Matt Sorum's Autobiography

[EvanG]

11 hours ago, GnR Chris said:

Shortly after, Matt said he was blindsided when the name of the band changed to Slash’s Snakepit. He confronted Slash, who told him it was the record company’s decision because they were worried no one would know who Snakepit was.

Slash convinced Matt to listen to the record. Matt said all he needed to hear was one song to know the singer sucked. Slash asked him to listen to at least one more song. But Matt told Slash to replace the drums with someone else and to take his shit off the record.

I remember reading an interview at the time in which Slash said that there was already a band in San Diego called ''snakepit'' and so they changed it to Slash's Snakepit. But who knows?

Odd that Sorum didn't like Dover, he is a great rock singer.

10 hours ago, The Holographic Universe said:

Matt gets upset in every band with Slash because he doesn’t feel like an equal. 

Rightfully so. In his case it will probably never happen, but good for him for pursuing this ideal at least. Even though it hardly ever happens, I think everyone in a band should be equal.

[Blackstar]

6 minutes ago, EvanG said:

I remember reading an interview at the time in which Slash said that there was already a band in San Diego called ''snakepit'' and so they changed it to Slash's Snakepit. But who knows?

From this short article it seems that the problem occurred later, after the album was released, and Slash had to cancel a show in San Diego:

Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash recently canceled a Slash’s Snakepit concert originally set for May 14 at the New Bacchanal because of a name dispute with the San Diego band Snakepit. The all-female band obtained a restraining order against Slash’s Snakepit that prohibits any San Diego appearances. The two bands will attempt to settle in a court date set for June 19.

https://www.a-4-d.com/t4116-1995-05-05-north-county-times-short-notice-slash

[Blackstar]

^^^

More about the Snakepit band name:

When Slash first gave details about his plans for his solo album in June 1994, he said that that the band's name would be "SVO Snakepit", where "SVO" stood for "Slash's Very Own" (Kerrang, June 1994). He hadn't found a singer yet when he said that.

Then, in late 1994, he said that the band's name would be just "Snakepit", because it was a band and not a solo album (MTV, November 1994). So, in light of what Matt says in his book, the change of the name could have been a result of disagreements with Matt.

And then, in an interview conducted a month later, in December 1994 (but released in April '95), Slash said that the band's name eventually would be "Slash's Snakepit" because the record company wanted it that way (Metal Edge, April 1995). Matt says that this happened at the same time Slash found Eric Dover, however Dover was hired a few months earlier (in July 1994, shortly after Slash said the name would be "SVO Snakepit").

Edited June 9, 2020 by Blackstar

[Stay.Of.Execution]

Was Slash present at Matts wedding?

[PatrickS77]

2 hours ago, EvanG said:

Odd that Sorum didn't like Dover, he is a great rock singer.

Yeah. He's a total douche for not liking him. Especially to the point of wanting nothing to do with the project.

 

12 minutes ago, StayofExecution2020 said:

Was Slash present at Matts wedding?

No.

[Zinia_29]

6 hours ago, MurielWeathers said:

Speaking of being killed, I peaked into the WAR room on discord. I know they are all douchebags, but they're actually saying that they wish Axl would have died instead of Kurt. That made my heart hurt 😢.

What is war room of discord?

[Ratam]

7 hours ago, jamillos said:

Maybe in general, but it's still a certain simplification. E.g. sometimes it can be more about guitar than vocals (AC/DC), sometimes the other way around, and other times it's rather equal - see Rush. Those three were undoubtedly equal. 

Right, you can't to generalize, always are exception. Are numbered cases.

[MaskingApathy]

I think it had more to do with the fact that they had hired Dover without talking to Matt first that he was upset about, and that's when he decided that he didn't like his singing. I think there's an old interview where he says that.

[jacdaniel]

Guns N Roses was never really a brotherhood at any point.  Axl and Izzy were friends.  Slash and Steven were friends.  Duff joined in.  It was a cut throat business even back then.  They all wanted the best people to make the best band.  Over the years, Slash and Duff seem to have become closest.  

But Its always been a very dysfunctional business.

To this day, I believe the band is broken up into 3 different clicks.

1) Axl and TB

2) Slash and Duff 

3) Richard, Frank, Dizzy and Mel

The best opportunity at having a peaceful reunion was to just bring Slash back in with the existing band.  (Duff was already kind of involved)

A lot of ex members are obviously pretty pissed off about that but I think it was the only way forward really.  

 

 

[PatrickS77]

29 minutes ago, jacdaniel said:

Guns N Roses was never really a brotherhood at any point.  Axl and Izzy were friends.  Slash and Steven were friends.  Duff joined in.  It was a cut throat business even back then.  They all wanted the best people to make the best band.  Over the years, Slash and Duff seem to have become closest.  

But Its always been a very dysfunctional business.

To this day, I believe the band is broken up into 3 different clicks.

1) Axl and TB

2) Slash and Duff 

3) Richard, Frank, Dizzy and Mel

The best opportunity at having a peaceful reunion was to just bring Slash back in with the existing band.  (Duff was already kind of involved)

A lot of ex members are obviously pretty pissed off about that but I think it was the only way forward really.  

 

 

I'd say they definitely were a brotherhood at least until they got a record deal. At the most until they all got independently wealthy towards the end of the AFD era and didn't need each other anymore. As for 1, 2 and 3, that's a no brainer really. I even would go as far as to say 2) Slash and 2a) Duff.

[Amaya]

On 5/6/2020 at 2:17 AM, Rayno said:

I agree. Frank is definitely a very competent drummer. Just because someone doesn't like hist STYLE doesn't mean he cannot do his job. On the other hand his most important partner in the crew - Duff - obviously doesn't or at least didn't like his style. And it speaks volumes.

I dont know music. I know the drummer and bassist have to lock in . He and Frank are in lock step. You and can both cook roasted chicken..  Delicious, but different. Edible, tasty but different. Drumming styles too.  Duff is pleased walking all the way to the bank after NITL tour. Frank is a hired musician and like a school teacher, secretary ,anybody, that one job can just change your life taking you up. Frank got it.  Did  Duff say those things to Matt , sounding like he was not 100%  on board with Frank? Most likely so. For Slash,Duff, and Axl to make this thing work, they each had to agree to things and most likely Slash and Duff had to accept more. And they could care less. They care as they go to the bank. Duff is not a mean man. Hurt or diss Frank....not his style. Frank is an extremely mature man, experienced musican and grateful all the way to the bank so he like knows, hey former friends and band members of GnR, I mean on paper,talk shyt about each other so what. . 

Edited June 9, 2020 by Amaya

[PatrickS77]

38 minutes ago, MaskingApathy said:

I think it had more to do with the fact that they had hired Dover without talking to Matt first that he was upset about, and that's when he decided that he didn't like his singing. I think there's an old interview where he says that.

Doesn't make it better though.

[Amaya]

On 6/5/2020 at 1:06 AM, zigzagbigbag said:

... and here we go: Some people on this forum do always know better what happened than the people involved. Remarkable. 

Agreed. Matt has every right to tell his story, his life, his way.No there  are no editing or legal delays by Axl,Duff, Slash. People have written books on their life and the govt. serving on  U.S.Pres cabinets . Matt's book has the unfortunate time of Covid year 2020.  Talk shows and book signings for  Fall 2020, still questionable. He cannot fully promote like he would want to. Next year, no. He wanted his book, common sense, to piggy back on NITL tour. He was one year too late . 2019 would have been best. 2020, GnR would have been on the road, but.... year is canceled. I hope his book does well. How about well enough. The only way to promote it is on line. Promote the shyt out of it on line and podcast interviews. Maybe his publisher can have a display of a cardboard cut out of him and the book at BarnesNoble and other book stores Dec to get Christmas sales. 

Edited June 9, 2020 by Amaya

[EricA]

1 minute ago, Amaya said:

No there  are no editing or legal delays by Axl,Duff, Slash.

how do you know

[dogman]

21 hours ago, rocknroll41 said:

This book skips over so much stuff. He literally crunched 1992-1997 into just a couple of chapters.

It was interesting to see him talk about The Shadow Company tho! That whole phase of GnR doesn’t get talked about too often.

What's the Shadow Company?

[Amaya]

Pardon me for not quoting. Too many posts I want to refer to so I will just throw out my babbling,lol. Matt contradicts himself someone posted .     I read here Slash got some dates or times wrong. The only way to cross reference in Matt's book...to double check Duff...to verify Slash , and even Steve's book had truth ,but to correct his book is by reading AXL's BOOK , WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE and yes, IZZY's BOOK, USE YOUR ILLUSION   Slight, little, minor problem here is your two quiet, Midwestern boys are never going to do that book thing. The Indiana  boys, no. I think it is never going to be by Axl because the man does not want all that stuff- Erin,Stephanie, his childhood, Slash & Duff ancient histroy, etc dug up in his brain. I think, in my mind, why bring up even his former loves out of respect. They are married ladies with like 3-4 kids each. I even think Axl is not interested in bashing Steve for the only reason to dig up sruff would be, to be mean. Age brings peace. Axl lives in peace and really prvate. Axl really did not promote NITL tour. Duff was the pr machine.When Axl interviewed,  tour talk. No past crap. Izzy. 1988 was decades ago. He is living a full, busy, happy, healthy private life and wants to keep it that way.  

[Drexl]

18 hours ago, MurielWeathers said:

Oh Lord, I still can't believe he thought all that was true.

Some escape into drugs, Axl had chosen a pseudo-religion. I feel so sorry for him. There was literally no one who would bitch-slap him and yell into his face "Wake up, asshole! They're fucking using you!" Slash and Duff were wasted all the time, Izzy was a fucking quitter...

But getting back to our hero of the day, Matt "the Party Animal" Sorum. What's the most sad about this book, is that it was written by a 60-year-old man. Some men never grow up.

Or there are other possibilities... He reminisces his past sexual adventures, because he can't "do it" anymore. That's why he's so sour and bitter. I feel almost bad for him. Poor bastard. Or, here's an optimistic variant, he's a very mature individual and he had decided to burn all the bridges behind him to make sure none of these fuckers will ever bother him again. There won't be a phone call from Duff that goes like: "Hey buddy, my wife and daughters left for a week, come to my place". Or from Slash with something like: "I finally got rid of my woman, let's fucking party, man". Uh-uh, Matt's a model responsible citizen, you dumb fucks, and he's enjoying his retirement in his rocking-chair. Get over it.

P.S. Izzy, is Matt really your pal? Ouch...

[Amaya]

1 hour ago, jacdaniel said:

Guns N Roses was never really a brotherhood at any point.  Axl and Izzy were friends.  Slash and Steven were friends.  Duff joined in.  It was a cut throat business even back then.  They all wanted the best people to make the best band.  Over the years, Slash and Duff seem to have become closest.  

But Its always been a very dysfunctional business.

To this day, I believe the band is broken up into 3 different clicks.

1) Axl and TB

2) Slash and Duff 

3) Richard, Frank, Dizzy and Mel

The best opportunity at having a peaceful reunion was to just bring Slash back in with the existing band.  (Duff was already kind of involved)

A lot of ex members are obviously pretty pissed off about that but I think it was the only way forward really.  

 

 

Agreed. 3) hired musicians of Axls band. Addition, Melissa.  1) GnR is owned by. 2) must have Slash. Duff the diplomat got it all rolling between GnR which is ONLY SLASH ,AXL and  DUFF TOO. - open commimication and negotiations  = NITL tour. Friends, buddies, lets go to dinner, hang out at each others house, NOOOOOOO.

 

[rocknroll41]

22 minutes ago, dogman said:

What's the Shadow Company?

A secret alternate version of Guns N Roses that Axl created in the mid 90s when the main band was falling apart (cause of Snakepit and other stuff). Just google “guns n roses the shadow company” and you’ll find out more about them. The only overlapping members were Paul Tobias and Dizzy Reed. This is the version of the band that Shaq jammed with once. The lead guitarist, bassist, and drummer were from the band Johnny Krash, I believe. That’s how Axl found them. Not sure if anything they demo’d made it onto CD or the village discs... Maybe OMG (since Paul and Dizzy are credited as the writers on those).

Edited June 9, 2020 by rocknroll41

[Blackstar]

37 minutes ago, dogman said:

What's the Shadow Company?

Some Dizzy's friends who he jammed with and their friends. Axl put them on salary in 1995, when Slash was absent touring with Snakepit and the band was inactive, and had them jam with Dizzy and Paul Tobias, seemingly so that, if they came up with any ideas he liked, he could use it for GnR. One of them was Sid Riggs, drummer in Dizzy's old band Johnny and the Jaguars/The Wild (who lived next to GnR in the Gardner rehearsal space in 1985), who has a co-writing credit for Oh My God. 

"Shadow Company" is just a title given to that bunch by Chinese Whispers, it's not anything official.

9 minutes ago, rocknroll41 said:

A secret alternate version of Guns N Roses that Axl created in the mid 90s when the main band was falling apart (cause of Snakepit and other stuff). Just google “guns n roses the shadow company” and you’ll find out more about them. The only overlapping members were Paul Tobias and Dizzy Reed. This is the version of the band that Shaq jammed with once. The lead guitarist, bassist, and drummer were from the band Johnny Krash, I believe. That’s how Axl found them. Not sure if anything they demo’d made it onto CD or the village discs... Maybe OMG (since Paul and Dizzy are credited as the writers on those).

I don't think it was "secret" and not an alternate version of GnR either. The imaginary name "Shadow Company" gives some "mystique" vibe, but it wasn't anything secretive or particularly serious really.

Edited June 9, 2020 by Blackstar

[loke212]

18 hours ago, Blackstar said:

Yeah, I'd seen these translated interviews posted on various places without a reference to a source (e.g. a magazine) or an exact date, and I saw that other fans, like you, questioned their authenticity (and I could see why). 

Then, as I was collecting articles for our huge GnR database at a-4-d.com  (https://www.a-4-d.com/t2861-interview-and-article-index ), I tried to find the sources of these interviews and dug into Brazilian sources, and finally I found the sources and the original interviews in Portuguese (except for the Fernando interview where I couldn't find the Portuguese text but I found the source) and re-translated them here with the help of google (I think the first one wasn't translated - I haven't seen it circulating):

https://www.a-4-d.com/t4741-2001-01-16-o-globo-interview-with-doug-goldstein-and-beta-lebeis

https://www.a-4-d.com/t4758-2001-01-22-bolsa-de-mulher-interview-with-beta-lebeis

https://www.a-4-d.com/t4692-2001-07-01-o-estado-de-s-paulo-interview-with-beta-lebeis

(Btw, proofreading of the translations by Portuguese speakers would be appreciated  )

EDIT: On topic, in the second interview Beta says "The drummer was drunk" which makes some sense now with what Matt wrote in his book about his last days in GnR.

Oh wow, that's really cool. Thanks for your work!

4 hours ago, StayofExecution2020 said:

Was Slash present at Matts wedding?

No, he was not, only Duff. That alone could be seen as an indication that things between Slash and Matt weren't that friendly and close. If a good buddy of yours gets married, you would usually attend his wedding unless you've got a really good reason not to.

[rocknroll41]

8 minutes ago, Blackstar said:

Some Dizzy's friends who he jammed with and their friends. Axl put them on salary in 1995, when Slash was absent touring with Snakepit and the band was inactive, and had them jam with Dizzy and Paul Tobias, seemingly so that, if they came up with any ideas he liked, he could use it for GnR. One of them was Sid Riggs, drummer in Dizzy's old band Johnny and the Jaguars/The Wild (who lived next to GnR in the Gardner rehearsal space in 1985), who has a co-writing credit for Oh My God. 

"Shadow Company" is just a title given to that bunch by Chinese Whispers, it's not anything official.

I don't think it was "secret" and not an alternate version of GnR either. The imaginary name "Shadow Company" gives some "mystique" vibe, but it wasn't anything secretive or particularly serious really.

Matt’s book refers to them as “a B-band for GnR” and “an alternate version of GnR,” or something to that effect.

[Blackstar]

1 minute ago, rocknroll41 said:

Matt’s book refers to them as “a B-band for GnR” and “an alternate version of GnR,” or something to that effect.

Yes, he says that Axl had his "B-band". At the time Matt had said (paraphrasing) that it was a "friend of a friend" situation of studio musicians.

[rocknroll41]

3 minutes ago, Blackstar said:

Yes, he says that Axl had his "B-band". At the time Matt had said (paraphrasing) that it was a "friend of a friend" situation of studio musicians.

Gotchya. Thanks for clarifying.

[LA_0013]

I lost count of how many times Matt loses his shit at not being treated as an equal. It was one of the running themes throughout the book

The big GNR 3 going for an extra bow after one of the shows, being listed as an additional musician on Live Era, he got mad at Slash for wanting a different manager in VR, issues in the Cult, not getting in a red carpet photo shoot with the Hollywood Vampires  etc etc. Not saying it’s without merit in some of these cases, but the guy has drummer syndrome and is super sensitive to being seen as less than equal. At times I kinda wished he focused on his blessings and the opportunities he was given by other musicians.

That said, I think the way Slash and Duff handled the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame was piss poor. You don’t treat an ex band member like that - esp one that played on 2 of their 3 most successful albums. If they had their way, he wouldn’t have played, wouldn’t have spoken and wouldn’t have even have seat at their table. Friendship out the window after a move like that

Edited June 9, 2020 by LA_0013