Here Today... Gone To Hell!

 I was just wondering who do you believe is the greatest drummer Guns N Roses had or has?                                                                                                                                 Would it be, Steven Adler,Matt Sorum,Josh Freese,Brian Mantia,or Frank Ferrer? Could you please respond from best to worst? Im doing this because I dont see this topic anywhere on the forum. Thank you everyone for your honest opinions.

judging by material they have done in gn'r  and my musical taste:

1 Matt Sorum (you cant get a more solid and agressive beat than him)
2 Josh Freese (this guy is really an exeptional artist)
3 Frank Ferrer (very great groove, fits gn'r perfectly can even steal the show)
4 Brain (extremely well skilled technical drummer, not my first choise for gnr)
5 Steven Adler (for me he plays in a different league than the other guys)

 I agree Matt did a great job on the Illusions ecspecially part 1 I love his hardcore drumming in the song Dont Damn Me! I do like Adlers loose style in Appetite though, Saw Frank live when GNR came to the Palace of Auburn Hills Michigan in 2006 great concert Axl stole the show of course and Ive heard Frank keeps getting more fit and better for GNR, havent heard much from Josh but I did like Brian on the song Oh My God he really keeps up the pace. Its hard for me to decide but keep your opinions coming. Thank You,

STEVEN ADLER by far.  Everyone after him sounded mechanical to me.

I can't say it any better than this guy did.....

"Adler's drumming made the band.  He made a big musical difference.  His sense of swing was the push and pull that gave those songs their feel.  Afterwards, nothing worked."

-- Izzy Stradlin
Guitar World, November 1992

josh plays in oh my god

 Sorry, i had Josh mixed up with Brian I just know Oh My God live in Rio 1999 was magnificent! The drumming was spectacular and Axl was great, Buckethead and Tommy did great it was a great performance, Im  a huge GNR fanatic, I own all the albums of course I have been lucky enough to meet Axl who is an incredible, talented smart guy but thanks for the correction. Does anybody notice on the Chinese Democracy album which I love and it always sounds fresh, for I listen to it more so than the older material that Brian seems to have more drumming than frank on the album???? I cant wait for the next album Im sure Axl and DJ are gonna write some great songs and its gonna be epic just like all of Guns N Roses stuff is. Thank you everyone for having me on this forum, Im a good friend of Axl and Im always looking for people to talk to and discuss the magic of GNR music!

Really hard one. Steven is a capable drummer but hardly up there with the greats. But he does play with a lot of feeling and had the right groove that fitted the original band. Matt is technically a far better drummer and a lot heavier. But for me it would be a toss up between Brain and Frank as they both have very groovy style but can also pound like sorum.

Frank "Thunderchucker" Ferrer

for Guns, Adler, then Brain.

Steven and Brain.

Adler, then Sorum

I think Fran Ferrer has that's swing people missed with Steven.

You say you're a huge gnr fanatic... But RIR was 2001 not 1999. Anyway, I think gnr's "best" drummer was Steven. He energizes the songs. Whatever that means... BTW- im not bashing you bro. Just pointing something out... We all love GNR here  :) peace

1. Brain
2. Frank
3. Josh
4. Steven
5. Matt

I think Matt is the best. 

I can see the argument that he will never blow you away, but I could come right back that he never lets your down.  I don't have one bootleg from his time in the band where the drumming is not solid as a rock.

The Adler love annoys me so much, I'm to the point I actively dislike him.  If he's so awesome, why has he not done one thing of note in 25 years?

1. Adler

2. Brain

3. Frank

4. Matt - He's clearly more important to Guns than Frank, who you could argue is a hired hand, but I can't escape the fact that I just don't like is drumming much.

Very unfamiliar with Freese so I didn't include him.

It boils down to what album you prefer...

Adler- Appetite

Matt- Illusions

Brain, Freese- CD

Frank- dont have anything to go on really....

they all are more than capable players

on the internet there is always this large anti Matt and Steve sentiment... I dont know why....

I agree,
i play drums for 13 or so year now and still to this day matt amazes me, i mean i have every bootleg from illusions era and i have never hear someone who has a steady beat like his, i have never heard him have tempo issues, (every drummer has, think about brain you could be mine in rio, or how he counts nightrain in too fast and slowly slows the song down, at many occasions) when you listnen to matt you can almost hear what he plays next, thats boring to some of you but for the other players its perfect, plus idont think gnr songs should be flashy drums wise anyways.

i dont think he was a hired hand, the band made it clear on many occasions 91-95 that matt is the guy. ill go as far as saying that matt was the guy who kept it together music wise on the illusion tour, cause he playd so solid that how drunk and fucked up you were you knew what to play just listening matt. Many drummers cant do that.

i have never played the drums... so my opinion pales in comparison to urs

but i also thought Matt has always been unappreciated... he came along at a tumultuous time in GNR... and i thought he was always solid, on the illusion albums and live

I have always liked his hold no punches attitude as well

In a way, I agree with you.

Even though I have been around since day one, my goto version of the band in my head is the summer of 1991, the UYI band.  That "Dead!" group shot in the UYI booklet.

All very well said.  Agreed all around.

My favorite versions of 'Brownstone' are that tour because I preferred Matt's established groove to Steven, who I thought was a bit too fast on it live.

my favorite shot is the rolling stone cover with matt and Dizzy...

the illusion shows before izzy leaving is the best of Guns n Roses

What do you mean you don't have anything to go on with Frank? He plays drums on five songs on Chinese Democracy. And most concerts are downloadable somewhere.

Frank rocks it dude.

Frank is a good drummer but Brain has more technical skills. The albums he did together with Buckethead are magnificent.

For myself, it was Josh Freese, with Matt in a close second. Josh is great, I love APC and I wish he'd stuck around longer. That said, he wrote the drum parts to CD and I enjoy those (my only qualm is I wish the drums were mixed louder/better).

If we are basing this solely on drumming talent....

Then it has to be Josh Freese who was in the band for like what 2 years? lmao

Sorum is the best drummer they've ever had, from a talent perspective. Extremely reliable and on note. Almost too perfect at times. He's like a everyday B+.

Adler has a certain vibe and feel to him that you can't teach..

I think the whole "depends on what album comment" was fucking dumb. You couldn't listen to AFD any other way. Hearing them live with Matt doesn't cut it. Or hearing Matt play UYI doesn't cut it , cause they other drummer never got to play studio versions of the other song. So you don't know how it would actually sound. Steven never got to play anything live from MOST of UYI. So it is unfair to say Steven is better on this album or that album is just silly. I think they both could play all of the songs great. We know Matt can play it all live, but how it would sound in a studio wouldn't be better on AFD. Again Adler's feel. We'd have to see Adler play UYI stuff live in order to make some sort of judgement. Adler was on AFD, so you HAVE to prefer that album for him lol. Matt was on UYI so you HAVE to prefer him for that album. It's silly

Frank is like Matt in a lot of ways. Similair.

My favorite drummer to answer the question is Adler.

Adler, the legend, with all this great feel. 

Been in such demand over the past 25 years, hasn't he?  Had to fight them off with a stick, all those offers.

because of his drugs problems, not because of his abilities.

AC/DC was interested. not a little band.

This argument really doesn?t hold much water.

Adler was sacked because his addiction made him a liability.
If they didn?t think he was worth keeping around, they wouldn?t have tried so hard to make it work before letting him go.
No one is questioning the band?s decision to move on, but being fired by his friends for being too wrapped up in his addiction probably wasn?t going to make him love life or aid in his recovery. Fair enough?

Before his life spiraled out of control, he was perfect for the band. It?s strange to me that diehard fans of GN?R can?t see that.
Obviously his life took a tragic turn for the worse, and yes, he has only himself to blame, but the revisionist history of how he didn?t add anything to the band, or that his post GN?R output somehow backs up that claim is foolish to me.

How many drummers can you really point to that are sought after, anyway?
One of my favorite drummers is Brian Downey from Thin Lizzy. A pretty successful band at one point.
Outside of some guest appearances on Thin Lizzy alumni solo albums, we haven?t heard much from him.
Does that make him any less talented? or mean no one wants to play with him?

Maybe he was comfortable being the drummer for Thin Lizzy. That was his band, and he wasn?t interested in being a drummer for hire?
Maybe that is the case with Adler?

Izzy has essentially been playing solo since leaving GN?R. Does that mean he isn?t a respected musician?
And that no one wants him in their band?

Axl has put out the least amount of material of any of the AFD alumni since ?93.
He?s never been in another band since GN?R formed. Does that mean no one would like to have him front their band?

This isn?t directed solely at you.
I agree with a lot of your posts.

I just find it odd how many seem to easily dismiss chemistry in a band, especially when it?s importance couldn?t possibly be more obvious than in the case of Guns N? Roses.

What's the difference?

His own former bandmates have gone on to other bands the past 20 years.  Multiple guys, involved in several different bands.

Times those former bandmates have so much as considered him for the slot?  Is that an accident?

Most of this is a response to why I, and several others, find to be the complete overromanticizing of the guy.

Think of it more like that. 

The more over the top the praise for his supposed genius, the more over the top the pushback that you might be getting a wee bit carried away.

I?ve never said he was a genius.
I don?t think GN?R has ever had a genius.

It had 5 guys talented guys with chemistry that doesn?t come along very often, and can?t be replicated.
They brought out the best in each other and complemented each others strengths.

We saw what happened once that was fractured.
In my opinion, it?s a pretty open and shut case.

I'm not sure how strong this argument is since there was no discernible drop off with the UYI albums.

A lot of this seems like revisionist history to me, and only seems to have come about in the past few years.  The more people grew annoyed with Axl's revolving door of whoever the fuck, they wanted to go back to the band that made them a fan.  Not his most recent hodgepodge.

But you, I, or anyone who was around when it was all happening, know full well no one lamented the loss of the mighty Steven.  No reviews of the UYI albums singled out a drop off in drumming or chemistry.  No fans were singing this "it just not the same" lament.

Would some of that have to be present to support the argument you are making now?

I?ve brought this up a few times, but it seems to get overlooked.
Steven was heavily involved in the bulk of, if not all of UYI. There are demos with him on the kit for the majority of it.
Obviously Matt was brought in when it was time to record the final tracks, and I?m sure he added to them, but the point is, Steven had a hand in AFD, Lies, UYI I & II.
The albums people give a shit about.

And like I said in another thread, what our opinion of it 20 years ago really couldn?t be more irrelevant.
I was 10 years old. When I saw the (awesome) band photo on the inside of UYI, I thought the drummer must have hit the gym and got a new haircut/bandana. The importance of chemistry in a band wasn?t on my radar.
Chalk that up to ignorance.

Hahahahaha

Spare me your sarcasm. How many famous bands Frank has been a member of before joining GN'R? Only Sorum and Freese have been in well known band before.

You can point out all Adler?s fucked up that you want and you will be right. Still the guy managed to make more albums than Axl. You could say those albums didn?t make any impact. The only album that made an impact was Contraband and VR didn't last very long.

As for such demand... Well Adler has collaborated at different times with Slash, Duff and Izzy

What's with all this hate towards Adler I keep reading on here?   

None of whom even considered him for another band they were in.  Multiple guys, multiple bands.

Not didn't ultimately pick, mind you.  Was never in the running.  Not one time, for even one of those bands.

Maybe they needed the pep talks around here, huh?  They missed the boat.

Chasm of difference between right guy at the right time, and the glue that held it all together and things went to shit once he was gone.

Combination of that, and people that want to look at you like you have three heads if you say he's a risk ultimately not with enough upside to take a chance on.

What band? Are Izzy and Duff members of Conspirators? Were they members of Snakepit? Were Izzy and Slash members of Loaded and Walking Papers?

VR happened because Slash, Duff and Sorum met at a tribute concert. And it was Sorum's idea to do something. Izzy came, he saw, he left. And the climax of that experiment was Slash showing up at Axl's house to badmouth his then bandmates. It wasn't such  a bad idea after all that neither Izzy nor Adler were involved there.

His style suited Gn'R. He was the lovable, care free fun guy of the band basically. He is not even close to being the best drummer in the world or the 80s etc...

He has somehow in his multiple fuck ups = Axl Rose in releases.. Imagine that.

I think it speaks for itself. No one is over thinking this about Adler. He was apart of the greatest creative period of Guns N' Roses. Get over it people. His drummer was perfect for the band. The way it all turned out on AFD was reflective of Adler's beats and feel. He wasn't the most important part no, but he had more to do with the sound of feel of AFD than people think.

Josh has  never been a gunner. It's like teddy zig zag, nothin more. He doesn't count. He's a session man, that's it. So i don't understand why put him on the gnr list.

Steven adler was the best drummer by far in terms of "sound" & "style". All the other drummers are way better than him, but gnr never needed a true skilled drummer so where fantasy, style, swing, does count steven makes the difference. Wanted or not.

Sorry to break your bubble but Josh WAS in GN'R for a good two years, and wrote more music for them than for example Steven did.

My favourite will always been Steven Adler.  I've been a fan of GN'R since the release of It's So Easy all those years ago so there's probably a little bias.  But, as the question is asking for a favourite, and not the best, the Adler gets my vote.

Josh Freese? Hes on like a couple tracks right? I mean lets be real.

It's either


Adler, Sorum, Mantia or Ferrer

That's it people. No one of this stupid stuff... "Well Fred Coury and Don Henley drummed for them too"

gtfo

:-*

- Adler,

- Matt,

- Frank,

 :peace:

My favourite GN'R drummer:

1# Bryan Mantia

2# Frank Ferrer

3#Josh Freese

4# Steven Adler

5# Matt Sorum

How does #3 show up? You haven't seen or heard him play a single beat in GnR.

I agree.  What's all this talk about Josh Freese ?  There's no way to judge how good he was at GNR stuff, because we never heard him do it!

Matt was the best drummer for GNR.  That's objective of course.

Steven Adler was the original drummer and had his own unique style that fit perfectly on that one album.  He would always be second to Matt though.

The others are excellent drummers in their own right, Brain and Freese especially, but they have no business being in these kinda lists, their contribution to the legacy is zero.

Demo stuff for example.

Are we even really sure that the demo stuff we have heard has Josh (outside of maybe the Catcher mix with Brian May)?

Steven

Probably for the same reasons people talk in hushed tones about a song they have never heard and is just basically a name on a piece of paper, really.

Our fanbase is a little kooky.

Brain plays on 13 of the 14 songs on CD...he cowrote 3 songs on the album......did some remixes and likely has other writing credits on songs not used on Chinese Democracy. He was hardly insignificant in Gnr history.

Freese cowrote Chinese Democracy and Oh My God and has other drum arrangement credits on the album.

Just sayin....

1. Frank Ferrer
2. Brain
3. Matt Sorum
4. Steven Adler

*Huge Josh Freese fan from APC, Vandals, etc. Incredible drummer. Unfortunately, just don't think there's enough to really go on in a GNR context to rank him (IMHO). I do consider Josh a Gunner though- as he was officially in the band for 2 years- and as sky dog points out- made contributions of at least some consequence to what was going on at the time...

I'd still say that Matt is my favourite drummer of GN'R. Mostly because of his sound and playing on UYI-tour. Frank comes very very close though.

Adler is very cool and his groove is something many drummers never find. His sound fits the early material and tours perfectly.

Brain fits CD era material and he is technically very skilled, but I'm not THAT into his style and sound.

Now that I think about this, it's actually pretty hard to put these guys in to some kind of an order, as every drummer of GN'R presents a certain era of the band and thus presents different style too:
- AFD era belongs to Steven
- UYI to Matt
- CD to Brain
- Post-CD to Frank

And they've all done hell of a job!

Not sure sure how you can include Freese. He was the drummer for like what 2 years or less? Never played a show. Never did any appearances. Co-wrote 1 song on CD, played 0 drums on CD.

Although he did play drums on OMG.

Not sure you can group him together with Adler, Sorum, Mantia and Ferrer. Doesn't quite equal out. Your opinion, but it's a fucked up one.

Freese also recorded the drums on the rerecorded version of SCOM from the Big Daddy movie:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtovs6HhFO8


I know it doesn't count much, just wanted to add the info.

Sorum
Ferrer
Adler
Mantia
Freese

Matt hit hard and played large.  He was awesome on the illusion tour, and did a hell of a job keeping the rhythm section going when most of the guys shouldn't even have been able to stand.

I appreciate what Adler contributed to the band, but feel he's overrated and over appreciated.

I learned this past week that Steven Adler auditioned for AC DC after GNR tossed him and right before Chris Slade got the spot. Never knew that before. That goes against the idea that nobody has ever wanted to work with him since GNR. Apparently Angus was told his drug problems are too much to deal with.

I think Steven gets shit on a lot on GNR boards for a variety of reasons... I don't think that he didn't have song writing credits is one of the more valid reasons for it.

When news first broke of this regrouping... I was hoping for Matt Sorum to get the spot... he is reliable, a big part of the band's history, solid and has great chemistry with Slash and Duff on and off stage.

Since it appears he was never a real option for Axl... I am very glad we have Frank in that spot... and hopefully he forms his own great chemistry with Slash, Duff and Richard who is the perfect second guitar player for this band.

Wow, where did you hear that?

Edit:
According to this site and Wikipedia, Adler was fired from Guns July 11th. The Razors Edge was released September 24th. Thats too short of a time gap to a band to audition drummers, record an album (drums are recorded first on 95% of rock albums) mix, master and release an album.

I read it on another website... they were auditioning Steven while working with Chris... I guess they weren't sold on Chris at the time maybe.

Its true that Chris was hired first to only do the album and after the record was done they offered him a main stay in the band.

You are right. Adler did audition for AC/DC after being fire from GN'R. The problem was that when AC/DC guys find out the reason was drugs then they decided not to hire him. But Adler has said it was a sure thing. He was getting ready to move to Australia. I think he Adler was also in a list of possible drummers more recently when all that mess their former drummer took place. I read that somewhere.

There is more, in the late 90s Adler was starting yet another band and DJ Ashba was one of the members. So aside form Nikki Sixx the other person who knew who Ashba was when he joined GN'R was Adler.

Not sure what was the case in the 90s, but AC/DC members have been living outside of Australia for a while. Dont see a reason to live in Australia when the band is based elsewhere. The Razors Edge was recorded in Dublin and Vancouver.

Not saying this is bs, but im a little skeptical.

I know, but was what Adler said.

Do sort of hope Frank slows things down just a shade.

Yeah he better slow down in songs like Nightrain and YCBM. They didn't sound the way they should. Well they've been doing some rehearsal lately. I would like to think Frank was told about his pace

They rehearsed for three months before Vegas and Coachella...

if they thought it was too fast at any point I am sure they would have changed it then.

I tend to agree.