The Adler vs GnR lawsuit (news reports and quotes)

[Blackstar]

The basics of this old story are widely known and have been discussed multiple times, but, since there are no news about the band to discuss, I thought it would be useful to post this material for everybody who doesn't know or remember the details and because some of the information in the newspaper reports is new (to most people, at least).

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Steven signed a contract on March 28, 1990, with which he was demoted from a partner to an employee and was put on "probation" by the band and management.

From the GnR partnership agreement signed in October 1992:

[Steven] is back in the band. He was definitely out of the band. He wasn’t necessarily fired, we worked with Adam Maples, we worked with Martin Chambers, and Steven did the Guns N’ Roses thing and got his shit together. And it worked, and he did it, and he plays the songs better than any of ‘em, just bad-assed, and he’s GNR. And so if he doesn’t blow it, we’re going to try the album with him, and the tour and, you know, we’ve worked out a contract with him....(...) it’s worked out. It’s finally back on and we’re hoping it continues. It’s only been a few days so far. It’s only been since Thursday last week, and he’s doing great. We’re all just hoping it continues. [Axl, Stick To Your Guns by Mick Wall; Kerrang, 21st and 28th of April 1990]

Then, in July 1990, Steven was fired.

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The following newpaper reports and quotes are in chronological order. Steven's lawsuit was filed in July 1991, the trial took place in the summer of 1993 and it ended with an out of court settlement in September 1993. Most of the band members' quotes are from here: http://www.a-4-d.com/t91-steven-adler

Steven didn't leave. Steven was fired. We gave him every ultimatum, we tried working with other drummers, we had Steven sign a contract saying that if he went back to drugs he was out. He couldn't leave his drugs...and other things had happened involved with Steven that Steven is basically someone I used to know. It makes me feel bad, but there's other things beside the band that he was involved in with his drugs that's been very dangerous and scary and I want nothing to do with him [Axl, Famous Last Words, MTV, 1990]

He was lying to us on a daily basis. I was trying to talk some sense into him but it never happened. He wouldn't listen to anybody-none of us will! And Axl and Duff had had it. As amazing as it seems in this "drug-free"exercise and health age, there's a bunch of us who are stilll clinging fast to the late '60s and '70s. But Steve never grew up to the fact that it's not all just sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll. To him it was a big fantasy and we took care of him. And now he's on his own. [...] I did keep in touch. I'd pop into his house every now and then to see how he was doing. l stuck with him, as you'd do for a loved one. And then he started getting on my case, saying, 'I've heard you guys are all on heroin and what's the difference, blah blah blah ... .' And finally I couldn't talk to him anymore. I'd take him out to dinner and it would turn into this huge fight, to the point where I couldn't take it. So now l don't see him anymore. I call his doctor and l think about him a lot. And I worry. 'Cause it's a scary thing. And he was my best friend for a long time [Slash, Musician, December 1990]

 I felt really bad for Steven. He's saying stuff like "How could they do this to me?" But it wasn't a matter of how we could do this to him. It was how he could do this to us. He was taken care of by the band. Anybody who thinks we just kicked him out is just somebody who doesn't know what the fuck they're talking about and doesn't know what went on. We waited for him for a fucking year. How long is a band supposed to wait around? We all wanted to get out and play, and he wanted to play, too. He was just too loaded to do it. Really we did all kinds of things for this kid to get him back to normal, and he refused. Every time he went into rehab, he took off. [...] Steven had no control whatsoever. He didn't want to be in rehab and still wanted to be doing what he's doing. He thought it was very rock & roll. What do you tell a guy like that? So I just said, "Fuck it, that's it. I can't deal with it anymore, we have to get a new drummer" [Slash, Rolling Stone, January 1991]

It was the hardest thing in the world having to (drop him) from the band. But we couldn't wait any longer. We had to make the new record. [Slash, Los Angeles Times, July 1991]

We tried our best to get Steven back together. Steven - he's always been the child of the band, the one that was always just the happy-go-lucky, sex, drugs and rock'n'roll and that's it. He couldn't understand why the drugs were so separated from rock'n'roll all of a sudden; why he couldn't be a junkie and be in a rock'n'roll band, because the twain are supposed to meet on the same ground. But after a while it's really not like that. You have to take care of yourself. People will not go around wiping your ass for you. So a year went by (three visits to rehab) and I finally said, Steven, you've got to go. (...) It still fucks with me. And I still check up on him. I won't go so far as to say he's clean and I won't go so far as to say he's still fucked up. I know he's unhappy.  [Slash, Tears Before Bedtime?; Q July 1991]

We had recorded like 18 tracks for the Use Your Illusion I record with Steven and it just wasn’t happening. We put him through rehab like three times. I even went to his drug dealer’s house and threatened him with a gun and said, ‘Dude, if you ever...’ [Duff, Circus Magazine, 1991]

July 21, 1991:

^^^ "Alan Nivens" and "Douglas Ostein" 

UPDATE: 1991, from Steven's press release on his lawsuit:

They told me I had a drug problem, well, who the fuck were they to tell me that? A couple alcoholics and heroin users? Did they take some time in between fucking strippers to decide they were going to throw me out of the band? Doug Goldstein took me to have an opiate blocker, which made me very sick. I told them [slash & Duff] that I felt sick and couldn't record. Slash told me we had to, because we couldn't waste the money. I said "Money? What about the money we wasted last year [referring to the 1989 Chicago rehearsal/recording sessions] when Izzy was cleaning himself up, and Axl was nowhere to be found? Why was it okay for those guys to waste the money, but not me [in order to] get well?" So anyway, they bring me into the studio and I feel like shit. It took me forever to get the song [Civil War] right, and they got frustrated with me. So next thing I know, Doug has a stack of papers in front of me that I could never fucking read because they were about five inches thick! He's telling me 'sign here, sign there' and telling me I was signing an agreement saying I was on "probation", meaning I was going to detox in time to record, or else. But it turns out, those papers weren't really giving me that chance. So I don't hear a fucking thing from anyone for awhile, then I got these notices saying 'you're out of the band'. Through my lawyers, I discovered that the "probation" papers that Doug had me sign were actually the rights to my partnership and all my royalties, which I was unknowingly signing away! They completely screwed me out of everything, these guys, [who were] my friends, my family. It hurt more than anything. My royalties were from playing, writing, and [use of] my image such as t shirts and shit.

When we recorded [Appetite for Destruction], Slash came up with this system where whoever wrote got credit. But then when it came time to actually divide them up, suddenly everybody was getting credit but me. I mean, [for example] Izzy wrote the song "Think About You" by himself before we started playing it, yet Slash, Duff, and Axl were also going to be receiving royalties for it, since they supposedly "added to it". I said, "well what about me? Did I add nothing?" I mean Izzy wrote the fucking song, I thought that's how the writing credits were determined, but the other guys were getting credit for something they didn't write, and I wasn't. Same thing for all the other songs, Axl would get credit for songs such as "Brownstone" [written by Slash and Izzy] and "It's So Easy" [written by Duff and West Arkeen], even though he didn't write anything on them, and the other guys [who didn't write also got credit] too. So why not me? So Axl gave me a portion of his [to compensate for not being included], and my name was put beside the rest of theirs [in the writing credits] and that was that. But now they've screwed me out of those royalties and my other ones too. Two fucking albums that I played on are still selling and they're collecting money from them, and I'm not. Guns N Roses T shirts with my face on them are still selling, and they're collecting money from them, and I'm not. That's what they did to me, people I thought were my friends took it all away and said goodbye as if I never existed. Fuck that! That's why I sue them, and I'm confident the jury will see it my way."

February 2, 1992. Article with excerpts from a Steven interview:

Interesting Steven quote: "Everybody thinks Axl runs that band. Axl runs the band in only one way - if he doesn't show up, everybody's (messed up). Slash really runs everything. He was my best friend for more than 15 years, more than half my life. It was his decision, him and Axl, not to pay me."

We turned him onto drugs? My f?!king ass! That's so pathetic. Steven is scared to death of me. If he sees me in public, he just turns into a grovelling heap of defeatism. He just doesn't know what to say. He mumbles. I ask him a straightforward question, 'What's your motivation behind this?"' and he doesn't know what to say. Until now I haven't said a word about Steven to the press. I haven't attacked him; I haven't insulted him. I felt sorry for him. I didn't want to hurt him. We gave him a year to get his shit together. He couldn't play any of the new shit anyway. It got to a point where the material was way beyond him. I can't believe this little f?!ker. I read the shit he said about us in Circus (...) He said in that article he's sober now, but every time I've seen him, he's been wasted. I don't know what he's wasted on; I don't even care. I lost all concern and feeling for the guy. And I know a drug lie when I see one. We couldn't get any work done at Rumbo [the original studio where the band started work on Use Your Illusion three years ago]. He cost us a fortune. We had to edit the drum track to 'Civil War' just so we could play to it. At Rumbo, Steven would nod out to the point where he would be on a stool, but his head would be touching the floor. He'd say, 'I'm tired. I'm sleepy,' and he couldn't play. That was basically it. We gave him so many chances to turn around. We took him to Indiana, to play Farm Aid, and he jumps on the drum riser and almost breaks his f?!king neck. Look, Steven was a part of what made Guns N' Roses happen. He had a great energy. He wasn't an insanely great drummer, but he had tons of attitude. When the sex and drugs and the whole bit started to get out of hand, he went right along with it. But there's a certain time when you really have to control your life. I'm not preaching - I'm in no position to preach - but you must be aware of your own existence and take care of your own business. You just can't be loaded all the time and expect everything to be okay. Trust me, I know. As far as the rest of us, we bounced back, we straightened up. Steven never did. We always told each other when it was getting real bad. Everybody was there for the individual who needed help. That's how we're survived as a band. But Steven would never cop to anything, as far as telling us how bad it was. And now he's suing us. Thank you very much [Slash, RIP March 1992]

The misconception is that we kicked him out for the hell of it, and that I was the dictator behind it. The truth is, I probably fought a little harder to keep him in the band, because I wasn't working with him on a daily basis like the other guys were. They grew tired of not being able to get their work done because Steven wasn't capable of it. I've read interviews where he's saying that he's straight. Most of the time he isn't. He's the type of person who wants everything handed to him, and he did get it handed to him. He got it handed to him from me (...).  I paid $1.5 million by giving him 15% of my publishing off of Appetite For Destruction. He didn't write one goddamn note, but he calls me a selfish dick! He's been able to live off of that money, buy a shitload of drugs and hire lawyers to sue me. (....). I feel bad for him in ways, because he's a real damaged person, but he's making choices to keep himself in that damage. There's nothing we can do at this point. We took him to rehabs, we threatened his drug dealers, we helped him when he slashed his wrists. I even forgave him after he nearly killed my wife. I had to spend a night with her in an intensive-care unit because her heart had stopped thanks to Steven. She was hysterical, and he shot her up with a speedball. She had never done jack shit as far as drugs go, and he shoots her up with a mixture of heroin and cocaine? I kept myself from doing anything to him. I kept the man from being killed by members of her family. I saved him from having to go to court, because her mother wanted him held responsible for his actions. And the sonofabitch turns on me? I mean, yeah, I'm a difficult person to deal with, and I'm a pain in the ass to understand, and I've had my share of problems, but Steven benefited greatly from his involvement with me - more than I did from knowing him. Steven had a lot of fans, but he was a real pain in the ass. I need to keep him in my life for you? F?!k you! ["I, Axl" Del James, RIP Magazine - 1992]

At this time I had nearly managed to get clean up, from everything. When I was looking at the band, I would see Stevie, who was a good guy, who's been struggling with us during all these years, but couldn't handle it anymore. He was a real millstone, he needed to clean up! Fuck... We all tried to help him, to support him. But no, finally, we'd been on the road with this guy for years and we lived this dilemma: "OK. We leave him six months doing nothing without any guarantee it gets better, or we forget about the double album and we burry the band?" Actually, the industry's machine woke up and the answer was: "We take someone else to cut these records." It's wasn't an easy decision. [Izzy, Rock & Folk, September 1992]

August 19-21, 1993:

 

August 21, 1993:

Metropolitan Digest / LOS ANGELES COUNTY NEWS IN BRIEF

LOS ANGELES : Guns N' Roses Manager Tells of Drummer's Exit

The manager of Guns N' Roses testified Friday that ex-drummer Steven Adler was put on probation to help save him from a deadly heroin addiction, not to cheat him out of money.

"I tried for a year and a half to get him clean, and we decided we had to do more," Doug Goldstein told a Los Angeles Superior Court jury.

"We had to clean him up because he'd wasted hundreds of thousands of dollars" in worthless studio and rehearsal time, Goldstein said.

The testimony came in the trial of a lawsuit brought by Adler in July, 1991, against his former band mates--Axl Rose (whose real name is William Bailey), former rhythm guitarist Izzy Stradlin (Jeffrey Isbell), bass guitarist Michael (Duff) McKagan and lead guitarist Slash (Saul Hudson).

Adler alleges that he was thrown out of Guns N' Roses and cheated out of his share of millions of dollars the heavy metal group made during the 1980s.

On March 28, 1990, Adler signed an agreement that forfeited his rights as a partner in the band. He essentially became an employee of the band for a 30-day probation period, during which he was urged to kick his heroin addiction.

August 23-24, 1993:

 

September 25, 1993:

UPDATE: October 1, 1993. Report containing a statement by Alan Niven:

October 4, 1993:

October 21, 1993 (same content as the newspaper clip right above except for the last sentence):

UPDATE - Quote from Duff:

Q: Didn’t you write that drum intro to You Could Be Mine?
 
“That’s a very good question because I was actually in court yesterday saying that. Steven Adler [original drummer with GN’R] is suing us and his lawsuit has finally gone to court [since we spoke GN’R settled out of court by giving Adler $1.65m]; I had to get on a stand yesterday with a jury and everything, and explain what a drum edit was, and what a riff was.
 “But yes, I used to get behind the kit when Steven was in the band. That song was written for ‘Appetite’ and at that time Slash and I would have to try and explain to Steven how the drum part should go; I’d have to tell Slash to chill out and I’d do it - a guitar player relating to a drummer just doesn’t work.
 So I ended up getting behind the drum kit and showing Steve. I’m not technically a great drummer but I know how to get the playing across. And that’s what I testified yesterday, too.”
 [...]
 “We’d been trying for over a year to help Steven and get him straight because we didn’t want to kick him out of the band.  But enough was enough and we’d wasted a lot of money and effort.
 “We got a new drummer in to shock Steven into cleaning up so he could come back, but that didn’t work. Then Slash and I went to see The Cult on the last night of their tour and we were amazed by this guy Matt on drums. We were friends with Ian [Astbury] and Billy [Duffy] because our first tour ever was opening for them so I asked Ian whether they would be hanging onto the drummer now the tour had finished. They wanted to get all British guys in the band so we got hold of Matt, he came and played and we knew it would work. He’s an awesome drummer. [Duff, Guitarist magazine, November 1993]

Yeah, we've got to pay [Steven] a lot of money. For no fuckin' reason that I can understand. [Slash, Q magazine, March 1994]

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Some later quotes:

As I feared, [Steven] had become the odd man out. At rehearsals, Duff and I had the tedious job of dealing with him. While Axl was aware of the situation, he wasn't obligated to watch over Steven 24/7 like we were. (...) Steven was becoming a heavier burden every day [Slash, autobiography, 2007]

We were saying to him, 'Steven, you're fucked up.' We said: 'Me and Slash, we're fucked up, but you're really fucked up'. I remember saying to him: 'If me and Slash think you're fucked up, think about who's saying that...[Duff, Classic Rock, 2002]

We had this unwritten sort of code – pull it back when it’s sensible, when it’s time to record or time to play a show. Pull it back. Check yourself. There had been a few times where we’d check each other. You know: ‘hey dude…’ And that’s all you’d have to say. It was a sort of honour amongst thieves. But Steven wasn’t able to pull it back time and time again. The irony wasn’t lost, even then. Slash and I told him quite a few times: ‘Dude, it’s us talking to you. If we’re telling you you’re getting too fucked up, you’re getting too fucked up. Look who’s talking to you. We’re the guys that everyone else is worried about, and we’re worried about you.’ It was really heartbreaking. We warned him too many times [Duff, Classic Rock, 2011]

When we started rehearsing the material [for Use Your Illusion] that's when Steven's house of cards came crashing down. He was utterly useless when put to the test: most of the time he'd fade away from the proper time signature somewhere in the middle of the song or just forget where he was altogether. He was just incapable of locking in with Duff or me like he used to do. It was pretty dire; something had to be done . [Slash, autobiography, 2007]

We tried for the longest time to give Steven a vision and a function. There was a combination of factors going on. One was that he could just not connect to the kind of material that Axl was writing. “Coma”, “Estranged” … he’d just roll his eyes. And, of course, the fact that he had no control over his heroin habit. [Alan Niven, quoted in Mick Wall, Last Of The Giants, 2016]

Steven just kept on lying. He kept saying he'd given up. I'd already been around to his dealer's house and threatened to kill him if he sold Steven any more drugs. And one night I went round to Steven's house and pressed the redial button on his phone. And guess where it went? And that was that [Duff, Classic Rock, May 2006]

It got so bad, and he seemed so incapable of reining it in, that at one point I found out where his drug dealer lived and took a shotgun to teh guy's home. Fuelled by booze, obviously. I waited for him, intending to threaten the fuck out of this dude to get him to stop supplying Stevie with the things that were going to kill him. It's lucky this guy never showed up - lucky for him, of course, but also for me [Duff, autobiography, 2011]

At this point the truth was that if his playing had been fine, I don’t think anyone would have cared what he was doing to himself—at least I wouldn’t have. If you can handle both the music and the drugs, more power to you. We weren’t really concerned for Steven’s health as much as we were pissed off that his addiction was handicapping his performance, and therefore the rest of us. Since the bass and drums are the foundation of any rock band, the situation was very disconcerting all around. [Slash, autobiography, 2007]

The last show I ever played with them was over at Farm Aid. And to this day, I never heard the original version of “Down on the farm.” I guess some punk band (UK Subs) did it, and we’re on stage and all of a sudden Axl goes; “This is a song 'down on a farm.” And I yelled at Duff: “I go, Duff, Duff, what the fuck is this, how does this go?” And he just clapped his hands and just says; “just do this (clapping hands) boom, boom, boom.” And that song came out so kick ass, because I knew what Duff was gonna play before he played it. Yeah, each of us knew what we were gonna do before, we were, each of us were gonna do it. And I mean, if somebody was gonna hit a wrong note, which rarely happened, or something, (pauses) we knew it was gonna happen before. It just was so tight. It was just wonderful, and then for them to just turn on me – that was pretty much the worst moment. [Steven Adler, Metal Sludge, 2006]

Farm Aid was the last show we ever played with him. When we got back to L.A., Steven got even worse - I don't know, maybe because he knew the end was near, or maybe because heroine is that shrewd of a devil. There were a few more rehab stints, but they were short-lived, maybe twenty-four to forty-eight hours at a time. The last straw came when we were asked to donate a track to a charity album called 'Nobody's Child,' (...). By then we were completely alienated from Steven. In that session, there was us and there was him. After it was finished, before Mike Clink could mix it, he found that he had to cut and paste the whole drum track together [Slash, autobiography, 2007]

When producer Mike Clink and I had pieced together the drum track for 'Civil War' earlier that year, it was clear Steven was not going to be able to perform with us if he didn't turn things around. When we had played a couple songs to a huge crowd at Farm Aid in April, he was a mess onstage. After that we thought we could scare him straight. We told him we were auditioning drummers and figured he's snap out of it as soon as he heard that. When that didn't work, we hired a professional sober coach, Bob Timmons, who had helped Aerosmith get clean, to talk to him. [Duff, autobiography, 2011]

I wanted to get off heroin and, because I just started doing it with the guys. And I didn’t know you got sick. The first day I got sick I called up my manager and I said; “dude, I don’t what the fuck is going on, but I feel sick.” And (pauses) he took me to this doctor and this doctor gave me an opiate blocker. But you can’t take an opiate blocker when you’re on heroin. And then if you did do heroin, nothing would happen. But you can’t take it until you’re completely off the heroin. And I got completely, so sick, and they wanted to go in and record “Civil War.” I said: “Slash dude, I’m so sick I can’t do it right now.” And he said; “We can’t waste the money, we got to do it now!” I said dude; “Don’t even tell me about wasting money, we know one other person who is wasting SO much fucking money, we can wait another week.” [Steven Adler, Metal Sludge, 2006]

Man, I was fucked up, and I have never denied that, I couldn’t really deny it because it was pretty fuckin’ obvious…But I wasn’t the only one. I remember one day Slash called me to go to the studio and play Civil War, I think it was. I’d been given an opiate blocker by a doctor. I still had opiates in my system and it made me so sick. I must have tried, like, 20 times to play it, but I couldn’t. I was very weak and I didn’t have my timing. Slash and Duff were shouting at me and telling me I was fucked up. [Steven Adler, Classic Rock, 2011]

The writing was on the wall, and things quickly came to a head. Axl's patience as far as Steve went was long gone, so we had the inevitable get-together to discuss the situation; with Alan [Niven]'s support, Axl insisted that we give Steven a written ultimatum. It was a contract that Steve was forced to sign, that at best we hoped would scare him sober and at worst would orchestrate his departure from the band. The paperwork was clear; it said that if Steven showed up high to recording sessions, he'd be fined. If he did it three times, he'd be fired, or something along those lines. Steven signed it, he agreed to all of the terms, and like anyone caught in the throes of smack, he ignored all the promises he made and continued the way he had been [Slash, autobiography, 2007]

We were like, what do we do? We had a band lawyer, and it was like, okay, you’ve got to warn him formally. This will scare him. You’re gonna get six months and you’ve got to do this and that. The lawyer’s like, okay, we’ll try that. We really thought that he’d pull it back and he didn’t. All the way up to getting Matt Sorum to play on the record, we thought that would get Steven back. Then we realised, it’s just not going to happen. It’s just not. I wouldn’t be being honest if I told you I knew exactly the point. I don’t remember exactly when it was but it was right in there. I just thought for a while, he’s going to come through this cycle. I’m not sitting here twenty years later in judgement. We all had our battles. [Duff, quoted in Mick Wall, The Last Of The Giants, 2016]

The day after the “Civil War” recording session, Doug called  me and asked me to come down to the office to sign some papers.  He offered no explanation for his behavior the previous day, and I  didn’t try to lay on any guilt. I just told him I was still very ill. There  was a long silence on the phone, then Dougie told me that the matter was very important and wouldn’t take long. He told me he had  been instructed by the GNR attorneys to tell me that my presence  was absolutely required. In spite of what had gone down, I still  wanted to believe that Dougie was my caring wingman, and when  he promised I would be in and out of there quickly, I decided to  rally. I cared more for his situation than my own. I could hear the  stress in Doug’s voice and I didn’t want to bust his balls, so I got  myself together and Cheryl drove me. When I walked in, Dougie  and one of our lawyers, a professional-looking middle-aged  woman, had a stack of papers for me to read. 

Read!? I couldn’t even see. They told me all I had to do was  sign at the bottom of all the pages with the colored paper clips attached. I asked what this was all about. Dougie told me, “It’s nothing to worry about.” In my condition, I wasn’t about to read all this  shit, but I was a little freaked and my jaw just dropped. In essence, I  thought I was agreeing not to party and not to screw up on any  band-related activities for the next four weeks. If I fucked up, they  would fine me $2,000. I thought, “What the hell, no problem. The  band doesn’t even have anything scheduled during the next month,  and even so, what’s two grand?” I signed everything. I just wanted  to get out of there, go home, and lie down. 

I discovered later that what I had actually signed away was my life. What the legal papers actually stated was that they were going  to give me $2,000 for my contribution to Guns N’ Roses. Everything else, my royalties, my partnership in the band, my rights, was  gone! Of course, I didn’t know this at the time. I’m sure with all  these papers I naively signed, they thought they had my fate sealed.  They had a signed, ironclad deal against me.  [Steven Adler, autobiography, 2011]

I got a call a few weeks after that and I had to go to the office and there was all these stacks of papers, contracts, for me to sign, and I realised that I was being fired. It ended up with me having to go to court to get my royalties and my writing credits [Steven Adler, Classic  Rock, 2011]

In no way was it minor. It was incredibly painful and frustrating. I’ve got to confess I’m still capable of a flash of red-hot anger with Steven at that. I have an understanding of why and what happened to him. But it was survivable. We spent a lot of time with Steven trying to get him through it and I resent the fact that he plays the victim, I think that’s bullshit. You know, own up, Steven. Be responsible for your own decisions and actions. You let us down, all of us. And we got to the point where putting him on probation didn’t work. [Alan Niven, quoted in Mick Wall, The Last Of The Giants, 2016]

I'm not sure of the exact timetable, but it didn't take long for Steven to violate the terms of the sobriety contract we handed him, and once he did, he was done for. (...) I couldn't deny the fact that kicking Steven out of Guns N' Roses for drug abuse was kind of ridiculous and excessively harsh. It was also hypocritical. [Slash, autobiography, 2007]

Slash and I served as the voice of the band during Steven's last days wit GN'R. But no matter what we said to him, nothing changed. We told him we were getting ready to enter the studio. Still no change. Finally, we suggested he get a lawyer. It was meant to scare him, but it proved convenient for Slash, Axl, Izzy and me. In the end we had our lawyer tell his lawyer that he was permanently out [Duff, autobiography, 2011]

Axl was fucking convinced that Erin had been overdosed and raped. Well, that’s going to go down well, isn’t it? That was a really clever choice that you made there, Steven, and it really helped everybody. Is it any surprise that we got to the point that we had to seriously consider getting someone else? Did we have any choice? [Alan Niven, quoted in Mick Wall, Last Of The Giants, 2016]

I called the ambulance and saved  [Erin], [and] this bitch [McCoy’s wife] tells Axl I gave her heroin. He calls me up and says he’s coming over with a shotgun to kill me… [Steven Adler, Metal Sludge, 2006]

It was totally regrettable. But the band finally got to the place where we wanted to make a record, which was a hard enough place to get to… We’re talking about the span of about a year, which to us was like a lifetime, and Steven… we could not get him back to front. We were resigned to the fact that he wasn’t going to be able to do it in the time frame that we needed to get going, because we might miss the bus. We might fall apart again and take another year to get it together. [Slash, Classic Rock, 2011]

Sadly, we had to replace our founding drummer because of acute drug problems. We had to replace him so that we could finally get on with making our new record and touring [Duff, Reverb, December 2009]

All I remember is that the next time I saw Steve was in court, because he sued us, which seemed asinine. He was in such bad shape that I knew what he was doing when he headed to the bathroom in the middle of the proceedings. He sued us for a couple of million buck for a glitch in  the execution of his sobriety contract. He needed to have an attorney present when he signed it, and he hadn't had one. Of course, thanks to our attorneys, we didn't know this. I was shocked when I found out that Steven won his lawsuit and we had to pay him two million bucks [Slash, autobiography, 2007]

I continued to hole up in my room, completely adrift, doing my  thing. I don’t know how (maybe through Cheryl), but my mom discovered that the band had cut me off completely and that I wasn’t  going to be receiving any more checks from Guns N’ Roses.  Mom really went to bat for me. She contacted a top entertainment lawyer and proceeded to sue the band. I had given her the  go-ahead and was all for it, but I was barely involved. When I had to  take the stand, my nerves were shot. I kept a small stash in my  pants and every chance I could, I went to the bathroom for a few  hits. As a result, I delayed proceedings more than once. But the jury  liked me. They believed I was honest and candid, because I was.  During the course of the proceedings, they dragged the whole  band in. Can you imagine how I felt watching Axl and Slash speaking out against me? Axl and Slash took the stand and came off  completely cocky and arrogant. You stupid fucks. Thanks, boys.  Your condescending attitude was one sweet gift to me. You thoroughly alienated the jury and I was awarded $2.5 million in dam ages and regained my 15 percent in continuous royalties.  [Steven Adler, autobiography, 2011]

The biggest check I got handed to me, it didn’t come in the mail, uh, was two million two hundred fifty thousand dollars. ($ 2,250,000.00). It wasn't the pay off, it was what they owed me. And I got all my royalties back, and I got my (in-audible), I got everything back. They took every, wanted, they wanted to give me two thousand dollars and throw me in the street. And take my royalties, my song writing credits, they wanted to take everything from me. I got my two million two hundred fifty thousand dollars. That was already owed to me from when the lawsuit – whole thing was going on, and got all my royalties and rights back. I get 15% of everything. [Steven Adler, Metal Sludge, 2006]

This whole cockamamie thing about “they didn’t pay me my royalties” is bullshit. He was paid his royalties and in fact he was paid composer royalties that he didn’t deserve. That was a courtesy bestowed on him by the rest of the band in a sense of all for one and one for all. [Alan Niven, quoted in Mick Wall, Last Of The Giants, 2016]

And from a Steven interview a few days ago:

One day I just went, 'This isn't cool. I don't wanna do this anymore,'" he said of his decision to quit doing drugs. "And I didn't realize that if you're doing heroin and then you stop doing it, you get violently sick — violently sick. Like, the inside of your bones ache — the inside of your every bone, it aches so bad and you just wanna die. And I called my manager and I said, 'Dude, I'm so fucking sick. I don't understand what's going on.' So he came and picked me up, he took me to this doctor, and the doctor gave me an opiate blocker. Well, you're not supposed to take an opiate blocker while you have opiates in your system or you get even more violently sick.

Three days go by, and I'm calling a doctor and I'm going, 'What the fuck did you do to me?' And, like, four days go by, and [GUNS N' ROSES guitarist] Slash called and said, 'Well, we're going in the studio to record 'Civil War'.' And I said, 'Dude, I'm so sick. Please, can we just wait one more week? I'm so sick.' And he said, 'We can't waste the money. We've gotta do this song.' So I go in at A&M Records to record, and I'm so weak and sick. And I did my best, but I had to play, like, 25 times. So they were getting frustrated. And I kept telling them, 'I'm sick.' And they kept saying, 'No, you're not. You're just fucked up.' And I said, 'I'm not fucked up. I'm sick.' And I got kicked out. (...) Once I got kicked out of GN'R, I had to sign this contract. They took everything from me. I didn't know that. Then I had to take them to court.

[Steven Adler interview, "Mom, It's Not Devil Music!", transcribed by Blabbermouth, February 5 2018]

--------------------------------

CONCLUSIONS IN SHORT

1. Having Steven sign the contract, demoting him to an employee and subsequently firing him was a collective decision of the band and management, even if some members (Izzy specifically) were more hesitant about his firing.

2. The main claim in Steven's lawsuit was that he signed the contract without having a clear mind and knowing its terms, so it was invalid. Since, as it seems, he wasn't represented by his own attorney when he signed it, the jury would probably rule in favour of him (as there was a conflict of interests and he couldn't be represented by the band's lawyers); so the band had to go to an out of court settlement and pay him.

3. Despite of what Steven has said, it doesn't seem that the contract touched his publishing rights (i.e. the rights to royalties from songwriting credits), namely his 15% percentage of royalties from that. He also continued receiving royalties corresponding to his 20% share in the partnership for the recordings during the time he was an equal partner, as is evident from this clause in the 1992 partnership agreement:

What seems to have been the case is that there were clauses in the contract Steven signed with which, besides being demoted to an employee and having to pay fines for every day he was still on drugs, he gave up some of his rights as a leaving partner and mostly his right to sell his share/be bought out.

Edited December 1, 2019 by Blackstar
Updated with more sources

[rocknroll41]

I listened to the first half of UYI1 while reading through all of this. Oh, the nostalgia! Interesting stuff to revisit. Thanks for putting it all together. 

It's all very sad, though. I hope they're all in a happier place after this. Steven, especially. He may have fucked up a lot back in the day, but he also went through a lot too that is very sad.

At least he finally got to have his wish (kinda) come true a few years back and played with Axl, Slash, and Dudf again for a little bit. It's probably best that he and the GNR camp stay separate from now on, though. The relationship has certainly become more than toxic. 

Edited February 18, 2018 by rocknroll41

[killuridols]

Damn I will need the whole next weekend to read all of this

[Gnrcane]

Is that excerpt from the partnership agreement legit? I ask because I would have thought legal names would be used in a document like that. Unless they defined the stage names earlier with something like: "The parties to this agreement are W. Axl Rose (Axl), Saul Hudson (Slash), Michael McKagan (Duff)" or something like that.

[Blackstar]

20 minutes ago, Gnrcane said:

Is that excerpt from the partnership agreement legit? I ask because I would have thought legal names would be used in a document like that. Unless they defined the stage names earlier with something like: "The parties to this agreement are W. Axl Rose (Axl), Saul Hudson (Slash), Michael McKagan (Duff)" or something like that.

It's from the document that was used as evidence in the 2004 Slash and Duff Vs. Axl lawsuit (it's been circulating on the internet). It was probably a draft of the official contract. Their legal names are stated in the beginning:

Edited February 19, 2018 by Blackstar

[Tori72]

Thanks, @Blackstar for putting this together....!

I read-scrolled through most of it. What a sad story. Really!! On so many levels. For Steven and for the band. For Erin, too! - Axl was convinced she was drugged and raped? That’s awful, just terrible. By Steven? It just turns my stomach. Ugh. I also read Angela’s report on that night one day, I think it was you, @Blackstar who posted it in the Izzy thread. It is a terribly sad and brutal story and we’ll never know what happened.

Slash’s quotes are confusing me. They are leaving a shallow taste. He was such a bad addict himself and he judged Steven so harshly in the early 90s. 

To be honest it’s one of those stories that are so brutal and bad, for so many people, in so many respects. I don’t even want to start trying to understand it all. We’ll never know what Steven really did to Erin, we will not know why Axl hated him and why Slash gave up on him.

I just hope they’re all in a better place today. Healthy and happier. They’ll never work or tour together, that became pretty clear last year. I love Steven as the drummer in GnR, more than any of the others. The rest is just the typical way it went down for this dysfunctional band.

Edited February 19, 2018 by Tori72

[rocknroll41]

It's kind of a miracle that, even after all this, Steven still ended up playing a song on Slash's record, playing with the band (minus Axl) at the RHOF, and then playing with the band AND Axl a couple of years ago. For five shows at that! Sure, only one or two songs per show. But still!

[LovelessNL]

44 minutes ago, Tori72 said:

I also read Angela’s report on that night one day, I think it was you, @Blackstar who posted it in the Izzy thread. 

Where can this be found/read?

Edited February 19, 2018 by LovelessNL

[Blackstar]

Something happened to my original post just now. I tried to edit something and when I submitted it most of the text disappeared. I'll restore it later. Sorry.

EDIT: It's all restored now.

Edited February 19, 2018 by Blackstar

[Tori72]

4 hours ago, LovelessNL said:

Where can this be found/read?

There is this article: http://www.heretodaygonetohell.com/board/index.php?action=printpage;topic=18521.0

"Title: Angela Mccoy's response for Stevens statement"

 

 

[SoulMonster]

Brilliant work, @Blackstar.

I think the band showed some legal awareness and maturity when they got it in contract allowing them to kick him out of the band later, the problem is that he could later claim he was out of his mind when he signed it, going for an annulment and hence forcing a settlement. 

It must have been frustrating for the band to read Steven's lawsuit after they thought they had covered all bases, especially since the lawsuit was so venomous (claiming they had pressured him to do heroin, that he wasn't holding anything up, that they were equally bad as him, etc.). Here they had tried to do things professionally -- probably unlike many other bands that go through similar stuff -- by making sure they had legal documentation and also caring for Steven through 20 % royalties even after the firing, yet he hits back with a lawsuit...and it works.

Likewise, Duff saying under oath that Steven was so wasted (or incompetent?) that it was Duff who wrote drum parts to AFD, is completely devastating. How much of that was the truth? I am certain there is some truth in it, at least a kernel, but did he exaggerate in court to win the case? Or has be just been gracious to Steven outside of court?

Reading the books by Slash and Duff written much later, I also think they are kind to Steven. They could still be so angry with him. But even if they write about his flaws, they still treated him nicely, and not necessarily, I think, because they think they treated him unfairly back then and want to make amends, but because they know that he was so drugged out in this period that he couldn't be blamed for all he said and did, and, of course, because Steven develop-wise is an emotional child and can't be expected to behave like grown-ups and because they love him.

[G-Money]

This all just makes it all the more amazing that this happened (and regrettable that Steven mouthed off about it afterward).

I still wish we could get an interview with one of these guys to ask what it was like to have this combination on stage again.

 

[Liquor & Whores]

7 hours ago, rocknroll41 said:

 playing with the band (minus Axl) at the RHOF

minus Axl and Izzy, so missing 40% of the classic lineup and missing those who started this band

that's a crucial omission... 

[rocknroll41]

1 minute ago, Liquor & Whores said:

minus Axl and Izzy, so missing 40% of the classic lineup and missing those who started this band

that's a crucial omission... 

Oh, well! At least they had Gilby!

you make a good point, though. Kinda interesting how, technically, NONE of the "original" gnr members were actually at the HOF. Kinda adds to the whole mythic/ghostly feel that Axl, Izzy, and even gnr as a whole have all come to embody in pop culture.

come to think of it... Did Steven ever play with izzy again at least once since 1990? Was izzy at that AFD 20th anniversary party that Adler's Appetite held back in 2007? Did he play anything with them that night?

[DieselDaisy]

Guns N' Roses are forever fated to miss certain ''key'' personnel. I suppose the closest thing we got was the two/one songs with Adler on the NITLT.  

[Liquor & Whores]

Yes Iz played witth Adler in 2007

http://www.gunsnfnroses.com/index.php?/topic/4201-key-club-2007/

[Hollywood Gunner]

i wonder if we'll ever find out the exact details why hes not part of NITL. It hurts to see frank play his parts while hes sitting at home

[Blackstar]

I added one more newspaper clip from October 1, 1993, which contains a comment by Alan Niven about the outcome of the lawsuit.

Edited February 21, 2018 by Blackstar

[DPR714]

On 2/18/2018 at 2:16 PM, Blackstar said:

Steven just kept on lying. He kept saying he'd given up. I'd already been around to his dealer's house and threatened to kill him if he sold Steven any more drugs. And one night I went round to Steven's house and pressed the redial button on his phone. And guess where it went? And that was that [Duff, Classic Rock, May 2006]

It got so bad, and he seemed so incapable of reining it in, that at one point I found out where his drug dealer lived and took a shotgun to teh guy's home. Fuelled by booze, obviously. I waited for him, intending to threaten the fuck out of this dude to get him to stop supplying Stevie with the things that were going to kill him. It's lucky this guy never showed up - lucky for him, of course, but also for me [Duff, autobiography, 2011]

Interesting to see that the story changed here. Earlier he (Duff) said he threatened the dealer with a gun and then said it again in 2006. In 2011 its a different story.

[Tucknroll]

I don't believe Duff wrote drum parts on afd.  He may have suggested stuff but I don't think he's that good of a drummer. Duff was always my favorite growing up but I'm starting to think he's full of crap most of the time. He talks about his drumming but what I've heard is very simple.  He also said once him and slash usually play the exact same thing.  Umm, not exactly.  

[RONIN]

Great stuff as always @Blackstar

Some things that immediately stuck out here:

Steven actually retaining his publishing and partnership royalties (excellent find btw). Axl's insistence on giving Steven a contract to sign (a harbinger of things to come for the others) and Doug Goldstein's slimy presence at the infamous signing of the contract removing Steven as a partner.

Initial thoughts:

*Was Adler's lawsuit trying to dissolve the GnR partnership legally and in essence break up the band? The legal verbiage isn't quite clear there...

Going by some of Slash's interviews from that time period it appears like Steven was barely involved with his own lawsuit. His mom and his lawyers were running the show and they were spinning the narrative in ways that he potentially may not have approved of given the potential damage his personal relationship with the band would have suffered [which is exactly what happened]. 

But he also states that the band was ignoring him and not addressing his concerns after his firing and he turned to lawyers as a last resort. Once the lawyers were involved I guess he gave them full authority to do what they needed to win the case.

*Whose idea was it to omit terms for buying out Steven's share of the partnership and why? Did they always intend to have a clause in the contract that a partner should be bought out or was it a decision made later when Izzy wanted to leave? Why did the band decide to oust Steven out of the partnership instead of simply sidelining him for Illusions?

Was that omission at the behest of Doug Goldstein or was it something they overlooked by accident as the band testified at the trial? Not the first time Doug's done something shady. It's not hard to buy Adler's story that Goldstein was less than forthcoming about the contents of the contract. What was Axl's involvement here? Doug might make moves on his own but he's acting usually on marching orders from Axl. What's Niven's role? Did he entrust this process to Doug entirely? Adler makes no mention of Niven in any of this.

[Steven] is back in the band. He was definitely out of the band. He wasn’t necessarily fired, we worked with Adam Maples, we worked with Martin Chambers, and Steven did the Guns N’ Roses thing and got his shit together. And it worked, and he did it, and he plays the songs better than any of ‘em, just bad-assed, and he’s GNR. And so if he doesn’t blow it, we’re going to try the album with him, and the tour and, you know, we’ve worked out a contract with him....(...) It’s only been since Thursday last week, and he’s doing great. We’re all just hoping it continues [Axl, Stick To Your Guns by Mick Wall; Kerrang, 21st and 28th of April 1990] 

- This quote (which is compelling in and of itself for Axl's candid feelings about Steven) seems to suggest that even if Steven was out of the band, the band wasn't firing him - meaning it's plausible that a founding member at that point in time could sit out an album/tour and still be in the partnership legally (which is how it should have been imho).

So why was Steven legally removed from the partnership? What changed from early to mid 1990?  Erin Everly's incident?  Why not give Adler time to regroup and just do the album with a session drummer as they originally were toying with in early 1990? Clearly Izzy had serious misgivings about the whole thing. I mean it looks like they could have kept Steven in the band if they wanted to but they intentionally chose to oust him from the band entirely. Why?

I also wonder if that Axl quote is pre-Erin Everly speedball incident? Maybe it's from late '89? Axl sounds unusually positive about Steven's involvement despite the tension at Farm Aid (Axl was rumored to be ignoring Steven) and the 1990 MTV interview where Axl wants nothing to do with him. 

*Why were they so upset with Steven's lawsuit? Why was it such a big deal for them to just buy out Adler from the partnership? Did they think it was fair to have him forfeit his ownership in the band without any compensation?

They all claim that they owed him nothing (Slash, Axl, Niven). The band claims they had no knowledge that the partnership buyout clause was not in the contract Adler signed and therefore it was simply something that had been overlooked by accident. So the right thing at that point would be to buy out Adler and move on. What was the issue here? Did they not want to buy out Adler and felt that he should forfeit his stake in the band? Were they upset that this wasn't handled internally and that Adler had filed a lawsuit and dragged out their personal business into the public?

-There's also this from Izzy:

"I took it pretty hard when Stevie was out of the band. It was pretty upsetting, cos I was watching Stevie trying to get himself together after pulling myself together, and it was kinda hard seeing somebody trying when they're not really ready for it. I actually spoke to Steve probably a month ago - against the advice of the attorneys - all that fucking bullshit. That part of the business, that part of the band, is such a load of shit - it seems it fucks up so many good things. But I talked to Stevie, I'd heard he wasn't doing so well, and it was a trip talking to the guy cos I hadn't talked to him for what must've been a year.

He was a good natured guy; I hope he can get it together. He was never malicious, he never tried to fuck people around, he was just happy playing his drums. In some ways he's a little naive, I guess. I just tried to offer a little support, y'know? I just talked to him for a little bit. He was a good drummer. He wasn't virtuoso, a Neil Peart from Rush or something, but he's a fucking damn good rock drummer, he's a good guy, and he was funnier than shit on the road. I was always laughing when I was hanging out with Stevie. " [Izzy, Kerrang September '92]

- So if we take Izzy at his word, Steven's lawsuit might have had merit and/or may have been justified? There's a discrepancy here. Why are Axl, Niven and Slash so angry at Steven over this lawsuit while Izzy isn't - even if Izzy is legally liable like them as per the lawsuit? Izzy is straight up defending Steven's character while Steve's former best friend Slash blasts him in the press. As Izzy once said, is Slash just repeating what Axl thinks?

Re: Publishing Royalties - was Axl really being magnanimous in giving a cut of his publishing royalties or is it a more likely case that they weren't really his to give regardless of his feelings of entitlement?

He's the type of person who wants everything handed to him, and he did get it handed to him. He got it handed to him from me (...).  I paid $1.5 million by giving him 15% of my publishing off of Appetite For Destruction. He didn't write one goddamn note, but he calls me a selfish dick! ["I, Axl" Del James, RIP Magazine - 1992]

And Steven says this:

I receive 15% of everything 'Appetite for Destruction' generates. Slash, Duff and Izzy get 20% and Axl gets 25%, because he's the one who wrote the lyrics.

Have you read the [songwriting] credits to the songs? I wrote some of them. 99 percent of the music, not the lyrics, was made by all of us. Axl, Izzy, Duff, Slash and me. Although, in the week they wrote 'Use Your Illusion', I could only play one song. I couldn't write anything.

https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/interviews/steven_adler_axl_is_ahole.html

When we recorded [Appetite for Destruction], Slash came up with this system where whoever wrote got credit. But then when it came time to actually divide them up, suddenly everybody was getting credit but me. I mean, [for example] Izzy wrote the song "Think About You" by himself before we started playing it, yet Slash, Duff, and Axl were also going to be receiving royalties for it, since they supposedly "added to it". I said, "well what about me? Did I add nothing?" I mean Izzy wrote the fucking song, I thought that's how the writing credits were determined, but the other guys were getting credit for something they didn't write, and I wasn't. Same thing for all the other songs, Axl would get credit for songs such as "Brownstone" [written by Slash and Izzy] and "It's So Easy" [written by Duff and West Arkeen], even though he didn't write anything on them, and the other guys [who didn't write also got credit] too. So why not me? So Axl gave me a portion of his [to compensate for not being included], and my name was put beside the rest of theirs [in the writing credits] and that was that. But now they've screwed me out of those royalties and my other ones too.

--Steven Adler, 1991 press release on his lawsuit against Guns N Roses.

But then later on changes his story about the royalties split which aligns closer with what Slash said in his book and Niven says in 2012. 

Quote

Now, I thought it was kind of a formality because we had talked about all this before and from day one it was always supposed to be an equal share for everybody. But Axl had changed his tune. Axl wanted a bigger slice of the pie. Axl didn’t think it was fair to split royalties evenly five ways on our songs. He believed he was entitled to more than the rest of us. The other guys were smart. They just stared at the floor. No one said a fucking thing. I don’t know if Axl intimidated them or if they just knew that silence was the best way to deal with his ego. Well, I couldn’t just shut the fuck up about it. The reason I wouldn’t dummy up was I was so outraged. So right off the bat, I was like, “Screw you, I was here from the beginning, I worked on putting those songs together just as much as you.”

I had no trouble standing up to Axl because I was right. So now there’s this deadly silence again, and it’s obvious that it’s become a big fucking deal. Still, no one else is saying anything, so rather than get into a big argument, I proposed what I thought was a fair offer: “Considering Axl did write most of the lyrics, which is a huge fucking part, I’ll give you five percent of my twenty percent.” Axl shot me this look not of thanks, not of appreciation, but of arrogance and triumph. It was like he expected it. So I looked around the room because what I expected was for everyone else to follow suit and ante up too, but the room went dead quiet again. I looked around and everyone kind of started talking about other stuff. The matter was over, settled, done. Axl was happy and I was like, “Fuck!” So it went 25 percent to Axl, 20 percent for each of the other guys, and 15 percent for me. The entire ordeal lasted only a couple of minutes. As long as Axl got more than everybody else he was a happy pig in shit. And at this point we were all trained to feel that as long as Axl wasn’t being pissy, as long as Axl was content, then we should all be happy. He got away with more than the rest of us combined.

[Adler's book]

At one point during the recording process, Axl refused to keep working because he didn’t feel the royalty split was fair. 

According to Slash, Axl said, “There’s no way Steven gets twenty percent, the same as I do.” Adler volunteered to give up 5 percent of his royalties so that Axl could have 25 percent. “I think Steven was permanently scarred by that,” Slash writes.

https://harpers.org/archive/2016/05/war-of-the-roses/5/

This whole cockamamie thing about “they didn’t pay me my royalties” is bullshit. He was paid his royalties and in fact he was paid composer royalties that he didn’t deserve. That was a courtesy bestowed on him by the rest of the band in a sense of all for one and one for all. [Alan Niven, quoted in Mick Wall, Last Of The Giants, 2016]

But then Alan says this years later:

"I think that both Axl and Goldstein were, at that time, both controlling and greedy. Axl complained all the time that Steven Adler got a percentage of composing royalties. I had recommended that the band have a share-and-share-alike approach to such income -- as did Van Halen, Great White, and others – because my observation was that the primary factors that destroyed bands were women and arguing over differential splits of income, especially mechanical royalties. Hence, I would recommend equal sharing of royalties -- and not women! - [ironic words since according to Goldstein he allegedly felt he could share Renee w/ Slash which sealed Niven's fate in the band but I digress.]

In any case with GNR, Axl got more than anyone else, and Adler got less. The other three got the same: less than Axl and more than Adler. Ultimately, the fracture between Axl and Adler was exacerbated by the two factors that always rupture bands -- money and a woman." [Metal Sludge 2012]

-- A very telling quote. Was Axl ultimately driven to remove Adler legally from GnR because of Erin Everly AND  because he wanted Adler's share in the partnership? Or by "money" is Niven referring to the paltry studio costs that had been incurred by Adler?

CONCLUDING THOUGHTS

"During the last week in January 1989, Dougie suggested I go into rehab. When I got out, someone asked me why I hadn’t appeared on the American Music Awards. I didn’t know what the hell he was talking about. He proceeded to tell me that GNR performed “Patience” during the American Music Awards at the Shrine Auditorium with someone else on drums. I found out later that it was Don Henley of the Eagles who took my spot. I was completely blindsided by this, so stunned and hurt, I can’t begin to describe the feeling of betrayal. Nobody in our organization ever mentioned anything about the AMAs to me. I should have taken the temp and realized trouble was brewing big-time. I kept things so internalized that I never bothered to find out if Dougie made the rehab suggestion just to get me out of the way and substitute Henley. Frankly, I’ll never know. "

"Then came the deathblow: Slash called me and told me that we were going into the studio to record “Civil War.” “Dude, haven’t you talked to Dougie? I’m sick as hell.” Slash didn’t want to hear it. His voice was strangely detached, zero emotion. “We can’t waste any more money,” he replied. Was I really hearing this shit? From my dearest friend, the guy I was instrumental in getting into GNR, for fuck’s sake? Where was the loyalty, the compassion? “Fuck that, Slash. Listen to me. We both know someone in the band who’s wasted a helluva lot more time and money than it would cost to postpone this one lousy recording session. It would just be for the week or so that it would take for me to get better.” We hadn’t done shit in over a year and now they wanted to record one damn song, and they couldn’t wait for me to feel better. It was such bullshit, and I could only hope that it was someone else pushing their buttons. I didn’t want to believe that Slash really had it in for me."

On signing the contract:

"I counted on Dougie to keep me in the loop. He had me believe that he had my back, that he cared for and loved me. Well, he fooled the hell out of me. I had been lured into having total trust in him and didn’t want to believe some conspiracy was actually going down." 

[Adler's book]  

"This was something that Axl wanted, there was a whole plan to get rid of me." [Adler, Classic Rock]

In no way was it minor. It was incredibly painful and frustrating. I’ve got to confess I’m still capable of a flash of red-hot anger with Steven at that. I have an understanding of why and what happened to him. But it was survivable. We spent a lot of time with Steven trying to get him through it and I resent the fact that he plays the victim, I think that’s bullshit. You know, own up, Steven. Be responsible for your own decisions and actions. You let us down, all of us. And we got to the point where putting him on probation didn’t work. [Alan Niven, quoted in Mick Wall, The Last Of The Giants, 2016]

I think [I was fired because] of monetary issues, which is ridiculous too because we were on our way to making loads of money. Izzy Stradlin (guitar) was the only one who apologized to me. [Steven Adler, Ultimate Guitar 2004]

Axl was fucking convinced that Erin had been overdosed and raped. Well, that’s going to go down well, isn’t it? That was a really clever choice that you made there, Steven, and it really helped everybody. Is it any surprise that we got to the point that we had to seriously consider getting someone else? Did we have any choice? [Alan Niven, quoted in Mick Wall, Last Of The Giants, 2016]

"In 1990, he [Axl] fired Steven Adler (Halfin claims, because Adler had sex with Rose's fiancée Erin Everly, then shot her full of heroin).."

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2004/mar/13/popandrock.gunsnroses

- In hindsight, given everything that happened with GnR in the ensuing years w/ Axl and Goldstein's shenanigans - it's not entirely implausible that the Steven Adler firing may have been the first joint Axl/Doug Goldstein venture. Axl would get a bigger slice of the pie with Steven gone (something he apparently always wanted as per Niven) and Goldstein would ingratiate himself with Axl for giving the idea of how to engineer Adler's complete removal legally. A plan to demote Steven to an employee is not without precedent - Axl and Goldstein would do the same to Duff and Slash years later. It's ironic that Steven's final act in the band is to meet Doug Goldstein and "sign away his life". 

The writing was on the wall, and things quickly came to a head. Axl's patience as far as Steve went was long gone, so we had the inevitable get-together to discuss the situation; with Alan [Niven]'s support, Axl insisted that we give Steven a written ultimatum. It was a contract that Steve was forced to sign, that at best we hoped would scare him sober and at worst would orchestrate his departure from the band. The paperwork was clear; it said that if Steven showed up high to recording sessions, he'd be fined. If he did it three times, he'd be fired, or something along those lines. Steven signed it, he agreed to all of the terms, and like anyone caught in the throes of smack, he ignored all the promises he made and continued the way he had been [Slash, autobiography, 2007]

"They told me I had a drug problem, well, who the fuck were they to tell me that? A couple alcoholics and heroin users? Did they take some time in between fucking strippers to decide they were going to throw me out of the band? Doug Goldstein took me to have an opiate blocker, which made me very sick. I told them [slash & Duff] that I felt sick and couldn't record. Slash told me we had to, because we couldn't waste the money. I said "Money? What about the money we wasted last year [referring to the 1989 Chicago rehearsal/recording sessions, in which only Slash, Duff, and Steven attended] when Izzy was cleaning himself up, and Axl was nowhere to be found? Why was it okay for those guys to waste the money, but not me [in order to] get well?" So anyway, they bring me into the studio and I feel like shit. It took me forever to get the song [Civil War] right, and they got frustrated with me.

So next thing I know, Doug has a stack of papers in front of me that I could never fucking read because they were about five inches thick! He's telling me 'sign here, sign there' and telling me I was signing an agreement saying I was on "probation", meaning I was going to detox in time to record, or else. But it turns out, those papers weren't really giving me that chance. So I don't hear a fucking thing from anyone for awhile, then I got these notices saying 'you're out of the band'. Through my lawyers, I discovered that the "probation" papers that Doug had me sign were actually the rights to my partnership and all my royalties, which I was unknowingly signing away! They completely screwed me out of everything, these guys, [who were] my friends, my family. It hurt more than anything. My royalties were from playing, writing, and [use of] my image such as t shirts and shit. Two fucking albums that I played on are still selling and they're collecting money from them, and I'm not. Guns N Roses T shirts with my face on them are still selling, and they're collecting money from them, and I'm not. That's what they did to me, people I thought were my friends took it all away and said goodbye as if I never existed. Fuck that! That's why I sue them, and I'm confident the jury will see it my way."

--Steven Adler, 1991 press release on his lawsuit against Guns N Roses.

- The Adler firing has all the hallmarks of a Doug Goldstein power move. Did they deliberately give him that contract knowing he would blow it? That there was no way for him to clean up and recover within a 30 day probationary period? Note the Slash quote mentioning Axl's insistence on Steven signing that 30 day probation contract. The terms of that contract seem particularly harsh regardless of the circumstances - 30 days to clean up or you forfeit being a partner? Really? Convincing Slash that removing Steven out of the partnership was in his best interest would have been easy at that point and Slash would have been able to get Duff and Izzy onboard given Steven's ongoing issues. 

And then there's Adler's press release where he claims he wasn't even given a probation period and simply tricked into signing over his partnership rights and demoting himself to an employee whereupon he was promptly fired by the band the very next day.

Even after they fired Steven and recorded tracks in 1990, it took an entire year for Axl to put down vocals/overdubs and by his own words, the album was taken out of his hands against his wishes and released in late '91. He wanted to work on it further (!) - no doubt to remove Izzy entirely. Surely this isn't someone who was concerned with getting an album out on time or studio costs racking up. Then you have this: "I tried talking to him, during the Illusion albums: 'If we had a schedule here, come in at a certain time ... ' And he completely blew up at me: 'There is no f---ing schedule,'" Stradlin told Rolling Stone. 

Something just doesn't add up in this story...

Edited February 25, 2018 by RONIN

[RJ88]

On 2/19/2018 at 11:08 PM, Hollywood Gunner said:

i wonder if we'll ever find out the exact details why hes not part of NITL. It hurts to see frank play his parts while hes sitting at home

I think it's pretty obvious why he isn't part of the tour 

[J Dog]

Ol' Popcorn. Always hated how everything turned out. At least they've all kind of made amends now.

"Don't forget to call my lawyers with ridiculous demands"

 

[RONIN]

On 2/19/2018 at 8:08 PM, Hollywood Gunner said:

i wonder if we'll ever find out the exact details why hes not part of NITL. It hurts to see frank play his parts while hes sitting at home

There's a rumor that it may have been a Team Brazil decision. Not the first time they have made decisions on behalf of Axl Rose. 

"Chip Z'Nuff talks about GNR and Steven Adler in the latest issue of a Spanish magazine called Popular 1. He says Steven was preparing to play the whole tour but was kicked out by management and lawyers after he hurt his back at rehearsals."

http://www.gunsnfnroses.com/index.php?/topic/25691-steven-adler-was-kicked-out-by-team-brazil-according-to-chip-znuff/&

 

[Sydney Fan]

I cant help but think axl has never been able to move on from all of this and put it behind him. Off topic im starting to think team brazil are an extended version of doug goldstein. From all of this and hats off to izzy for the way he tried to reach out to steven, he never got sucked into the managers and other hangers on and always never saw the rest of the band members bigger than themselves. To him the band were always the same 5 guys from gardner street. Im sure the reason why things got so out  of hand was the lawyers and goldste in whispering different thing's in different band members ears because i think the label were looking to invest alot of money into the illusion recordings.

Edited February 25, 2018 by Sydney Fan