The “Yoko Ono of Guns N’ Roses”, according to Matt Sorum
Following 1991’s Use Your Illusion I and II, when the writing was being smeared heavily on the wall, Guns N’ Roses became more of a mess than ever. While it seemed like a foregone conclusion to the world that was watching events unfold, it’s remarkable that the band managed to keep trudging on in the face of such acrimony and upheaval.
Following the release of the covers album “The Spaghetti Incident?” in November 1993, which featured most tracks recorded during the Illusion sessions, the group sporadically recorded new work, pointing to them running out of steam. According to drummer Matt Sorum, in 1996, they recorded seven songs and wrote seven more, intending to release an album the following spring. However, frontman Axl Rose later revealed that the material was scrapped due to the lack of unity between members. Later, Sorum commented that the 1994 debut album It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere by lead guitarist Slash’s side project, Slash’s Snakepit, could have even been a Guns N’ Roses album, but indicating the ever-widening schism again, Rose claimed he didn’t think it was up to their standards.
In 1994, the remaining members of the band contributed to rhythm guitarist Gilby Clarke’s solo debut, Pawnshop Guitars, and in December of that year, released a cover of the classic Rolling Stones song ‘Sympathy for Devil’, a like-for-like rendering that appeared in that year’s Tom Cruise movie Interview with the Vampire. The final Guns N’ Roses song featuring Slash on guitar, bassist Duff McKagan, and Sorum on drums is characterised by a band that was a sad husk of its former self. Slash and McKagan wouldn’t return to the studio with the group until 2021’s ‘Absurd’.
Significantly, the cover also featured Paul ‘Huge’ Tobias, Rose’s childhood friend, on rhythm guitar. His presence was what pushed Slash, McKagan, and Sorum out the door. Slash had a noticeably hard time getting on with Tobias creatively and personally, and in September 1996, he offered an ultimatum: either Tobias departed, or he did.
Offering further insight, McKagan said in 2002: “The music was going in a direction that was completely indulgent to his friend [Huge] … And another factor is this guy that Axl brought in and told us, ‘This is our new guitar player’ … There was no democracy there. And that’s when Slash really started going, ‘Fuck this. What, this is his band now? or something?’ … It was ridiculous. I’d go down there to start rehearsal at 10, and Axl would show up at four or five in the morning. That sort of thing was going on for a couple of years.”
Elsewhere, Clarke’s contract was terminated by Rose without consulting the rest of the band, and Rose legally left the group in August 1995 to start a new partnership under the Guns N’ Roses name in what he described as an effort to save them. This led to him purchasing the full rights in 1997, so the end was nigh. Slash had left by that point in October 1996.
In a strange twist, Slash was replaced by industrial maestro Robin Finck of Nine Inch Nails, who has a much different, thicker guitar sound. However, after seeing what had gone on with Tobias, who is painted as a villain by the rest of the band – bar Rose – Finck was Sorum’s recommendation. However, it wouldn’t be long before Sorum was out; he was fired in April 1997 following an argument about Tobias.
He told Lawrence Journal-World in 2001: “In ’97, I got into an argument with Axl about the state of the band. He’d brought in another guitar player, Paul Huge, and none of us really wanted to play with him. Axl really wanted him in the band, and we didn’t really want to play with the guy.”
Most brutally of all, speaking to Q in 2001, Sorum said: “Paul Huge is the Yoko Ono of G N’ R.”
In August 1997, McKagan couldn’t take it anymore either and was the last of the classic lineup to depart apart from Rose. What ensued was an obscure period for the band and an equally odd lineup of Rose, Tobias, Finck, Dizzy Reed, Chris Pitman and Josh Fresse on drums, replacing Sorum. It just wasn’t the same band as the one that produced Appetite for Destruction.
