A Guns n' Roses Reunion With Sorum and Adler? Drummer Spouts Off in New Interview

Former Guns n' Roses/current Velvet Revolver drummer Matt Sorum likes to talk, and we like to listen — especially when he's talking Gn'R. During a recent interview with the Pulse of Radio (via Blabbermouth), Sorum spouted off about the prospects for a bona fide reunion of the original Gn'R, why he thinks it's lame that Axl insists on touring under the Guns banner and laments life as a lowly drummer.

"Being the drummer in a rock & roll unit, you know you're not the guy that's making the decisions or, you know, which you'd like to be," Sorum explains. "If you look at a lot of great bands that are out there, there's a couple I can name that are run by drummers — Metallica, run by Lars Ulrich and a band called U2, run by Larry Mullen." (Edit note: We're sure Bono and James Hetfield would beg to differ). "I would like to think, 'If you guys just let me run this band, things would go different,' but it's not the way it is."

If hell were to actually freeze over, and Rose submit to a reunion of the band's original lineup, Sorum, who joined the band three years after the release of Appetite for Destruction, thinks he and first Guns drummer Steve Adler should both participate.

"If it's me on drums or Steven or whatever, if it happened, it'd be great," says Sorum. "I would actually say to them, 'Hey, bring both of us back.' We'll have two drum kits. I don't care. If Appetite sounds better with Steven playing it, have both guys up there. They can afford it."

When it comes to Rose's use of the Gn'R moniker, Sorum thinks he should just tour as a solo act with a backing band, not as Guns. "I understand the core of the band, which is Slash and Duff and probably Izzy," he offers. "It's a shame, and you know what, this goes back to a Paul McCartney thing. Does he call himself the Beatles? Not saying we were as big as the Beatles, but — does Sting call himself the Police? No. Does Jimmy Page and Robert Plant go out there calling themselves Led Zeppelin?"

Well, not yet, anyways.

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Song Stories

“Smells Like Teen Spirit”

Nirvana | 1991

"Smells Like Teen Spirit," named after a brand of deodorant marketed to girls, was Kurt Cobain's attempt to "write the ultimate pop song," he said, using the soft-loud dynamic of his favorite band, the Pixies. Cobain "had that dichotomy of punk rage and alienation," the song’s producer, Butch Vig, told Rolling Stone, "but also this vulnerable pop sensibility. In 'Teen Spirit,' a lot of that vulnerability is in the tone of his voice." Sadly, by the time of Nirvana's last U.S. tour, in late '93, Cobain was tortured by the obligation to play "Teen Spirit" every night. "There are many other songs that I have written that are as good, if not better," he claimed.

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