Original Guns N’ Roses drummer Steven Adler discussed the band’s current drummer Frank Ferrer in a new interview with Mitch Lafon. Lafon brought up the idea that Guns N’ Roses may have not wanted Adler as a permanent fixture on the Not In This Lifetime tour following his early 2016 back injury for insurance reasons. Adler said that insurance was not the reason he lost his role as a regular touring member of the band.
“For one, no insurance shit, because they already had Frank, so God forbid I couldn’t do it, then there was Frank. So it’s not an insurance thing, they just didn’t give me an opportunity. It’s cheaper to just have Frank. I mean they were only paying me not that much, I was doing it because thank god I donated the money, I was doing it because I wanted to play with them, I want to play for the fans.
Frank is a great drummer, but he does not play the way Steven Adler plays, and Steven Adler doesn’t play the way Matt [Sorum] plays, and Matt doesn’t play the way that Frank plays. We all have our own style, but my style is the one that is on those records that everybody grew up listening to, and has memories of. So when Frank is playing those songs, he is not playing them right, he is just really a great time keeper.
I’ll put it this way, they’re playing ‘ Mr. Brownstone,’ I didn’t know they were playing ‘Brownstone’ til all of the sudden they started singing the chorus. I’m going, ‘That was Brownstone?’ ‘Brownstone’ you know instantly, I came up with a kick ass drum part, you know that. I was standing there going, ‘What song is this?’ Like I said, we all have our own styles.”
He also discussed playing with the band in South America a few months ago, and how far he traveled to get there.
“15,000 miles. Dude, I got there and my wife, all her family, her parents, her sister, the sister’s baby, the aunt, I got like nine of them, and I was up there, and I was ready to go up, and Axl says, ‘What the fuck is he doing here? He’s not supposed to be here until tomorrow.’ I was like, ‘Excuse me? I just flew 15,000 miles.’
So they played a few more songs, I came up, I played one song, they turned the lights out on me. I went back behind the drum riser, I was like, what the fuck? Everybody in the crew came around and started hugging me and going, ‘Dude we love you Steven, it’s okay.’ I mean, the whole crew, there we like 20 people, came up and were talking to me. Then the next night, I did one more song again. Other parts, I don’t even want to talk about. All I know is the best part of it is me and my wife got to be together with her family for the first time in 16 years.”
He also revealed why he is not touring with the band on their current 2017 Australian tour.
“They asked me, which I obviously misunderstood, to go to Australia, Japan, and Thailand. I was like, ‘Yeah, I’d love to do that.’ Then I found it that it was either one, you could either come to Australia, Japan, or Thailand. I was like, ‘I can’t do that.’ But I got some closure, I love those guys.”
