My Appetite for Destruction: Sex & Drugs & Guns ‘N’ Roses
From original Guns N’ Roses drummer Steven Adler comes the inside story of Guns N’ Roses through a new perspective and his own intense struggle with addiction.Guns N' Roses are one of America's most successful rock bands, with estimated sales of 90 million albums worldwide. Steven Adler is the original drummer, with an infamous past of sex, drugs, and rock 'n roll that led to his removal from the band.And here, for the first time, Steven Adler tells it all. In My Appetite for Destruction, he reveals his personal struggles with drug addiction, including the financial ruin he faced after being kicked out of Guns N’ Roses and the health problems that almost claimed his life several times - two heart attacks, a suicide attempt, and a debilitating stroke, as well as an epic 20-year addiction to crack and heroin.Now clean and sober under the watchful eye of family friend Dr. Drew Pinsky, Steven wants to set the record straight on his life for all Guns N' Roses fans and anyone else who is interested in discovering what really happened during the rise and collapse of one of the greatest rock bands of all time.
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My Appetite for Destruction
Sex & Drugs & Guns N’Roses
Steven Adler
With
Lawrence J. Spagnola
Some names have been changed to protect their privacy.
HarperNon-Fiction
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd. 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF
First published in the USA by itbooks, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers This edition 2010
© 2010 Steven Adler with Lawrence J. Spagnola
Steven Adler asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins ebooks
HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication
Source ISBN: 9780007368464
Ebook Edition © AUGUST 2010 ISBN: 9780007368495
Version: 2017-05-02
To my grandmother “Big Lilly,” my grandfather “Stormin’ Norman,” and to my beloved wife, Carolina, whose love and support made this book possible.
To the millions of faithful Guns N’ Roses fans all over the world, I thank you for your eternal devotion.
Special thanks to:
the Adler family,
the Ferreira family,
the Hudson family,
the Canter family,
Steve Sprite,
Dr. Drew Pinsky,
Dr. Charles Sophy,
Bob Forrest,
Ronald “Ronnie My Boy” Schneider,
Chris Green,
Robert Espinoza,
James Vanderweilen, and
Brad Server.
And lastly to my dogs
Shadow, Midnight, and Chichi.
Their unconditional love saw me through.
Table of Contents
Oh my God, this is the highest I’ve ever been in my life. I can barely hold on. Sweat is pouring out of me, my eyes sting like hell, and my gut is jumping. I’m completely soaked, my arms and legs flail, my head shakes, and my heart is thumping out of my chest. I am flying, and I love it. I desperately want this feeling to go on forever. I’m Steven Adler, the drummer for Guns N’ Roses, and tonight we opened for the Rolling Stones. It’s October 18, 1989, and after a brutal but amazing journey, this should be the happiest moment in my life. But as we explode into our last song, “Paradise City,” I’m already terrified of leaving the stage and losing this incredible buzz. Just like the “pre-high” addicts get right after they score but before they use, I’m experiencing a devastating “pre-crash” and I fucking hate it. If only I could find some way to maintain this intense natural high, I would never need drugs, never want drugs again.
Guns N’ Roses gets a standing ovation, but as the Stones take the stage with “Start Me Up,” I’m already alone, tucked away in my trailer on the backstage lot with the door locked tight. Why? Because I’m the undisputed all-time booze-chugging, pill-gobbling, drug-shooting, Katrina-caliber fuckup. Throughout my wretched life there isn’t a friend, family member, or fantastic opportunity that I haven’t shoved into a blender and mutilated.
But people love train wrecks. They just can’t look away from the ODs, lawsuits, prison terms, rehabs, reality shows, meltdowns, and more ODs. So before one or all of the above happens again, I want to set the record straight. And I’m finally sober enough and angry enough to do it right.
COMING CLEAN
While part of this comes from a deep desire to come clean with my family, friends, and fans, another part is fueled by an inner rage to represent. From Chuck Berry to Janis Joplin, from Hendrix to Cobain, many beloved, gifted musicians have had a lot of totally false, negative crap written about them. It turned them into bitter, reclusive artists and may have pushed some into an early grave. But I don’t need the media to bury me; I’ll do that on my own.
The bastards who write the lies about us do it because they think rock fans are gossip-starved, tabloid-trained morons who will swallow anything. They figure the more bullshit they pile up, the more fans will be eager to roll around in it. And they’re always sure they can get away with the most outrageous lies because they know if we hire a bunch of lawyers to go after them, they’ll just get more free publicity and rake in more cash. You’ve got to admire Carol Burnett, Kate Hudson, and others who brought suit, hung in there, and won judgments against these bloodsuckers.
