Former Guns N’Roses’ drummer Steven Adler has opened up about how his addiction to heroin began.
In a new interview, Adler spoke about how this addiction started, explaining that he initially began taking the drug to fit in with two of his Guns N’Roses bandmates.
“When I started doing heroin, I wanted to be a part of what (lead guitarist) Slash and (rhythm guitarist) Izzy (Stradlin) were doing”, Adler said. “I took two hits; I was never so sick in my whole life”.
He added: “And wouldn’t you know what an a**hole I am, I had to try it one more time. And the third time was the charm. I fell in love with it”.
“hurt”
Elsewhere, Steven Adler also revealed that his drug abuse led him to being dismissed by the band on several occasions.
Eventually, Adler was let go by Guns N’Roses in 1990, due to his drug use, replaced by Matt Sorum.
“I’ve always loved the whole team thing”, Adler continued. “That’s why putting a band together was so important to me, where we work together and create something. And then when my team threw me out, I didn’t know what to do. I know I could either have gotten better or continued doing what I was doing. I continued doing what I was doing. I was that hurt”.
Adler went on to suffer with several health issues due to his drug addition, including a stroke in 1996.
Despite this, Adler was ultimately inducted into the Rock Hall of Fame as part of the classic Guns N’Roses line up in 2012.
Despite his struggles, Adler insists that he has always enjoyed working with his bandmates, including Duff McKagan and Slash.
He said: “I just loved being part of a team and Guns N’ Roses, the five of us, were a great f**king team”.
Speaking of Slash, the famous guitarist has said that 2025 is set to be a busy for Guns N’Roses. More on this from Nova here.
