The drummer spoke about his drug addiction that led to his departure from the band.
In a recent interview with the YouTube channel Mom, It's Not Devil Music!, Steven Adler spoke about his departure from Guns N' Roses . During the conversation, he said that his "heart was so broken" that he "just wanted to die."
Admitting that drugs were responsible for his "downfall," the drummer recalled what the last recording session with the band was like and what led to his dismissal.
“One day I decided I didn’t want to use drugs anymore ,” he stated. “But what I didn’t realize was that when you stop using heroin, you become extremely ill. Your bones ache, they ache so much that you feel like dying.”
Unfortunately for the musician, the period of abstinence coincided with important Guns N' Roses recording sessions. “Slash called me to say we had to record 'Civil War'. And I said I was very sick, and asked if we couldn't wait a week. And he replied: 'We can't lose money. We have to do this song.' So I went to record, and tried my best, but I was very sick while we had to repeat everything 25 times. And they thought I was on drugs. But I was just sick. Still, I was fired.”
According to Adler, the 1990s were the worst time of his career. “Those years were horrible. I could have decided I was going to work out and get clean, but my heart was so broken that all I could think about was dying.”
In 2010, he released a revealing autobiography, My Appetite for Destruction: Sex, And Drugs, And Guns N' Roses . In the publication, he explored the brutal depression that led him to attempt suicide, his drug-related heart attacks, and the debilitating stroke that caused muscle paralysis.
The drummer joined Guns N' Roses for a few shows on the Not In This Lifetime . He is currently working on a new book called Steven Adler: The Shit My Friends Remember I Did . Watch the full interview below.
