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Guns N’ Rosesin alkuperäinen rumpali Steven Adler: ”Minun oli tarkoitus lähteä mukaan paluukiertueelle”

Kirjoittanut Minttu Koskinen - 19.2.2017

Muusikko Steven Adler toimi yhdysvaltalaisen rockin jättiläisen Guns N’ Rosesin alkuperäisenä rumpalina vuodesta 1985 alkaen. Julkisesti on puhuttu, että bändi erotti hänet vuonna 1990 huumeiden käytön vuoksi. Axl Rose kommentoi silloin, kuinka Adlerin addiktio vaikutti hänen soittoonsa sekä vaikeutti koko bändin esiintymistä ja nauhoituksia. Tuoreessa haastattelussa Steven Adler kumoaa nämä perusteet sekä kertoo osallisuudestaan yhtyeen paluukiertueeseen. Hän kertoi myös, ettei ole katkera kenellekään ja kunnioittaa entisiä bändin jäseniä.

Guns N’Rosesin paluukiertueen aikana Steven Adler on esiintynyt bändin kanssa Nashvillen sekä Cincinnatin keikoilla. Rock-journalisti Mitch Lafon haastatteli hiljattain Adleria, jonka vastaukset on nyt kuunneltavissa.

Lafon kysyi rumpalin kokemuksesta, kun pääsi soittamaan vanhojen bändikavereiden kanssa. Adler kertoi tunteistaan:

”It was, ’Thank you, God, for this beautiful present.’ I’d been playing ’Appetite [For Destruction]’ [songs] live, ’Use Your Illusion’ and the songs that, obviously, I didn’t get to play on ’Use Your Illusion’, I was practicing them… I was playing twenty-five songs twice a day for two years. ’Cause once I found out [the reunion] was probably gonna happen, I was, like, ’Yes! I’m gonna be ready and on top of it.'”
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”And then second rehearsal, I hurt my back and I had to have a minor surgery. I had a pinched nerve in the L4 [nerve root], and within an hour, I was out of the hospital and I was all better. And I talked to them [and said], ’Let me come back,’ but it didn’t happen, and I was resentful. And then I talked to my sponsor and I was, ’Okay, you’re right. I’m not gonna give in to resentment.'”
”And then they called me, and I [went], ’Holy shit! Here it comes. This is gonna be so awesome.’ I’m still smiling about it. I have dreams about it. My wife goes, ’What are you smiling about? You’re sleeping and you’re smiling.’ And I go, ’I was on stage in front of seventy thousand people with Slash and Duff and Axl.’ I just wish Izzy [Stradlin, former Guns N’ Roses guitarist] as there, but, shit, I got to do it. Thank you, God. ’Cause I wanted it for twenty-six years. All I did every day was, ’Please, God, let this happen. Let this happen. I wanna play with them again. I wanna do this.’ For twenty-six years, every time I’d go out, people — not just one or two, but five, six, ten people, especially when I’d do a show, it was hundreds — [they’d ask me] ’When are you going to get back together?’ And I wish I could say it would have been… Well, we would have never broke up, if I had a say.”

Steven Adler kertoi, että hänen oli tarkoitus esittää koko ”Appetite for Destruction”- sekä ”G N’ R Lies” -albumit sekä muutaman kappaleen ”Use Your Illusion” -levyiltä. Guns N’Rosesin nykyinen rumpali Frank Ferrer olisi soittanut kaikki loput kappaleista. Suunnitelmat kuitenkin muuttuivat toteutuneesta kiertueesta, josta Adler kertoi:

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”Like I said, I had been playing twenty-five songs twice a day for almost two years — every day. So I was ready to go. And then the second rehearsal… And the fucking second day, I just stretched… And we played another seven songs, and then my back was really sore. And then by midnight, I couldn’t even stand up. It was just terrible. I was out for two weeks, and then I got the epidural after about a week, and then I had the surgery about two weeks… ”
”I was ready when they did The Troubadour show [on April 1, 2016]. And Duff called me and said, ’Dude, you’re not gonna play with us anymore. You’re not gonna do these shows.’ And I was, like, ’You’re the worst fucking person in the world.’ And I hung up on him. And I tried to call him back and left a message, saying, ’I’m so sorry I said that.’ When you have resentments, you say things that you’re feeling. I couldn’t apologize to him enough, because he knows I love him more than anything.”

Adler muisteli myös vuotta 1990, kun hän sai potkut bändistä. Hän ei usko, että hänen huumeiden käyttö olisi ollut todellinen syy, sillä muutkin bändin jäsenet käyttivät aineita.

”If people think that I got kicked out of Guns N’ Roses for doing drugs, they are so mistaken. Everybody in that band was doing drugs. I was doing less than anybody. I got kicked out of the band, and Izzy got kicked out of the band, and then Slash and Duff did, because Axl wanted to take control of everything — he wanted to own the name, he wanted to be the only person who gets paid for the songs.”
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”He wanted to be the manager, the accountant and everything, when all he needs to do is get up there and sing like a motherfucker that he does. But he wanted to own and control everything. That’s where the whole piano thing came in. He wanted to be a piano man, which is cool, but that’s not Guns N’ Roses. Leave Guns N’ Roses the way it is, and then you do solo albums, like all musicians in other bands do.”
”So I was the first to go, ’cause I was the easiest one; I was the nicest guy. They tricked me. They had me sign some contract with my lawyer there at the office. And I was completely sick at the time. And I had no idea I was signing my rights away, rights to the name, my royalties. They wanted to basically give me two thousand dollars and throw me in the street. And thank God my mom realized what happened and she got a lawyer for me. And thank God everything got taken care of.”