Matt Sorum Says Slash Was The Musical Leader Of Guns N’ Roses

Former Guns N’ Roses drummer Matt Sorum joined the podcast Sound, Sobriety and Success with Matt Pinfield for an interview and named Slash as the Roses’ bandleader.

While performing with the Cult in 1989 as their live drummer on tour, Matt Sorum caught Slash’s attention with his instrumental talent. Shortly after, when Steven Adler was fired from the band in 1990 due to the problems related to his drug addiction, Sorum joined GN’R as the replacement for the drummer position. During his seven-year tenure in the band, the musician recorded three albums, ‘Use Your Illusion I,’ ‘Use Your Illusion II,’ and ‘The Spaghetti Incident?.’

However, Sorum parted ways with Guns N’ Roses in 1997 following an argument with the band’s frontman Axl Rose. As a former member who spent years with the rest of the band, Matt Sorum recently talked about the inner dynamics of GN’R in a podcast conversation. The drummer referred to the band’s lead guitarist, Slash, as Roses’s musical leader.

Although Matt Sorum admitted Axl Rose’s prominent role in the band as their frontman, he still named Slash the one who pulled the strings. If anything or anyone got out of control, the guitarist would always be there to set things right. Then, the drummer recalled one time he had gone on a bender during a tour, and Slash told him to settle down and concentrate on the show. Thus, according to Sorum, Slash was always the one who calmed things down.

Matt Sorum’s words on Slash:

“Slash is the kind of the musical leader of the group. Axl was obviously the frontman and the vocal leader and everything but Slash kind of cracked the whip on the rest of us if anybody got out of hand. I remember being on tour one time. I was coming on the bus, I was on a sort of a bender, three-day bender. He said, ‘Man, you gotta take it down a notch,’ and I was like, ‘It is going to be a great show.’ But he was that guy. He was like Keith Richards. Keith Richards. ‘I slept on a chandelier, I can still make this show.’ It is a rock and roll band. I don’t f*ck that up too.”

You can listen to the full interview below.