2015.06.09 - Metal Sludge - Interview with Steven and Jamie Adler

METAL SLUDGE Exclusive with STEVEN ADLER & his younger brother LA manager JAMIE ADLER

By Gerry Gittelson

LOS ANGELES — On the same night founding Guns N’ Roses drummer Steven Adler was hosting his own art exhibit on Melrose Avenue, younger brother Jamie enjoyed a big moment of his own.

Jamie, 39, is among tinsel town’s rising entertainment moguls, and one of the bands he manages, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, headlined the Forum a couple of hours later.

Metal Sludge spent the day with both brothers, and each provided some interesting insights about the other.

“I’m very proud of Jamie. He’s doing really well,” Steven said.

For the art exhibit, Adler produced prints by using a program that puts colors on the canvas based on his playing of the drums. He played “Appetitite For Destruction,” and each song provided framed prints.

Jamie was right there by his big brother’s side — just like always.

“He’s 10 years older, and I remember idolizing my brother all my life,” Jamie said.

Both have had their ups and downs, particularly Steven, who appears to be doing as well as ever since being fired from Guns N’ Roses 25 years ago, at the time the biggest rock band in the world.

When Adler was fired, Jamie happened to be standing next to him when the phone rang.

“My brother’s face just dropped,” Jamie said. “He said, ‘I just got fired,’ then he locked himself in the bathroom and didn’t come back out. We had a stretch limo outside, and we were supposed to be going to see Motley Crue with the “Dr. Feelgood” tour at the Forum. Our mom eventually had to come and pick me up.”

Steven has battled drug problems to the highest degree, include televised stints on “Celebrity Rehab” and “Sober House” that made the drummer more infamous than ever.

Jamie, who said he has done his share of experimenting with drinking and drugs but is now sober, was always more interested in how things work behind the scenes. When he tagged along back in the day for a Guns N’ Roses show with Aerosmith, Jamie remembered being more interested in watching tour manager Doug Goldstein than hanging with the band as they tuned their guitars.

Now an accomplished manager with an impressive Santa Monica home, Jamie spent a good portion of his young adult life balancing his obligations to help his brother through sometimes tragic circumstances, combined with trying to build a show-business career of his own.

“At one point, I was booking acts and had like all four of them announce they were taking a break from touring for a couple of years — all in the same month,” Jamie said. “I didn’t know where my next dollar was coming from, but it never got to the point of eating Top Ramen. I was always good at making a dollar.”

To sign Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, Adler talked to the band’s representatives in New York City and promised to prove he was serious by taking a red-eye that night.

He did.

“The next day, I walked out of this huge office building in Manhattan, and I was representing Bone Thugs-N-Harmony for the Grey Goose tour,” Jamie said.

As for Steven, 50, he was asked at the art event if he still has an appetite for destruction.

“Oh, I still have a BIG appetite for destruction,” he said with a smile.

Of course, it has not been all smiles. Through the years, Jamie has performed numerous interventions on Steven — at one point bringing Slash for a surprise visit in Las Vegas — and has even saved Adler’s life a few times, and there were times when they were mad at one another, but their family love has always seen them through.

“Everyone, at some point, turned their back on Steven,” Jamie said. “But me, I would jump in front of him and take a bullet for him.”

With a brother in Guns N’ Roses, it was no surprise Jamie actually considered trying to at be a rock star himself.

“When I was 13, Slash gave me an Ibanez guitar,” Jamie said. “I think I took a total of two lessons. But I was born with the gift of gab. I had natural charm and charisma, and eventually, once I stopped partying and really went to work, people started taking me seriously. I’ve worked hard to get where I am.”

Nowadays, Steven, who was author of a best-selling autobiography, is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, while Jamie is trying to climb the ladder to be the next Irving Azoff.

In the meantime, Jamie thinks there is a movie worth producing about how he has coped with Steven’s ups and downs, and perhaps the budding impresario is right.

Stay tuned.

Reach Jamie Adler at Instagram@worldwideadler

https://metalsludge.tv/adler/