Former Guns N’ Roses drummer Matt Sorum has detailed his wild seven year run with the band.
“It got scary,” the rocker admitted during an appearance on the Black Oxygen Inspiration podcast (as transcribed by Blabbermouth). “In retrospect, maybe, being a little bit older, I would have handled it differently, but it got a little bit out of control because it became so big.”
Sorum joined GNR in 1990, replacing Steven Adler. His tenure included the Use Your Illusion albums and corresponding tour, at which point the band was one of the most popular acts on the planet.
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“We were moving fast. There was a lot of people around us. There was a lot of — I can’t say confusion, but… I don’t know. I was starting to kind of get out of sorts because we were the biggest band in the world at that time,” Sorum admitted. “There was nothing bigger, and it was intense because there was a lot of people coming at you, like old friends, just infiltrating. And thank God I didn’t have a cell phone or text in those days.”
While the band’s massive popularity was one thing, their notorious partying was another.
“I’ll admit it. I fell into too much drinking,” Sorum confessed. “And the band was pretty famous for that. So, in a way, I felt obligated to do it because we were — and I’ve explained it before, I always said that I felt like a pirate on a pirate ship. There was just this sort of gang mentality amongst us, and I wanted to be part of the gang. I didn’t have one tattoo when I joined Guns N’ Roses. It’s almost like when you’re a kid in school and you’re hanging with some other guys, this is how that feels. It’s like, ‘OK, I’m gonna go get the tattoos. I’m gonna drink.’ I always drank. But my point is things got a little bit confusing only because it was just so big. And there was a lot of Hollywood sycophants around.”
Matt Sorum’s Advice to Young Bands
Sorum went on to note that ego was another major factor in the Guns N’ Roses, admitting that the self-destruction was all “very cliche.”
The drummer then passed along some words of wisdom for young bands who may encounter fame.
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“Success can be daunting — when you’re very successful — because things just change,” he explained. “I mean, family — I wasn’t as close to my family. I was enjoying the ride; I really was. But it was a little bit kind of rock and roll bubble. I was in this big bubble and we were rolling through the world. And I really felt like I just wanted to have every part of that adventure, but it started to kind of affect me musically. I started to enjoy the party a little bit more than the music.”
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Gallery Credit: Matthew Wilkening
