From:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Adler
|
