Steven Adler – Adler’s Appetite/Guns N’ Roses – Interview Exclusive
Written by Kim Thore
Wednesday, 10 August 2011 05:00
Best known as the former drummer of the hard rock band Guns N’ Roses, with whom he achieved worldwide success in the late 1980s, Steven Adler has avoided being a rock and roll casualty. Adler was fired from Guns N’ Roses over his heroin addiction in 1990, following which he formed Adler’s Appetite eight years ago. Adler gained more notoriety when he appeared on the second and fifth seasons of the reality TV show Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew, as well as on the first season of its spin-off Sober House.
With new episodes of the popular Celebrity Rehab series taped, a fresh studio album in the works, and the July 2010 release of his New York Times bestselling book ‘My Appetite for Destruction: Sex, and Drugs, and Guns N’ Roses’ – the paperback release came out May 17th 2011 through Harper Collins – and after book signings, a grueling tour, and work on a new album, Adler has been unstoppable.
Steven’s band, Adler’s Appetite, currently features Michael Thomas on lead guitar, Lonny Paul on rhythm guitar, Chip Z’Nuff on bass, Adler on drums, and Patrick Stone has recently joined on vocals. Fresh off the road and in between tour dates, we recently had a few minutes to ask Steven our most pressing questions. 10 to be precise.
Steven, how are you??
Wonderful, wonderful. Thank you so much for some of your time. I really appreciate this.
Well with the recent tour just finishing I am surprised you aren’t still recovering!
Ah, no, no, [laughter] I’m not all that young, but I still feel good. Not doing, not doing the drugs, so they don’t hold me down anymore; I like that, I like that part of life!
Well drugs would seem to get in the way.
[Laughter] Yes, it does.
So first off, let’s talk about your book; what prompted you to put your life out there so to speak and what was the process behind it?
Well, well, it was… it was, really helpful in moving on with my life. Ya know, writing down…my book basically is all about the warts, and scars, and tattoos of my life in rock and roll. Ya know, I burned the candle with superstars and survived to share the story. But writing a book down…writing a book, it took me like eight years. But, the first six, the first seven years was pretty much redundant because once I started working with Dr. Drew and Bob and I got into rehab and I got off the heroin and the crack, I didn’t rely on Marijuana Meters until then…after that. But, I still wasn’t doing the heroin and the crack. We’ll talk about the marijuana in a bit. But once I worked 
with Dr. Drew and Bob, I was able to realize that, that I had to take responsibility for everything that has happened in my life. Ya know, good and the bad. And once I stopped blaming other people for things and opened up for people it came together.
And ya know, I always thought that if I said that, I’d feel even worse. But, once I said it, I felt better! And, it was just, it was just…Wow! I wish I would have realized this decades ago…I would have saved myself a lot of heartache. [Laughter]
The truth will set you free. It is true…it is true. And I realized that from working with Dr. Drew. And, then after that, it was really easy to write my book. I don’t blame anybody, I don’t put nobody down. Everybody that’s been a part of my life I love and I’m very thankful that they’re a part of my life or have been or so on.
Since you’ve mentioned it, tell our readers about working with the famous Dr. Drew. What was that like?
Well…. I felt like I had made a 170 degree turn in my life. But, then I started drinking a little Jagermeister…that’s not to minimize it. Because a little is a lot….
Then, most recently I started, I worked with him again on Celebrity Rehab and I feel like I made that whole 180 degree turn in my life. Ya know, it was really one of the best experiences of my life. I mean, I have to say, you know, probably the best experience of my life because now I have a life. Because I spent, I spent decades in a big beautiful house living in the bathroom. And, it’s not like anybody was in there; I didn’t have to stay in the bathroom. But for some reason when you do cocaine and heroin you want to live in your bathroom.
You were in one of the most influential and successful rock bands of all time..What would you say was one of the most important lessons you learned from being in GnR?
Oh, well, just not to waste my life anymore. You know I thought at first, being drunk was fun, but being young, I didn’t appreciate it…I mean I appreciated it; ’cause I can’t say I didn’t cause I did…but I, well, lost by the drugs and all the excitement. You know, if I can tell anybody; it’s obvious, don’t do drugs, it will waste your time. And, I’m thankful that I have, 20 years later, I have another opportunity to record music. And, I put together a great rock and roll band, a group of guys that I’m so proud of being a part of. And, it took it, it took 20 years. I wish I didn’t waste my time like that.
Speaking of Adler’s Appetite, you have had a fair share of line-up changes and successes and the band has weathered those changes, tell our readers what it has been like for you…
Well, Chip, Michael Thomas and myself…we’ve been together for months…we’ve been doing this for the last seven, eight years so; we’ve had problems with other guitar players and singers which any musician or any person will know whoever, ya know, was into rock and roll. Finding a vocalist is the hardest thing in the whole freakin world. So coming into my life at such a young age was like a miracle, okay? That is the same equivalent for Eddie Van Halen, or Robert Plant or Steven Tyler coming into your life at the age, ya know, when you’re a teenager. And, also finding a person that could tour, that could live on a tour bus with a group of guys and all get along and ya know, tour in rock and roll you have to be a special person, you have to be built for this. You think it is easy to do a one night stand, try doing it in a rock and roll band.
Stamina in this business is a must and of course great vocalists really are hard to come by.
Oh, I know. But now, I feel like we’ve got a really good one after we’ve just toured America the last two months and we all live together, we all work together, we’re writing music on the bus together and I’ve found that group of guys where we all can do that and get along and enjoy each other. Again, the two new guys – Ronnie Paul on guitar and Patrick Stone on vocals – both have already brought something to the band that other people have never done.
In fact, playin with Ronnie Paul, I wonder when all of those shows when we performed with other guitar players what the hell they were playing! I mean, it is finally all coming together where Ronnie is playing what is supposed to be played or recorded..so ya know, it is very exciting…they are really great people. And, actually we’re going into a recording studio Thursday to redo the old guitar player’s parts and the old singer, we’re going to have Patrick Stone come in and do the vocals for a couple of songs. So, ya now, we do it with the new line up and I’m very excited to do that. Recently I’ve found a new passion for producing, I really love doing this so I’m really looking forward to going back into this and doing this. I really am. All of the songs th
at we’ve recorded, I had a big part of producing. I really, again, I like telling people what to do, alright? I admit it, I really like telling people what to do [laughter] and when they listen, it’s even better.
You have obviously influenced other drummers, who has influenced you?
Well they’re all very European, their European style…those are timekeepers…they have a great groove….they are groovers. I mean, they lay a groove down and that’s just more exciting and that’s what I learned from, I mean, my first drums were my mom’s Tupperware.
That must have given you an interesting sound!
Yeah!…Well, a lot of these ’80s rock bands…they’re very basic and simple, their rhythms were just ya know, one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four, and ya know, me I’m like a one, two, three four four four, one two three four four four…I mean I stood out in the Eighties ’cause I did that, I never even knew what the hell I was doing…I never even took a lesson until a year and a half ago. It kind of worked for me. Not knowing what I was doing…and I listened back to the ‘Appetite..’ lines and I hear the drummers that I just mentioned little things that influenced me in their playing that they did that I stole from them. The only person that never had any influence was the person without a record deal.
Well, stealing an idea is the best form of flattery?
…And success is the greatest revenge…[laughter]
Thank you for your time Steven..best of luck to you!
Thank you so much! I really appreciate it. And, also check out our website, I have the Twitter and um…my book is in paperback now, and um..there is more stuff coming.
Awesome, thanks Steven!
Mwah! Thank you darling, thank you darling. I’ll talk to you later. Bye Bye.
