On May 26, Jamie Adler spoke to Yahoo Entertainment to reveal the untold story of his brother, Steven Adler. After this in-depth interview, Jamie recently joined Artists On Record’s Adika, recalling the one thing Guns N’ Roses wanted Steven to do to rejoin the band.
There are many accounts of Steven Adler’s departure from Guns N’ Roses, such as his mother’s book ‘Sweet Child of Mine’ and Adler’s memoir, ‘My Appetite For Destruction.’ With the Yahoo article, Jamie brought another perspective to the story from his own perspective. Speaking to Artists On Record’s Adika, Jamie said that his story needs to be told as it reveals what’s behind the scenes:
“This Yahoo story is my little story. They put out their stories; now, this is my side of the story. My story needs to be told; I think it’s the real story, the behind-the-scenes. Everyone knows Steven’s story. They all know it. they could read Wikipedia, ‘He got kicked out of Guns N’ Roses because he did drugs.’ Yeah, but I was witnessing all the sh*t behind the scenes. That’s the story.”
When Adika asked him about the time when Steven was fired from Guns N’ Roses, Jamie recalled:
“I was right there. He literally locked himself in a bathroom for the next years. He spent all day in the bathroom getting loaded. It was bad; it was really bad and sad. I talked about this in the article, and this story is never been told, but I did say how Guns and Roses called Steven back before Rock and Rio and said, ‘Hey, if you want to play real with us, you just gotta get sober. You just gotta clean up your act.'”
Expressing his disappointment in his brother, he added:
“I remember that happening, and I was so excited. I’m like, ‘Dude, the guy could come back.’ But this disease, this addiction, they say it’s cunning and baffling. It’s all of that, man, times a hundred. He could have had his old job back; that’s all he wanted back; he just got to stop the sh*t. And he wasn’t able to.“
In the Yahoo article, Jamie looked back on the time Guns N’ Roses parted ways with Steven Adler and claimed that the band did everything they could do to help Steven:
“They tried everything that they could do. You know, they did try to put him in rehab. And yeah, the guys were all getting loaded themselves. We all know that. They never denied that. But there’s a difference when you’re the drummer, and you keep that beat. That’s the timing; that’s the backbone of the band. All Steven needed to do was quit doing heroin. And he would’ve been back in the band.”
Back in 1990, Axl Rose stated that Steven Adler was fired from GN’R because he couldn’t meet their only condition: to leave his drugs.
“Steven didn’t quit the band. Steven was fired. We gave him every ultimatum. We tried working with other drummers. We had Steven sign a contract saying if he went back to drugs, then he was out. He couldn’t leave his drugs.“
You can listen to Jamie’s interview with Artists On Record below.
