“Us against them”: Which lineup did Slash call the best for Guns N’ Roses?
Not every band is meant to go the distance with the same exact lineup. It might be fun to have that ‘Three Musketeers’ mentality when starting out, but if one person isn’t cutting it on their instrument or is clashing with everyone else behind the scenes, it’s usually better to cut them loose and find someone who aligns with the music and band. But when looking at Guns N’ Roses, the definition of the term ‘stable lineup’ has been a test ever since Slash first got on board with the band.
If you looked at the band when they started out, they already felt like the epitome of a street gang. Their entire first album made them seem like they had been playing together for years, but when looking at the lineup changes that happened before they made it big, there were already pieces that had to be let go before Slash was a part of the equation.
Since the group was a smashed-up version of two different bands, Tracii Guns would eventually be let go in favour of getting Izzy Stradlin in his place. The band that made Appetite for Destruction may have sounded like they were ready for war, but before they even started work on Use Your Illusion, there were already cracks in the foundation as Steven Adler began to find himself out of step with the rest of the group.
The idea of stringing one person up in the band for doing too many drugs was an oxymoron at that point, but Adler was getting to the point where he could hardly pull off any of the tracks in the studio. His bandmates were doing everything they could to help him, but when they kept finding drugs stashed away in his home. He had to be cut loose, and Matt Sorum would replace him behind the kit.
And for a brief time, it managed to work like a charm. Sorum had great chops going back to his days working in The Cult, but when it came to the signature swing of the band, something felt off on the newer material. Even in the days when Slash took off and formed Velvet Revolver with his former friends from Guns, he was still talking about how Adler’s time with the band was always the definitive version of Guns N’ Roses.
‘November Rain’ certainly had its place in the pantheon of rock classics, but Slash still felt that nothing could top what the Appetite lineup did, saying, “The original line up comprised the only fuckin five guys in LA that could have made up that band. There was a certain camaraderie and bonding between the five of us. It was like a gang, you know—us against them. Great as Matt Sorum is, Steven was my best friend. He started me playing the guitar! There was also a certain bond between Izzy and Axl because they grew up together.”
But it turned out that no amount of band camaraderie would get Axl Rose to compromise his vision. Even when every single member of the band left him on his ass, he knew that the best way to soldier on was to get even more talented people around him and see if he could make a record even better than what came before, even if it resulted in one of the biggest flops in rock history.
While it’s nice to see that some of the original members have found their way to Guns N’ Roses over the years, there’s still a lot of unfinished business when it comes to that classic lineup. All five of the main guys are still among the living, though, so maybe there’s still a chance that they find a way to put their cares aside and jam like it’s 1987 all over again.
