2010.10.10 - Dalton Daily Citizen - Talking Rock With Steven Adler

Connie Hall-Scott: Talking rock with Steven Adler, Guns N Roses drummer

DALTON — In 1987 I was 16-years-old, driving a new red Fiero, wearing mini-skirts every day and doing my part to help keep Aqua Net in business. Across the country, a group of five primal rockers had risen from the streets of Los Angeles and were ripping apart glam rock and its big hair to resurrect rock’s truer blues roots. They were Guns N Roses (GNR) and I was way into them.

The original line up was Axl Rose on vocals, Slash and Izzy Stradlin and Duff McKagan on guitar and Steven Adler on drums.

I still dig the older tunes — and I’ve recently found I like the new stuff by the original guys. too. That’s why I was super excited to have the opportunity to talk to Steven Adler recently. He, along with his new band, Adler’s Appetite, will perform at 37 Main Rock Cafe in Buford on Wednesday.

Adler was in New York when we spoke by phone, preparing for a performance at Carnegie Hall the upcoming day. I liked him immediately — and not just because he’s one of my favorite rockers but because he has a way of making you feel like you’ve been friends for years. He’s boyish, flirtatious and charming.

“I saw GNR in Chattanooga with a couple of my girlfriend and our boyfriends of the time back in 1987,” I told him. “You guys were amazing!”

“Yeah, ‘Appetite for Destruction’... If you enjoyed that,” he offered, “Wait till you see us next week. It’s the same show. I’ve got some great guys and the music is great. I’m bringing back the excitement of a kick ass rock ’n’ roll band.”

Home-based in Los Angeles, Adler’s Appetite is composed of Rick Stitch, lead vocal; Alex Grossi (Quiet Riot) on guitar, Michael Thomas (Faster Pussycat) on guitar, Chip Z’nuff (Enuff Z’Nuff) on bass, and, of course, Steven Adler on drums.

“We start off with ‘Reckless Life’ and pretty much go through everything from ‘Appetite for Destruction,’ ending with ‘Welcome to the Jungle.’ We do everything I wrote and recorded with those guys (GNR).”

Adler’s Appetite recently released their first single, “Good to be Alive.” It’s about Adler’s experiences in rock ’n’ roll before he found success, to being successful, to when he lost it and got it back. You can check it out on YouTube.

It’s no secret that Adler had a crazy bad heroin and cocaine habit that cost him his career with GNR and untold other problems. Not too long ago he starred on VH1’s hit series “Celebrity Rehab 2” and “Sober House.” Now, he’s completely sober and on top of his game.

“It’s great to be off drugs and alcohol,” he said. “It’s so nice to have money in my pockets. I wish I had put 1 percent of the energy I put into getting high into doing positive things for myself ... Drugs got to be everything. It was all ‘When am I gonna get it? How am I gonna get it? Where will I get the money? When will the dealer be here?’ Now, off the drugs, I have so much energy! It’s about the music again.”

Both Slash and Izzy Stradlin have taken the stage with Adler’s Appetite as guests. I asked Adler if there was any way, any way at all, that the original five Gunners could ever do a concert together again.

His answer was immediate. “I would really like that. I would love to work with those guys — all of them — but I’m not going to wait. I’ve wasted enough of my life, the past 20 years with the drugs and all. It’s time to do the right thing — which is get the band (GNR) together and do a reunion. We owe it to the fans and everybody who supported GNR for so long... and I got Adler’s Appetite, but when those suckers want to do something, I’m ready.”

The holdup, it seems, might be Axl Rose. “I put prayers in with Jesus and God all the time. ‘Please just go talk to Axl,’ I say,” Steven added. “I love the stuff we did together in my heart and my soul. It needs to be taken out of the shell and put back in the world. Two generations of people have already missed it. I think it’s unfair. I love those five guys — they mean more to me than anyone except my grandmother and my dogs. But there was so much fighting all the time (in GNR), but like my grandpa said, time heals all wounds. My wounds are healed.”

It’s my personal belief that Steven Adler’s dismissal from GNR was the beginning of the end for the group. Even Slash, in his autobiography titled “Slash” said, “To Steve’s credit, and unbeknownst to most, the feel and energy of ‘Appetite’ was largely due to him. He had an inimitable style of drumming that couldn’t really be replaced, an almost adolescent levity that gave the band its spark.”

“I know a guy who has opened for you, and also for Slash, who said you kill on the drums these days,” I said. “How is your playing different now than it was then?”

“Well, nine months ago I started lessons because I wanted to be a better and stronger player and a better and stronger person,” he shared. “I’m learning new techniques, rudiments, it’s very exciting. I wish I had done that 30 years ago but I was so God-dang rebellious! I was like, ‘I’m going to learn on my own!’ I’m a better and stronger player now.”

Adler actually learned to play drums by going around to all the clubs in LA and watching other bands play.

“In the ’70s everything was different. I was 11, 12, 13 years old, hanging out in night clubs,” he laughed. “Nobody said a thing to me. It was like ‘Come on in, Stevie!’ Me and Slash would hang out in discos.”

“My 12 year-old son, Adam, has asked for an electric guitar for his birthday next month,” I shared. “What’s your advice to him?”

“He needs practice — every afternoon, every night — he needs to take lessons,” Adler said. “When me and Slash were kids, Slash took his guitar everywhere he went. If we went to the 7-11, we’d be walking down the street and he would be playing. Tell Adam he’s got to believe in himself, never doubt himself, and he will be the best — No. 1 — but it’s practice, practice, practice!”

“What does the future hold for Steven Adler?” I wanted to know.

“Peace, love, happiness, and rock ’n’ roll.” I could actually hear him smiling. “And, you know, traveling around the world. I love doing what I do.”

https://web.archive.org/web/20101014181017/http://daltondailycitizen.com/local/x1274852215/Connie-Hall-Scott-Talking-rock-with-Steven-Adler-Guns-N-Roses-Drummer