2020.04.08 - The 500 with Josh Adam Meyers - Interview with Matt

Excerpts from Blabbermouth:
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In a recent interview with "The 500 With Josh Adam Meyers" podcast, former Guns N' Roses and Velvet Revolver drummer Matt Sorum was asked if there was one show in his career that he felt was that "perfect moment." He responded (hear audio below): "Oh, man. So many highlights. Probably one of my greatest experiences was the Freddie Mercury tribute, which was done at Wembley Stadium, and we were invited to open the show. It was us and Metallica, and then Queen came out. You can watch it on YouTube. It's probably one of the most incredible shows. I mean, backstage was David Bowie, Annie Lennox, Robert Plant, Elton. Elton and Axl did 'Bohemian Rhapsody'. You've gotta watch it; they just crushed.

"I've gotta say that night was just sort of… I remember meeting Elizabeth Taylor. It's in my book. I drank with Liza Minnelli and George Michael. [Laughs] [It was] just one of those nights that you just will never, ever be able to… It was sort of like being in a dream world. Walking out, going, 'Wow!' Wembley Stadium sold out.

"When I look back at especially Guns N' Roses, it's just sort of a surreal feeling. It's almost like watching a movie — somebody else's movie — and you're in it. It's just so weird."

Sorum's autobiography, "Double Talkin' Jive: True Rock 'N' Roll Stories From The Drummer Of Guns N' Roses, The Cult, And Velvet Revolver", which was previously due in April and was subsequently pushed back to early July, will now arrive in late summer or early fall.

https://blabbermouth.net/news/matt-sorum-looks-back-on-guns-n-roses-its-almost-like-watching-somebody-elses-movie-and-youre-in-it

Excerpts from Ultimate Guitar:
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During an appearance on The 500 With Josh Adam Meyers, former Guns N' Roses drummer Matt Sorum, who was a member of the fold between 1990 and 1997, looked back on the band's wild early-'90s South American tour.

Matt is gearing up to release an autobiography titled "Double Talkin' Jive." When asked, "What is the craziest tour story you can tell me?", the drummer replied (transcribed by UG):

"We spent almost two years editing my book because, you know, the shenanigans stories, the sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll stuff. I was like, 'Oh man, OK, I guess they're gonna get the fact that I was with a lot of girls and did a lot of drugs. Do I have to tell like 20 of those stories? No, let's just tell, like, five.' That was the hardest thing about writing the book - which stories do I cut out? I cut out all my sort-of Charlie Sheen era stuff, that's straight-up debauchery.

"A lot of the craziest stuff happened in South America, you know? We were involved in probably one of the first stadium tours of South America, going all the way through Venezuela, Colombia, and Chile, and we played countries no band had ever played before, really. I mean, even Queen had only played in Brazil, and I think Argentina, so here we are, going on this mad 50,000-a-night stadium tour.

"So we land in Venezuela, Caracas, and we've got interpreters everywhere we go, we've got these people because, in those days, it wasn't a lot of English language at all down there, I'm talking early '90s. So, of course, I hook up with the interpreter who's this beautiful Venezuelan girl, I end up in the jungle of Venezuela with this girl and this taxi driver, and we find cocaine for $3 a gram, and I'm like, 'Well, give me 10.' So the band can't find me, I'm basically gone, and this one-day trip blur turned into three. Here we are, doing this massive stadium gig and there's no GPS in those days, so they find me on a balcony of this hotel and I somehow got a hold of, like, Caribbean Rum, and there I am. Basically, they threw me in a shower and, you know, here I am, fairly new to this band at this point, so they're like, 'Uh-oh.'

"We were going through again in some... I think we're in vans and we're going, and we see this happening outside, basically a riot, we go on stage, and the tour was in November because that time of the year is basically their spring. So we're on stage about 45 minutes in, and we're playing 'November Rain,' and now, the stage collapsed. So they rebuilt the stage, and there's no roof over us, there's no lighting, it's just, like, makeshift, it's super third-world, like, not in a good way. And we're like, 'I'm pretty scared to go out there, to be honest.' And our manager sort of just pushes me and says, 'It's going to be alright, get out there, knock 'em dead.' So we get up and we're playing 'November Rain' in a torrential downpour, right? So we leave, we got to leave the stage, can't even keep playing, the place riots, and they go crazy, and we can't go back out, so we end up going back to the hotel, and our manager says, 'OK, everyone pack up, we're getting out of here.' And we're like, 'What?'. He goes, 'Yeah, we got problems, the promoters are coming.' I go, 'The promoters?'. And in those days, there was no Live Nation, there was none of that shit. It's like, 'Who did you do the promotion with?'

"It was all cartel, hardcore, and here we are escaping the drug cartels, so in my book, the story continues, it gets worse and worse and worse. We fly out of Bogota, Columbia and now we're in the Andes... We're flying over the Andes, and I'm saying, 'If we do die here, who's gonna eat who?'. So anyway, it gets even juicer as we continue through the country, the continent.

"I remember getting back to LA, and I was totally frazzled, like, it was one of the scariest tours I've ever that I've ever been on my life, and everything was just sort of in disarray. And I remember running into Anthony Kiedis, and he goes, 'Yeah, man, I can't believe it, man, our tour got called off because of you guys.' And I'm like, 'Fuck you, Anthony. Go ahead, go down there, be my guest!' I said, 'Here we are, paving the territory,' and Anthony, he's an interesting character, and you don't know what you're gonna get from him, but I go, 'Dude, be my guest, get on your airplane, go down there, have fun. I'm just telling you, it's like the wild wild west down there.'

"And in those days, that shit was just not really organized. I remember taking those countries and playing them. And now, you can go down and do a gig, it's all Live Nation and all squeaky clean, but there's a lot of that stuff in the book."

Matt also looked back on being a member of The Cult prior to joining GN'R, saying:

"I remember opening for Metallica with The Cult - when I was in The Cult. And we went out one night, there were 10 rows, the first 10 rows had their backs turned to us, flipping us off. That was during [1988's] '... And Justice for All.' They couldn't give a fuck about The Cult. 'Where's fucking James Hetfield?! 'Seek and Destroy'!' In 1989, 99% of guys in the audience, definitely a portion of them were probably into Satan, you know what I'm saying..."

https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/general_music_news/matt_sorum_recalls_telling_rhcp_frontman_off_after_scariest_gnr_tour__how_fans_flipped_off_the_cult_when_opening_for_metallica.html

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During a conversation with Josh Adam Meyers, former Guns N' Roses and Velvet Revolver drummer, Matt Sorum, talked about the so-called lead singer disease - LSD - and working with Axl Rose and Scott Weiland.

Matt is gearing up to release an autobiography titled "Double Talkin' Jive." He said when asked about LSD (transcribed by UG):

"Being in Guns N' Roses, that was a dangerous rock 'n' roll band. You never knew what you're going to get from Axl Rose, if he's gonna come out and give you the show he's gonna give you, you don't know if that's going to be good or bad or otherwise. It never was bad, don't get me wrong, when I was in the band. If he was in a bad mood, that was a great show. It was like, you know, all energy went into what we did on stage. And there were nights we went up there and we weren't even talking to each other, but man, we would throw down, because, for rock 'n' roll, you would channel that energy into that performance, and you could be pissed off, and I could smack the drums twice as hard or whatever I wanted to do. When Axl came with that kind of energy, it was like, 'Uh-oh, watch out, this is gonna be some hair-raising shit.' And there are great attributes about that, and I look back in retrospect, and - why would you want the guy any other way?

"The same thing with Weiland; Scott could come out one night, he'd be like, 'Whoa, what's going on?', and you wanted to kind of go, 'Dude, can we kind of pull that together?' But it just didn't go that way, and unfortunately, that was a different sort of thing. Scott was being drawn by a different sort of energy, obviously, darker energy. But man, he could be great some nights. He would come out, you'd just be, 'Oh my god!'"

I don't think there have ever been two singers that are as talented in their genres and as cool, in my opinion, as Scott Weiland and Axl Rose.

"You got to look at the gift of where they came from, their songwriting ability. Scott could sing a melody in like five minutes and you'd go, 'Oh my god.' Lyrically, he had a cool sensibility with lyrics.

"Same thing with Axl. Axl, if you go back and really dig deep into Axl's lyrics - here you go, you're coming out of the hair era, right, but there's so much depth within the lyrics, and he's able to do a song called 'Coma,' then turn around and sing a song called 'Sweet Child O' Mine.' "So he would understand the simplicity of a lyric that's gonna resonate to a big audience with a song like 'Patience' or 'Sweet Child O' Mine' or whatever, but he's able to go deep too. There's a lot more to it when you think about the guy than just the frontman because he had all this stuff inside that he was able to bring out lyrically, and that's what made that band, still to this day, have that catalog that was long-lived, it wasn't a lot of records.

"Weiland, his attribute was, you know, he was always trying to dig deeper into the art fact. He was looking for Bowie, and you know... I mean, even Axl, Axl loved Elton, that's why we did 'November Rain.' He looked to the greats, as we all did, and we're talking about this era of the '70s - we all grew up on the music we're talking about right now, Cheap Trick, all the greats... And I remember going to the Rock N' Roll Hall of Fame and thinking, 'Man, this is not right, I should not be getting inducted before Cheap Trick and Deep Purple, this is weird.' Because as a musician coming up, these are your heroes."

https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/general_music_news/matt_sorum_talks_lead_singer_disease_how_axl_roses_unpredictable_behavior_affected_guns_n_roses_shows__how_scott_weiland_was_darker.html