When Steven Was Fired

[Guigsdaddy]

Hey all,

I'm a huge Guns fan.  One aspect of their history always irks me, the firing of Steven Adler.  I was wondering how it all went down?  I read some stuff here and there.  I also read quotes from Izzy saying that Steven was a vital part of the sound and after him "things didn't swing the same" or something to that nature.  Izzy was the principle song writer.  You would think that he would have a major say whether Steven would be let go.  The drugs excuse also sucks because everyone was loaded and to my knowlegde it took Axl forever to rehearse on Illusion.  Matt Sorum was ok at best, but I would have loved to have heard Steven on those records because his parts on Civil War are what classic Guns is all about.  Does anyone know why Izzy, Duff and Slash supported the decision to get rid of Adler?  Seems to me that it was record company pressure and they just fired him to buy some time. Listen I don't feel bad for Adler as he still makes a ton of money from royalties (unless he signed his rights away) but I'm a huge Steven fan and he was a huge inspiration to me growing up being a drummer.  Let me know what you know!

Guigsdaddy

[jarmo]

According to the band, they couldn't get anything done with Steven. He just coun't play.

The drum track for "Civil War" had to be edited from over 60 takes.




/jarmo

[Dr. Blutarsky]

By 1990 Adler was pretty much strung out and worthless live and in the studio. What a shame.

[wheredowego?]

is Civil War the only track on UYI with his drum parts?

[Pandora]

is Civil War the only track on UYI with his drum parts?

Yep.

[Eric]

None of the members have spoken fondly of Steven through the years, I think they did play together last year (Slash and Izzy with him?)

[Butch Français]

None of the members have spoken fondly of Steven through the years, I think they did play together last year (Slash and Izzy with him?)

I think Slash and Izzy played with him this year, either that or time goes really fast!
plus, he went and Izzy recorded like 4-6 new songs in studio earlier this year.

[PhillyRiot]

So Adler is the drummer for Civil War on UYI2?  I didn't know that.  I always felt that the Live Aid Performance of Civil War was one of the coolest because it was one of Steven's last.  I will always prefer the original 5 GNR members to any new GNR or Velvet Revolver.

[MadmanDan]

Why was he fired? Well look at "Behind the music",drugs made him worse than Ozzy,and he's a lot younger.

[Kiki]

Well look at "Behind the music",drugs made him worse than Ozzy,and he's a lot younger.

I can see you didn't see Steven play right now, well i did and let me tell you this: he's not worse!

[dave-gnfnr2k]

Plus he almost killed Axls girlfriend at the time by ODing her.

[KeVoRkIaN]

Isn't this a

[thelostrose]

So Adler is the drummer for Civil War on UYI2?? I didn't know that.?

just out of curiosity, why didn't you look intot the booklet?

[norway]

Isn't this a

ex-gunner maybe

axl kicked him, 'm lookin forward to adlers appetite debut,  their singer rocks

[John Daniels]

Overdosing Erin Everly +  bad drug habit, couldn't really play...and yeah it's being said that he also fucked Erin before or while she was blackout. I think these causes got him to the point that he was kicked out of the band.

[D]

if steven fucked erin and after nearly killin her he is lucky he just got fired!!!

here is what slash has to say about the situation taken out of guitar legends magazine page 30.


GW: when you started the album, was steven adler still on drums?

SLash: Yes, that was the summer before last (1989) although those sessions didnt last long mainly because of Steven.  See, he never quite made it to that growing up period that the rest of us when through.  It was always just a big game for him - fun all the time.  Thats a rock and roll attitude, which i've always appreciated, but steven was just out there (on drugs) and i had just come back from that. so he couldnt like to me about it. but he kept tryin to lie.
 
  I didnt want to go into the studio because his playing was so far off. He'll argue with me even now and say "I played great." But he didnt-he couldnt.  the guy was nodding out all over the place. that went on for a couple of months, and then i cancelled the studio time cause it was a waste of money. o the only song on the album that steven played on was "civil war" he thought he was great, but we had to edit the drum track like mad just so we could play along with it. even then, i had to remember where the drum mistakes were to keep the guitar in time with them.


you know steven tyler asked me the dumbest question one time: "is there gonna be another welcome to the jungle on the new album?" of all people to ask something like that! why would we want to do that again? But steven adler would have been happy just to do the same thing again on the new album. He wouldnt have made it through the record. And i dont mean to knock him. Im just pissed off at him. I havent said anything public about it so far, though he's slandered us like crazy and is tryin to sue us about stuff thats total bullshit but i know for a fact that steven's scared to death of me. because ive known steven since we were 13 and i know him too well, so im like "Steven, what do u think u are doin? but he's not doin it, someone else is pushin his buttons.



i think steven needs to take some responsibility for his problems and stop blaming the band so much for "takin everything away from him" to me it sounds like he fucked himself.


like i said in another thread he missed the illusions and the tour but he wouldnt be in GNR today anyway so it doesnt matter now anyway.

[Slashly]

Mmmmm...strange Dizzy hasnt post a loooong post, yet.
I didnt know he ODed Erin.And I dint know he fucked her!!!Actually I dont belive this last one is true, because if it was, now there would be a grave with the writings:Steven Adler 1965-1990







Baby Slash//

[pettyblue440]

I wonder why the band didn;t have matt redo the drum tracks if they were so awful.  I read somewhere they had Gilby redo Izzy's guitar on some Spegetti Incident tracks (not because they were bad).

[IzzyDutch]

Here's Steven's side of the story:

"When you guys recorded ?Civil War? did you record any other songs during those sessions? Was there really problems with you and the recording of "Civil War"?"

We rehearsed all the Illusions songs! We had studio time in Chicago for three months. On like the last day, Axl shows up and all he wanted to work on was ?November Rain?. So that set back the recording process. As for ?Civil War? I had to play it like 25 times until it was useable. My timing was so up and down because I was so weak. The whole time I kept telling the guys, ?I don?t feel good, I?m really down? and they kept saying ?You're just fucked up?, ?I?m not fucked up!" I was sick from an opiate blocker I got from a doctor that Doug Goldstein took me too. I think he knew what effect it would have on me...I wanted to wait another week or so before we went in to the studio to record. Slash says that we couldn?t waste the money, and we had to do it that day. They all knew I was sick....it?s a great song, it came out great, but I?m sure had I not been in the position that they put me in I would have nailed it in one take. Slash called me on a Thursday, knowing that I was sick, and said, ?We?re going in the studio this weekend? I said ?dude, you know I can?t go, I?m sick from this bullshit medication?. He said we can?t waste the money, an I said don?t even tell me about wasting money, we know somebody who wasted plenty of fucking money! If one of them was sick, it would have been postponed! We just weren't a team anymore.

Also Izzy said it was ridicolous, he was fired from the band cause of drugs while the whole band was using drugs...
Axl gave the rest a choice, it was either Steven out or him out

[D]

but the bands drug use didnt hinder their playing, thats the main reason. he couldnt play so they had to find someone who could.