MusicThe song that helped get Steven Adler out of Guns N’ Roses

The dismissal of Steve Adler of Guns N’ Rosesin 1990, had as its key episode the recording of a very celebrated song by the band. “Civil War” is the only track on the album Use Your Illusion II (1991) to have drums recorded by the member, previously responsible for Appetite for Destruction (1987) and Lies (1988).

The song is believed to have been recorded in December 1989. It was the first to be recorded from the sessions that would give rise to the album combo Use Your Illusion.

According to reports from the members themselves, Adler — at the time immersed in drug addiction — needed approximately 30 takes to record his part in “Civil War”. Even so, none of his executions could be fully utilized. Quality was lacking.

This is a quality that Steven, when lucid, always presented. The drummer is still cited today as essential to GN’R’s piercing sound, a breath of authenticity amidst the pasteurized mainstream music of the 1980s.

Taken especially by heroin, the musician at the time was already trying to get rid of the addiction. In interviews, he says that during that period he tried to stop using the drug, but the effect of withdrawal was heavy on his body, to the point of making him sick.

To the podcast Mom, It’s Not the Devil’s Music! (via Blabbermouth), he says:

“When you stop heroin, you become violently ill. The inside of your bones hurt. You just want to die. My manager took me to a doctor, who gave me an opiate blocker – which you shouldn’t do, because if you have opiates in your system and you take an opiate blocker, you’ll get even sicker.”

In the middle of all this, the music sessions took place. Adler could do nothing.

“Four days have passed, Slash [guitarrista] called and said: ‘let’s go to the studio to record’. I said I was sick and asked for another week, but he said I couldn’t waste the record company’s money. I went to A&M Records to record and I was so weak and sick. I did my best, but I had to play it about 25 times. They were getting frustrated. I said I was sick, but they said I was just high. Then I was expelled.”

On April 7, 1990, Guns played a show at the Farm Aid benefit event, in aid of small farmers in the United States. Steven Adler was no better. He even stumbled and fell when he entered the stage, in a moment that his former colleagues defined as “embarrassing”. He even played the first song well, precisely “Civil War”but did poorly on the cover of “Down on the Farm”original from UK Subs — and he claims that he had not even been informed about the song, which was unknown to him.

Slash and the bassist Duff McKaganpreviously close to Adler, distanced themselves from the drummer because they thought he was taking drugs too hard. The vocalist Axl Rosesometimes described as the only relatively sober member of the group at the time, even gave a warning on another show: whoever was flirting with the heroine would get hurt.

Steven Adler fired from Guns N’ Roses

Said and done: Steven Adler was fired from the band in 1990. A year later, he went to court against Guns N’ Roses. The drummer claimed that he was under the influence of medication used during rehabilitation attempts, which impaired his concentration when playing. He also cited the contract he had with the band, where he would have been financially harmed, having lost the rights to royalties and other profits.

The case was closed in 1993. Steven received compensation from the group of more than US$2 million, in addition to 15% of the proceeds from the material recorded with him.

However, he claims that no amount of money compensates for the emotional impact of those first years outside the band. About this, he says:

“I always loved the whole team thing. That’s why getting a band together was so important to me, where we work together and create something. When they threw me out, I didn’t know what to do. I could have gotten better, but I kept doing what I was doing. I was hurt at that point.”

After comings and goings regarding addiction and some attempts to start over in music — first with Road Crewthen with the Adler’s Appetite —, it seems that most of the bad feelings no longer exist. In 2012, Steven was introduced to Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the band’s classic lineup and has appeared alongside Slash, Duff McKagan, Gilby Clarke and Matt Sorum — Axl Rose did not attend and was replaced in the traditional musical performance by Myles Kennedy.

In 2016, Adler participated in some shows on the reunion tour “Not in This Lifetime Tour”. His appearance was scheduled for the band’s first surprise performance at the famous club The Troubadour, but back surgery prevented him from doing so.