Matt Sorum on Scott Weiland’s Personal Demons, “It made for great artistry” – 2022 – Interview – Book – Autobiography – Velvet Revolver – Guns N’ Roses – The Cult
SPIN: Matt Sorum looks back at a career drumming for the monsters of rock. You can read the entire interview @ this location.
HIGHLIGHT:
Did you find any mental challenges revisiting all of these wild times?
Somehow writing the stories down wasn’t the hard part. It was editing in them. That was harder because I probably got three books worth of stories. However, it’s picking out which stories you’re going to tell so it doesn’t turn into this wild escapade of rock and roll debauchery. As you see in the book in the Velvet Revolver years, everyone got married up, except for me, and I was still kind of trying to wave the flag for rock and roll, if you will. It was interesting because it became a cathartic process. You start to look at things differently. Like, man, boy, I kind of acted a certain way, but at the same time, here you are a guy who wants to be in a band, and you get the opportunity. I’ve always said, you know, take advantage of it, enjoy it. You’ve been given this great opportunity that you’ve dreamt about your whole life. It’s your job to go ahead and partake, because what are you supposed to do? Go back to your hotel room, go to sleep? I always lived every moment. I never wanted to miss out on all of the adventures.
You definitely give that notion early on.
It’s interesting because times have changed quite a bit with the way people represent how they talk about things. In those days, it just seemed apropos. In the ’80s and ’90s, there was no question of the interconnection between people backstage. The antics that went on weren’t frowned upon. Nobody got hurt, everyone was entertained, and the people that were there had just as much fun as the band. That was the beauty of it. I said this before, but when music got a little bit too serious, especially rock and roll when the grunge era showed up and rap metal. I remember going backstage at some rap metal band’s show and it’s 99 99.9% dudes hanging around back there. I was like, “Whoa, this is weird.” I never understood that.
You’ve dealt with some interesting singers during your career.
When you’re dealing with guys like Scott Weiland, Ian, and Axl, these guys are interesting characters. But, that’s what makes them great because they are maybe a little bit more difficult, maybe hard to understand at times. But once they get on stage, they’re the guys that are leading the band to the next level. You have to appreciate everything in the way they come from the demons and otherwise, it pours into that performance they give. When Scott Weiland passed away, I said as difficult as he was, I don’t think he would have been able to have that sort of persona or that lyrical and artistic astuteness to be able to come up with stuff if he wasn’t from an interesting and sometimes dramatic background and had all of these demons around him all the time. He couldn’t keep them at bay, but at the same time, it made for great artistry. But for him, it was always something he had to battle all the time obviously until the very end. It’s difficult to be at that level and to be a normal person, and to be able to bring that sort of artistry.
You, Slash, and Duff had a long run where you all were as thick as thieves.
We ran like a gang. There wasn’t one thing we didn’t do together and I was obligated to drink with them. In those days, I was a bigger guy than I am now so I could put away a lot of alcohol. Even if they got drunker than I did, I could carry them out of a club. It happened a few times. We were these three guys that were just loving the experience, three pirates on a pirate ship purveying the land.
You can read the entire interview @ this location.
