Matt Sorum was born on 19th November 1960. He replaced Steven Adler
as Guns N' Roses drummer in 1990. Slash credits Sorum with keeping
the band together following the departure of Adler. Matt had previously
played for a variety of bands from Y Kant Tori Reed (featuring Tori Amos
on vocals) to The Cult, who Guns N' Roses had toured with in the past.
In fact, Duff has stated that while he'd "...never, ever want to hurt
another band" he secretly hoped that an opportunity would arise for
Matt to join the band, after Steven Adler's dismissal.
Matt joined a band that was in absolute disarray. Although Slash and
Izzy had successfully cleaned up their drug habits the whole situation
had left the band on the brink of disaster. "I heard a lot of stories about
them before I joined, so I knew they were in chaos," jokes Sorum. "I'd
heard the rumours about Steven. I just didn't think that I'd be the guy
they'd call in to save them, or whatever!"
Matt's first assignment with the band was playing in front of 125,000
screaming fans at the "Rock In Rio" festival in Brazil!! Although he, and
fellow new Gunner Dizzy Reed, had rehearsed with the band this was
their first live outing. Since the set list for Guns N' Roses' live shows
was determined on the fly neither knew what they were supposed to
play until they had to play it! In addition to this, for the first time in his
life, Matt had to conjure up a drum solo! Despite the lack of
preparation, the show went well and Axl at least deemed the new
lineup to be a success.
Matt was officially a member of Guns N' Roses until 1998 when it was
confirmed that Josh Freese had taken over as sticksman. In the
meantime, Matt had joined Duff in the Neurotic Outsiders "supergroup"
in 1996 and has appeared on a number of other records including Slash's
Snakepit in 1995.