Matt Sorum
Drums
Real Name: Matthew Sorum
Birth town: Long Beach, California, USA
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.
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