Matt Sorum says he knew nothing about Guns N’ Roses‘ 2016 reunion, five years after his memoir described how he found out.
Ten years on, Matt Sorum describes his exclusion from the Guns N’ Roses reunion in flat, unbothered terms. His own book tells it differently.
Ten years after Slash and Duff McKagan rejoined Axl Rose without him, Matt Sorum describes his exclusion from the Guns N’ Roses reunion in flat, unbothered terms. His own book fills in what happened next.
“Not really. I guess it was gonna be coming down the pike eventually. But like I say, when they got back together, I didn’t know anything about it, to be honest with you. So when it happened, they did it the way they wanted to, and they’re off doing that,” Sorum replied (as transcribed by Blabbermouth).
In “Double Talkin’ Jive: True Rock ‘N’ Roll Stories“, published in 2021, Sorum laid out how the news actually reached him. He was on a South American tour with Slash and McKagan when internet chatter about a reunion started circulating. He took it to the bassist directly.
“Axl wants to use his drummer [Frank Ferrer],” McKagan told him at the time. Sorum‘s reply was immediate: “Go to Axl and tell him you want me on drums. Period. Now’s the time.”
“Oh, man,” McKagan answered. “I already signed the deal.”
That drummer’s seat has since changed hands anyway. Isaac Carpenter, who played in McKagan‘s side band Loaded from 2009, replaced Ferrer in March 2025 and made his live debut that May in Incheon, South Korea. He lines up alongside Axl, Slash, McKagan, keyboardist Dizzy Reed, guitarist Richard Fortus and second keyboardist Melissa Reese.
Sorum, meanwhile, says the arrangement suits him.
“I’m being creative in my own way,” he continued. “I got a lot of cool stuff. I kind of run in my own universe. I let my higher power lead the way. And my mother used to say, ‘God’s rejection is God’s protection.’ It’s sort of, like, ‘Don’t fight it. Just go with it.’ And I’ve done that in my life a lot more. As I get a little older, things become a little bit more clear. So everything’s great in my life. I’ve got a five-year-old daughter who sees me a lot. That’s probably one of the most important [things]. You got kids. You’re there for them. They’re gonna come out. I wanna be around. I wanna be here. I wanna live. I’m taking good care of myself. I’m 65. I’m in the best shape I’ve ever been. I haven’t had a drink in 18 years. No drugs. I can look back at year 19, and I can’t say it was the same. So all those things are a gift and a blessing, and that turns into this charity and what I’m able to do consciously. So, I’m super, super grateful.”
The charity is Adopt The Arts, which he co-founded to keep music and arts programmes running in Los Angeles public schools.
On why bands fracture, he pointed at scale rather than personalities.
“I think when you get too big, that could be challenging,” Sorum explained. “When Guns N’ Roses got huge, when we came out with Use Your Illusion and everything, but after that is when things got very challenging. You’re so big, what do you do next? When I see these bands that are out touring and have a career that spans the test of time — obviously GN’R, it took them 25 years to get back together, but what I’m saying is it can be a little bit daunting when you’re big like that. Metallica‘s pulled it off because they’re a machine. They understand. And obviously you saw the documentary [‘Some Kind Of Monster‘] about what they went through. But they figured it out. And I’ve said to people, ‘Look, I could be a counselor for your band if you’re having problems.’ ‘Cause I know what not to do.”
He was specific about where the damage comes from: “The music part is the easy part. The business part is the hard part. Navigating the business, the things that trickle through — the agents, the managers, the business, the publishing, the songs, all that stuff is what causes problems in bands. And bands break up over typically money or ego. So ego and money don’t make a good combo platter. So [Metallica], they figured out how to keep it going… And Metallica‘s a machine. And the way they run it and the way they deal with each other, and they’re, like, ‘Look, we got a good thing here. Why screw it up?’ And The Rolling Stones.”
He added: “Being a musician, when you have the opportunity to play with other great musicians and the collaboration clicks and all of a sudden you’re successful, is the moment when… I don’t think I knew the word ‘grateful’ until I got older, and especially sober. It was just all a wild ride. It was like being on ‘Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride‘. It’s confusing. And you’re a younger guy, and mixing alcohol and things like that, things just get blurry and weird. So I’m just in a really good place.”
His clearest example involved a misunderstanding that had been sitting unspoken for half a year.
“I would say — this is a pretty good expression of what I would say: communication is key. And resentment is a killer. So if there’s a resentment about something, you keep it inside, you walk around with it, it’s very painful for yourself. So if you’re not able to communicate that feeling or talk to somebody about it, especially the person that you may be of the resentment with, how about call and say, ‘I’m sorry. I apologize.’ That’s a really good way to get that off your chest and figure out that it might not even be that difficult, but except as you’re walking around thinking it is. You have an idea of what the other person’s thinking about you: ‘Oh, he hates me.’ Communication is key in anything — relationships. And being in a band is like being in a relationship. It’s like a marriage times five. So if you don’t converse and say, ‘Hey, man, I got…’ I remember with working with [legendary producer] Rick Rubin one time. He came in with Velvet Revolver, and he asked us all — the first thing he asked us was how we were all getting along. [Velvet Revolver singer] Scott Weiland said, ‘Me and Matt aren’t getting along.’ I said, ‘What, Scott? I haven’t seen you in six months.’ So he had this feeling that me and him had an issue. And I said, ‘Scott, I have no issues with you, man. You’re a great frontman. Let’s make some music.’ And that’s the kind of stuff I’m talking about.
Weiland died in December 2015, weeks before the Guns N’ Roses reunion was announced.
“I think, for me, being a one-man show and doing my thing solo feels really good because I’ve been in a lot of bands,” Sorum concluded. “Most of them haven’t been easy.”
Sorum came into Guns N’ Roses in 1990 from The Cult, replacing Steven Adler after Slash and McKagan watched him play. He drummed on Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II, both released in 1991, and on 1993’s The Spaghetti Incident?, and his playing appears on Live Era: ’87-’93 and 2004’s Greatest Hits. He left in 1997 following a disagreement with Rose over the band’s direction.
He later won a Grammy with Velvet Revolver for “Slither” and has worked with The Cult, Neurotic Outsiders, Kings Of Chaos and Hollywood Vampires. In April 2012 he was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame with Guns N’ Roses, attending the ceremony alongside Adler, Slash and McKagan, while Rose and founding guitarist Izzy Stradlin stayed away.
