Steven Adler

Steven Adler (born Michael Coletti; January 22, 1965) is an American musician.

He is the former drummer and co-songwriter of the hard rock band Guns N' Roses, with whom he achieved worldwide success in the late 1980s.

After his return to Hollywood in 1983, Adler auditioned for Sunset Strip staple London.

When the audition proved unsuccessful, he formed the band Road Crew—named after the Motörhead song "(We Are) The Road Crew"—with his childhood friend Slash.

They placed an advertisement in a newspaper looking for a bassist, and received a response from Duff McKagan.

They auditioned a number of singers, including one-time Black Flag vocalist Ron Reyes, and worked on material that included the main riff of what would become the Guns N' Roses song "Rocket Queen."

Slash disbanded the group the following year due to their inability to find an adequate lead vocalist, as well as Adler's laziness compared to himself and McKagan.

Adler then briefly joined a local band known as Hollywood Rose, which featured singer Axl Rose and guitarist Izzy Stradlin (who left shortly after).

In June 1985, Adler joined Guns N' Roses, which was newly founded by Axl Rose, Izzy Stradlin, and L.A. Guns members Tracii Guns, Ole Beich and Rob Gardner.

After the original drummer Gardner quit, Adler and Slash joined their former Road Crew bandmate Duff McKagan (who joined in March 1985) to complete the line-up.

They played nightclubs—such as the Whisky a Go Go, The Roxy, and The Troubadour—and opened for larger acts throughout 1985 and 1986.

After being scouted by several major record labels, the band signed with Geffen Records in March 1986.

In July 1987, Guns N' Roses released its debut album, Appetite for Destruction, which to date has sold over 30 million copies worldwide, 18 million of which were in the United States, making it the best-selling debut album of all time in the US.

In December, during a tour with Alice Cooper, an intoxicated Adler broke his hand when he punched a streetlight after a barroom brawl; Fred Coury of Cinderella was brought in as his substitute for several shows until he recovered.

In November 1988, Guns N' Roses released G N' R Lies, which sold over five million copies in the US alone, despite containing only eight tracks, four of which were included on the previously released EP Live ?!*@ Like a Suicide.

Adler was again absent during a performance at the American Music Awards in January 1989; Don Henley filled in for him on drums.

His absence was originally attributed to a case of the flu, but it was later revealed that Adler had been in a drug rehabilitation program at the time.

The following October, during a show as opening act for The Rolling Stones, Axl Rose threatened to leave the band if certain members of the band did not stop "dancing with Mr. Brownstone," a reference to their song of the same name about heroin use.

Adler was among those who promised to clean up, but he continued to struggle with his addiction.

Adler was fired from Guns N' Roses over his heroin addiction in 1990, following which he reformed his pre-Guns N' Roses band Road Crew and briefly joined BulletBoys.

Adler was briefly fired from the band over his drug use in early 1990, but he was reinstated after signing a contract in which he vowed to stop taking drugs.

However, by the time the band entered the studio to record the song "Civil War", his addiction had become so severe that he was unable to perform.

By Adler's own admission, he tried to play the song "20, maybe 30 times".

The song's drum track had to be heavily edited for his bandmates to be able to play along with it.

When problems in the studio continued, causing recording sessions to abort for several days at a time, Adler was formally fired from Guns N' Roses on July 11, 1990.

He had played his final show with the band on April 7 at Farm Aid IV.

Izzy Stradlin, who left the band in November 1991, later stated that replacing Adler with Matt Sorum of The Cult had a big impact on the band's sound.

In response to an interviewer's suggestion that the line-up change had turned Guns N' Roses from a rock 'n' roll band into a heavy metal one, Stradlin said, "Yeah, a big musical difference. ... [Our songs] were written with Steve playing the drums and his sense of swing was the push and pull that give the songs their feel. When that was gone, it was just...unbelievable, weird. Nothing worked. I would have preferred to continue with Steve, but we'd had two years off and we couldn't wait any longer."

During the 2000s, Adler was the drummer of the band Adler's Appetite, and from 2012, he had held the same position in the band Adler.

He appeared on the second (2008) and fifth (2011) seasons of the reality TV show Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew, as well as on the first season of its spin-off Sober House (2009).

He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012 as a member of Guns N' Roses.

Steven Adler was born Michael Coletti in Cleveland, Ohio, to an Italian-American father, Michael Coletti, and a Jewish-American mother, Deanna.

After his father left the family, his mother moved with her children to Los Angeles, California.

Adler was originally named after his father at birth, but his mother renamed him Steven when she returned to her parents because Jewish naming conventions forbid naming children after living relatives.

He took his mother's surname after she married Melvin Adler, who adopted her two oldest children (including Steven).

He has one older brother, Kenny, and a younger half-brother, Jamie.

Adler grew up in the San Fernando Valley until the age of 13, when he was sent to live with his grandparents in Hollywood due to his bad behavior.

While attending Bancroft Junior High School, Adler befriended Saul Hudson, later known as Slash; they met when Adler had a skateboarding accident and Slash stopped to help him.

After ninth grade, Adler returned to his parents' house in the Valley for the remainder of high school, during which time he learned to play drums.

In early 2017, he declared that he had no intention to continue with the band and that the band has been dissolved, with the reason being his lack of interest in performing during poorly attended concerts.