GNR could have done the drumming the "metallica" way... and told steven, we want you to play this song with kind of a punk feel to it, but alittle more funky.
know what i mean? like the brake right before/in the solo in move to the city, the cowbell, did steven comeup with that? or did anyone else tell him that would be cool?
also, who's idea was it to use the cowbell? maybe axl/slash/duff told him cowbell is cool... we never know... i just hope steven was more creative than that..
I highly doubt the other guys in the band came up with the different drumparts..
maybe Duff did come up with a few but that would be it.
I play drums, and I know from experience that when any dufus that plays a different instrument suggests I do a part a certain way, it ALWAYS ends up sounding like absolute shite when I play it the way they ask me to.
people that are not drummers can't really see whats possible to do on drums within the beat you're playing and such.
it just ends up sounding chaotic and pointless.
Im not gonna say much more here than that Steven definately deserved the 15% that he got!
Slash made a pretty crappy system for the royalty-splitting.