Steven Adler
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Steven Adler (born January 22, 1965 in Cleveland, Ohio) is most famous as the drummer of the hard rock band Guns N' Roses from 1985 - 1990. He was fired from the band in 1990 during the recording of the Use Your Illusion I & Use Your Illusion II albums. The band blamed his firing on his substance abuse issues. Adler was replaced by former Cult drummer Matt Sorum, now of Velvet Revolver.
He met future GN'R guitarist Slash as a teenager in California. The two became fast friends, and as Slash took up guitar, Steven took up drums in order to form a band (albeit missing some components), Road Crew. The two eventually joined forces with Axl Rose, Izzy Stradlin, and Duff McKagan in a reformed GN'R, replacing Tracii Guns and Rob Gardner, respectively. Steven drummed on two of GNR's albums, Appetite for Destruction and G N' R Lies. He also appears on one song on Use Your Illusion II, the opening track "Civil War". Axl has said in an interview that "Civil War was recorded a good 60 times" due to problems with Adler.
GN'R fans are often divided into two camps: one favouring the brighter-sounding early GN'R with Adler, the other preferring the heavier sound GN'R acquired with replacement drummer Matt Sorum. Izzy Stradlin, who quit the band (citing Axl's dominance) not long after Steven was fired, insisted later that Steven's drumming was crucial to the band's sound.
After being fired, Steven continued to use drugs and eventually, as the result of a 'hellacious speedball' suffered a stroke which impairs his speech. Now clean, Steven drums for his band Adler's Appetite, which plays many GN'R covers. He has repaired his friendships with most of his former Guns N' Roses bandmates.
When Slash and Duff began creating Velvet Revolver, Steven expressed hope that history could repeat itself and that he would be in a band with them once again. Velvet Revolver was created with Adler's replacement, Matt Sorum, instead.
References
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