My Appetite for Destruction: Sex & Drugs & Guns ‘N’ Roses. Steven Adler

in the band London for a short time. Of course London was already notorious for launching the career of Nikki Sixx.

      Izzy looked like a young Ron Wood, with that gaunt, angular cut to his face, perfectly framed by straight black hair that hugged his jawline, making his face look even more thin and elongated. He was into heroin, just like Ron Wood and Keith Richards, his heroes in the Rolling Stones (Woody had taken over from Mick Taylor by the time the Stones recorded Black and Blue in 1976). He had thick-soled platform shoes and always wore black pants with some sort of super-tight shirt. He looked more like his shadow than himself and to me was the personification of cool. Izzy and I hit it off right from the start. We each saw something in the other; perhaps it was just the way we talked about music. Izzy was the consummate rhythm guitarist. I loved the solid power chords he built into Rose’s songs.

      Izzy’s apartment was below Sunset on Palm Avenue near Tower Records. It was a square little studio with a small kitchen and a tiny bathroom. We were hanging out there for the first time when I asked him about getting together to play. He was fine with the idea and he gave me their demo tape to listen to right on the spot. The cover featured the same picture from their flyer, and the cassette contained three songs: “Shadow of Your Love,” “Move to the City,” and “Reckless Life.” I didn’t get to keep the tape because Izzy only had two of them.

      Since Rose had just gotten rid of, or was thinking of firing, Rob Gardner, we made a plan to jam together so I could learn the songs. Later that evening, I split and headed over to my friend Sue’s; she happened to live right across the street. Sue was the sweetest girl, very accommodating, and her pad became a popular party pit stop.

      MEETING AXL

      Once, as I was leaving Izzy’s place, I bumped into this skinny, pale-as-a-ghost rock ’n’ roll dude with long orange hair. He was wearing a light blue, unbuttoned dress shirt, completely exposing his ribs, which were sticking out like a starving dog’s. We met in the middle of the street, and I didn’t recognize him at first, but when we said hey to each other, I realized who he was. “Dude, you’re that kick-ass singer I saw play Gazzarri’s. I thought you were great.”

      He smiled and said, “Thanks.” He seemed very humble and gracious. That was the first time I ever spoke to Axl Rose. Apparently he was a regular at Sue’s place and hung out a lot with Izzy.

      Rose was rehearsing across the street from Hollywood High School on Selma Avenue at Selma Studios, which offered the cheapest studios, like $5 an hour. Now, that’s a great deal, but it was one sorry shit hole. The building was ancient, with broken doorknobs, jammed windows, reeking bathrooms, creaky floors, and cracked walls, but you get what you pay for. I went to check out the situation without Slash because at the time, I didn’t think they wanted another guitar player. It was just Izzy, DJ, and me. The first song I played with them was a number Izzy wrote called “Shadow of Your Love.”

      Axl sauntered in while we were running through it. Without missing a beat he grabbed the mike in the middle of the song and just started running up and down the walls, screaming and wailing like someone had lit his pants on fire. I had never heard such a sound in my life. It was like some otherworldly banshee cry. I was stoked. I remember my eyes bugged a bit and my pulse shot up; I was thinking this dude was so insane, so original.

      I thought the session went off really well, and afterward we were sitting around talking and I said, “You guys gotta meet this guy Slash. He’s fucking great!” And that’s how it all started to come together, like we were each waiting in the wings of the cosmos, destined to discover one another, like it was meant to be.

      I went back to the apartment and I told Slash, “Dude, these guys are great, they’re totally original, very cool, and they want to meet you.” Slash kind of made a noncommittal grunt, which you got to understand in Slash-speak is a very positive response. The next night, I brought him over to Izzy’s just to hang out and see if we would all get along. We were drinking beers, shooting the shit, talking more about bands we loved. Axl was more talkative than the last time we hung out. He was saying how he was really into Dan McCafferty, the lead singer from the band Nazareth. I was familiar with their albums Razamanaz and Hair of the Dog, which had some kick-ass songs on it. If you listen to McCafferty’s wailing, you can see why Axl was into him. He could really tear through a song and put a very distinctive brand on it, like his voice was another instrument. All the truly great vocalists do that; they make their voices a unique and indispensable part of the band’s total sound. How the fuck do you replace Robert Plant, Freddie Mercury, Steve Tyler? Or, as was later to be discovered, Axl?

      Izzy was playing his guitar and he let Slash check it out. Slash just kind of looked at the neck for a second and then tore off some cool lead stuff, but nothing too flashy, just brilliantly, undeniably Slash. Izzy and Axl were impressed enough to tell Slash to go and get his guitar. This was worth looking into and we could all feel the temperature in the room go up. Slash did just that, and soon enough we were jamming for another couple of hours.

      That night, we all just happened to walk into one another’s lives, with no idea what lay ahead. I wish I could say that it was like lightning struck, but the truth is that it was just a random get-together to see what could be germinating. Axl was the least vocal of all of us that evening, but when Izzy suggested we get together again, Axl’s body language definitely indicated he approved.

      The next day we went back to the studio. Izzy was now totally into the idea of another guitarist because he wasn’t much of a lead player, nor did he want to be. Izzy could be freed up more by playing with someone like Slash. Like I said, Izzy’s a very rhythmic, chord-loving artist and Slash is naturally solo oriented, so they connected in a real beneficial, complementary way, strengthening their styles by allowing each to focus on what he loved.

      We pretty much just played those same three songs: “Shadow of Your Love,” “Move to the City,” and “Reckless Life.” Then we jammed on some Aerosmith and Stones stuff too. We hung out for a couple days, and whenever we got some money, we went in and jammed again in the studio.

      Rose, or Hollywood Rose as they were called on most flyers, had two dates they had already committed to, so Slash and I joined Izzy and Axl as the “New” Hollywood Rose without much fanfare. The first was at Madame Wong’s East in L.A. Then we played at the Troubadour on July 10, 1984. This turned out to be the first time my family saw me perform.

      OUR FIRST SHOWS TOGETHER

      My mom, dad, and brother Jamie showed up for the big night. It was great for me to show them that I was doing something other than being a fuckup. Seeing the looks on their faces was an incredible experience for me. They told me they loved it and were excited for me, although Mom said she was deaf for three days afterward. And poor Mel, he wanted to leave after the first song but rallied and hung out for the whole set. As for Jamie, he told me it was one of the greatest nights of his life.