Jump to content

Matt Sorum's Autobiography


Recommended Posts

5 minutes ago, lame ass security said:

Wasted potential on Astbury's part? That seems weird, he's had a very solid career. 

I think it was mostly that he definitely had a solid career, but it could have been a legendary career. At one point he compares him to someone, I believe Steven Tyler, saying like.. that was what Astbury could be. Most of it was around his appearance and gaining weight. I honestly haven't followed them at all, so I'm not sure if his weight is a regularly discussed topic, but we know how prevalent something a topic like the singer's weight can be to fans :)

  • GNFNR 1
  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Actually out of curiosity, I went and found the quote. Here's what he said.. this was during the Cult touring with Aerosmith (when he had rejoined the band):

Billy and I went out to watch Aerosmith play that evening, and before we headed back to our bus, I said, "Wouldn't it be amazing have a singer like that?" The thing was, Ian could have been great if only he'd stopped destroying himself and singing about horses and butterflies - if only he'd written lyrics people could actually understand in America. With both him and another singer I would soon work with, that was the main issue. These guys could sing, but they were their own downfall. They sabotaged their potential with drugs and insecurities. It was super frustrating, and as far as Ian was concerned, he had also started to get fat again by the end of the tour.

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The same Matt Sorum

who jumped at the chance of turning Guns demos into Snakepit songs, only to side with Axl over Slash when Snakepit became an issue with the Guns camp.

who came to tee-total Guns rehearsals with a drink, hoping to spark a response, and valiantly stormed out after some Slash-related shouting with Axl & Paul Tobias.

who self-admittedly reached out to the Guns camp numerous times since, asking to be let back in, while continuing his off the cuff public remarks about Axl. 


now feels burned for being left out of the reunion. Too bad for Matt, Axl always liked his drumming. Had Matt played along like Dizzy, he could've been on CD. And NITL.

Edited by denin
  • Like 2
  • Sad 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 minutes ago, adamwolff11 said:

I think it was mostly that he definitely had a solid career, but it could have been a legendary career. At one point he compares him to someone, I believe Steven Tyler, saying like.. that was what Astbury could be. Most of it was around his appearance and gaining weight. I honestly haven't followed them at all, so I'm not sure if his weight is a regularly discussed topic, but we know how prevalent something a topic like the singer's weight can be to fans :)

I haven't particularly followed their later career either. From some videos I've seen, Ian had gained a lot of weight around 2009 (more than Axl ever has), but lost most of it later. I guess it was discussed among the fans at the time. There were some nasty comments under the videos, but I think not as many and as much as the respective comments about Axl's weight.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 minutes ago, Blackstar said:

In GnR Matt was promoted as a full-fledged band member and not as a side guy like in the Cult, but he was never made a partner (same goes for Dizzy, Gilby and all the nuGnR guys later). Does he mention anything about that in the book? Or about the "additional musician" thing on the credits of Live Era?

And since, from what the people who have read the book say, he doesn't say much about the VR era, I assume there isn't anything about Slash's night visit at Axl's house and what it caused in VR.

So, he addresses all of that a bit when he is quitting the band. This is right after he blows up and tells Paul Huge to fuck off:

Up until that point, I'd been given $15,000 a month (which was deducted from my royalties and the return on my percentage). The letter said the band would buy me out for $75,000. Even now, I don't know why I agreed to it. My contract said the money I was earning would be deducted from my royalties on the next record, so technically I owed the guys money for those four years when nothing happened. 

In any case, I signed, and they recouped the money from the Use Your Illusion records. That really fucked me up, because it took them a long time to do it. I mean, I didn't receive any royalties for years after that. I could've said "I'm not fucking signing it", but I didn't. I didn't even get a penny when the double live album came out; even though I played on 90 percent of the record, they screwed me on my royalty. Axl actually removed my name from the sleeve - or, more accurately, just put me down as a session musician. The only reason he did it is because I stood up to him that day. I don't regret it though. I was done tiptoeing around him. 

And you're correct, no mention of the night at Axl's house.

  • Like 1
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, adamwolff11 said:

So, he addresses all of that a bit when he is quitting the band. This is right after he blows up and tells Paul Huge to fuck off:

Up until that point, I'd been given $15,000 a month (which was deducted from my royalties and the return on my percentage). The letter said the band would buy me out for $75,000. Even now, I don't know why I agreed to it. My contract said the money I was earning would be deducted from my royalties on the next record, so technically I owed the guys money for those four years when nothing happened. 

In any case, I signed, and they recouped the money from the Use Your Illusion records. That really fucked me up, because it took them a long time to do it. I mean, I didn't receive any royalties for years after that. I could've said "I'm not fucking signing it", but I didn't. I didn't even get a penny when the double live album came out; even though I played on 90 percent of the record, they screwed me on my royalty. Axl actually removed my name from the sleeve - or, more accurately, just put me down as a session musician. The only reason he did it is because I stood up to him that day. I don't regret it though. I was done tiptoeing around him. 

And you're correct, no mention of the night at Axl's house.

Thanks!

So I guess Dizzy and Gilby didn't get any royalties from Live Era either, as they too were listed as additional musicians.

At the time Matt had said that it was because he had talked to the press about Axl's visits in Sedona. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, Walapino said:

Did matt said anything about the time he and Axl had a few drinks in mid 2000s and apparently mended fences??

Nothing at all about that encounter

Also, I really didn’t understand how he got fucked on Live Era. If he had actual publishing royalties on the UYI songs, then he could have sued for that. So maybe he didn’t get mechanical royalties? In any event, it didn’t sell that well at the time anyway.

Edited by LunsJail
Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 minutes ago, LunsJail said:

Nothing at all about that encounter

Also, I really didn’t understand how he got fucked on Live Era. If he had actual publishing royalties on the UYI songs, then he could have sued for that. So maybe he didn’t get mechanical royalties? In any event, it didn’t sell that well at the time anyway.

Yeah, tbh I don't quite understand this part either. It seems that he didn't have publishing royalties from the Illusions but there was an arrangement to give him a percentage off the sales (it's not clear from the quote if that arrangement was originally only for the "next record" or for the Illusions, too). Maybe he means he didn't get that percentage off Live Era.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, Blackstar said:

Yeah, tbh I don't quite understand this part either. It seems that he didn't have publishing royalties from the Illusions but there was an arrangement to give him a percentage off the sales (it's not clear from the quote if that arrangement was originally only for the "next record" or for the Illusions, too). Maybe he means he didn't get that percentage off Live Era.

So there are publishing royalties which means you have a songwriting credit. Then there are mechanical royalties which means you played on the actual recording. I assume he meant he got screwed out of the mechanical since he was listed as “Additional Musician.”

Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 minutes ago, LunsJail said:

So there are publishing royalties which means you have a songwriting credit. Then there are mechanical royalties which means you played on the actual recording. I assume he meant he got screwed out of the mechanical since he was listed as “Additional Musician.”

I think mechanical has also to do with songwriting (so it's part of the publishing rights) and not just with playing, but usually in bands there are arrangements so that everyone gets a percentage even if they don't have songwriting credits. So Matt didn't get that percentage of the Live Era mechanical royalties that he would've gotten if he'd been listed as a member, and he got only royalties for playing, which were much less.

Edited by Blackstar
Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 minutes ago, Blackstar said:

That all gets complicated. No wonder musicians get screwed over so much as it gets so difficult to understand.

Matt also mentions in the book that his royalty on UYI got cut at the last minute and makes a big deal about how Slash was the snake there.

 

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 minutes ago, LunsJail said:

That all gets complicated. No wonder musicians get screwed over so much as it gets so difficult to understand.

Matt also mentions in the book that his royalty on UYI got cut at the last minute and makes a big deal about how Slash was the snake there.

Yeah, and it gets more complicated combined with various other parameters, like the business/legal status of a band member. Matt, for example, didn't have a contract with the label as he wasn't a partner in GnR, but an employment contract with the band, and so his royalties were based off that contract and didn't come directly from the label. 

How were his UYI royalties cut? Does he say that he should have gotten songwriting credits?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, adamwolff11 said:

Sure.. so he has an entire chapter on it. He speaks very freely and openly, which is refreshing considering Axl doesn't talk and Duff/Slash couldn't say less in interviews anymore. Here are some quotes/details:

- No specific quote, but he met with Duff in 2015 and Duff said that 'the three partners were talking' referring to him, Slash, and Axl. But he said it was just their lawyers talking. Matt asked him to tell him before he read it online if anything was actually going to happen.

- Matt said Duff was avoiding him once news broke about the reunion. When he talked to him, Duff said 'Well, Axl wants to use his drummer. But the guy can't even play the drums. I've gotta talk to Axl and say I really can't play with this guy'.

- Fernando reached out to him and said 'Hey there bud. How are you? Just reaching out to see how your schedule is looking. Wondering if you're interested in joining the band on a few shows and a few songs. Let me know.' Travel expenses were offered but no money.

- He met with Duff after the reunion had begun and told Duff he had begun hanging out with Izzy again. Duff said 'Fuck Izzy!'. Sorum said 'Well, Izzy says fuck you too'. 

His closing comments on the reunion (after his last meeting with Duff):

What I do know for sure is that our friendship wasn't the only thing that had ended - our twenty-eight year musical partnership was over too. I wouldn't be able to call him or Slash and ask if they wanted to play with me. The GNR machine had taken them back. I knew I wouldn't be able to rely on those guys any longer. For the first time, I felt completely on my own.

Thanks.  He certainly doesn't mind putting Duff in an uncomfortable spot with those comments about Frank. Oof.

  • GNFNR 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, adamwolff11 said:

His closing comments on the reunion (after his last meeting with Duff):

What I do know for sure is that our friendship wasn't the only thing that had ended - our twenty-eight year musical partnership was over too. I wouldn't be able to call him or Slash and ask if they wanted to play with me. The GNR machine had taken them back. I knew I wouldn't be able to rely on those guys any longer. For the first time, I felt completely on my own.

but this apparently does not prevent him from using the "GNR machine" for his self-promotion

⬇️

 

  • Like 3
  • GNFNR 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

"Gn'R Machine"

I get the feeling that Sorum's ego colors some of the stories, but that is a pretty good description of this version of Gn'R. I don't know, maybe it's the years spent on this forum bitching about everything and getting cynical about the band, but Slash and Duff do seem a bit more corporate these days.

I'm still happy about the reunion, though.

Edited by jekylhyde
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 minutes ago, jekylhyde said:

"Gn'R Machine"

I get the feeling that Sorum's ego colors some of the stories, but that is a pretty good description of this version of Gn'R. I don't know, maybe it's the years spent on this forum bitching about everything and getting cynical about the band, but Slash and Duff do seem a bit more corporate these days.

I'm still happy about the reunion, though.

It's seems he was eagerly awaiting being a part of that "machine", but now he's just left with sour grapes.

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah, I agree with you guys. It's almost like, if you had a beautiful, incredibly superficial Instagram model that was interested in you. You'd be down. And if she rejected you, you'd call it out for what it is. 

I do wonder if he's burned bridges in this book. I didn't really feel like any of the previous members did that in their books, but some of this stuff feels difficult to come back from. I'm as big of a Slash and Duff fan as there can be, but he's kind of confirming what we've all sort of thought, right? 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 minutes ago, adamwolff11 said:

Yeah, I agree with you guys. It's almost like, if you had a beautiful, incredibly superficial Instagram model that was interested in you. You'd be down. And if she rejected you, you'd call it out for what it is. 

I would still expect someone to at least recognize their own hypocrisy there. Matt doesn’t do that in his opinions on this subject.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 minutes ago, adamwolff11 said:

Yeah, I agree with you guys. It's almost like, if you had a beautiful, incredibly superficial Instagram model that was interested in you. You'd be down. And if she rejected you, you'd call it out for what it is. 

I do wonder if he's burned bridges in this book. I didn't really feel like any of the previous members did that in their books, but some of this stuff feels difficult to come back from. I'm as big of a Slash and Duff fan as there can be, but he's kind of confirming what we've all sort of thought, right? 

Maybe he feels that there's no point in leaving those bridges up now at this point in his career. He's basically semi retired anyway. And yes he is confirming what we thought. Although Slash and Duff were going to play with him at that benefit show in LA this year so I'm not what was happening there. I think he's more ok with Slash, but I can understand why he feels the way he does about Duff.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...