Matt Sorum says Slash didn't want to play with Carrie Underwood at Lemmy's birthday party

[Blackstar]

New interview with some GN'R stories.

8:25 minute mark: Matt was in charge of putting together a lineup for Lemmy's birthday party (the last one before he died, in 2015) and was told by Motorhead's manager that Carrie Underwood was like a "guilty pleasure" for Lemmy, so Matt invited Carrie and she accepted. She was going to sing some GN'R tunes with Slash, Duff and Matt, but Slash didn't want to do it. Matt says it's funny now that Carrie has joined GN'R on stage.

Matt also tells a cool story about the Rolling Stone photo shoot in 1991 and talks about not being part of the reunion (says it didn't make sense to him to only be a guest for a couple of songs).

[MaskingApathy]

Did Carrie end up going to Lemmy's birthday? Because I don't remember hearing about her being there. Maybe Slash didn't want to do it because he knew the wheels were in motion for the GnR reunion in 2016 so he didn't want to play those songs.

[Blackstar]

2 minutes ago, MaskingApathy said:

Did Carrie end up going to Lemmy's birthday? Because I don't remember hearing about her being there. Maybe Slash didn't want to do it because he knew the wheels were in motion for the GnR reunion in 2016 so he didn't want to play those songs.

She didn't go (Matt says the reason was that Slash didn't want to play with her).

https://blabbermouth.net/news/slash-duff-mckagan-matt-sorum-robert-trujillo-perform-at-lemmys-70th-birthday-party-pro-shot-video-highlights

[Gunner Gilby]

For someone who keeps saying he's over not being back in GN'R he sure likes to try and tell stories that paints the others in a bad light. No one cares Matt. Maybe Slash didn't want to play with her then but he does now as it makes Axl happy. Changing your mind and compromising isn't always a bad thing.

[Free Bird]

Wake me up when he has something positive to say. He always comes across as a bitter motherfucker and acts like he doesn’t know that he has to thank Slash for the most relevant parts of his life. If it weren’t for Slash’s phonecall, who knows where he would have ended up.

[MYWIFEMYLIFE]

Steven or Matt shoulda a been on the reunion ffs. I prefer Steven of course.

[Sweersa]

Say what you will about the man, but I love his playing on the Velvet Revolver albums. His work with Guns was great too. It would be cool to get him to play on some “new” Guns material. Of course, my top choice would be Brain or Josh, but the latter would be unlikely outside of as a guest. 

[DoMw94]

47 minutes ago, MYWIFEMYLIFE said:

Steven or Matt shoulda a been on the reunion ffs. I prefer Steven of course.

What "reunion"? There hasn't been one. Two people returned. It wasn't a reunion and never once was billed as one.

6 hours ago, MaskingApathy said:

Maybe Slash didn't want to do it because he knew the wheels were in motion for the GnR reunion in 2016 so he didn't want to play those songs.

This'll be it. There was already press speculation that Slash was returning in 2015. Forget Carrie Underwood; Slash, Duff, and Matt on stage playing GN'R tunes? The press would've had a field day!

Edited June 9 by DoMw94

[Jwalker19]

This is so weird to me talking about old stuff publicly that could upset multiple people, but that's pretty classic Matt Sorum. Immature.

[Free Bird]

1 hour ago, Sweersa said:

Say what you will about the man, but I love his playing on the Velvet Revolver albums. His work with Guns was great too. It would be cool to get him to play on some “new” Guns material. Of course, my top choice would be Brain or Josh, but the latter would be unlikely outside of as a guest. 

He was great in GNR and his work with Snakepit and VR was even better. I don’t question this. But he acts like a jealous moron at times.

[DTV88]

2 hours ago, Jwalker19 said:

This is so weird to me talking about old stuff publicly that could upset multiple people, but that's pretty classic Matt Sorum. Immature.

Reminds me of when Steven used to pop off every few months or so. At least he seems to be living a nice quiet life these days with the occasional Adler’s Appetite show. 

 

53 minutes ago, Free Bird said:

He was great in GNR and his work with Snakepit and VR was even better. I don’t question this. But he acts like a jealous moron at times.

It really is odd that he would continue like this. Maybe the only sound bites that get published are the negative ones, but Matt has been negative towards Axl for a long time. I mean, the original version of his book was basically a failed attempt to make him look cooler than anyone else. 

[GnR Chris]

10 hours ago, MaskingApathy said:

Maybe Slash didn't want to do it because he knew the wheels were in motion for the GnR reunion in 2016 so he didn't want to play those songs.

Nailed it. Lemmy’s birthday is in December. Plans for Coachella were already in motion.

Matt has previously claimed Duff was avoiding him altogether during that period. According to Matt, Duff told him at the end of summer 2015 that the three GNR partners were in early talks through lawyers. 
 

See here (from the first draft of his book):

“Around the same time Lemmy died, news that Guns N’ Roses were reforming broke all around the world. There were reports that Slash, Duff, and Axl would, among other things, play Coachella that April. That was only the first of the letdowns. I just never saw it coming from Duff McKagan.

“At Lemmy’s funeral in L.A. on January 9, both Duff and Slash were sitting in front of me, in the front row at the chapel, when I got up to give my eulogy. It wasn’t exactly easy to focus on what I wanted to say about Lemmy. My thoughts were swirling around my head. So many of my friends had died in the space of just a few months (including my old bandmate Scott Weiland), and we were all sad about that, but it was clear that we couldn’t manage to care about one another while we were still living. I continued to call Duff, but he was constantly evading me.”

Matt is painting it like Slash didn’t wanna play with Carrie,  but Slash has never had an issue playing with anyone. Slash and Duff didn’t want to appear with Sorum in a high-profile performance right before news of a reunion broke to the world. 

[MillionsOfSpiders]

Matt should’ve just kept that to himself he is such a miserable cunt. 

Being petty towards GnR members is fair game imo and sometimes funny but Carrie didn’t deserve that being put out there. 

[Gordon Comstock]

29 minutes ago, GnR Chris said:

Matt is painting it like Slash didn’t wanna play with Carrie,  but Slash has never had an issue playing with anyone. Slash and Duff didn’t want to appear with Sorum in a high-profile performance right before news of a reunion broke to the world. 

 

Does Matt have the least self-awareness of any GNR member? He just can't help making himself look like an idiot

[Ratam]

He now seem more bitter to Slash than to Axl.

[madison]

For those ragging on Matt, give it a rest. He was a huge – and important – part of GNR. 

I still believe both Matt & Stevie should have been part of the reunion – rather than some replacement drummer that had nothing to do with GNR when it was the biggest band on the planet.  

And as such – Matt has a right to talk about the band and his experiences as much as he wants.

He's earned it. 

[D4NNY]

30 minutes ago, madison said:

 

For those ragging on Matt, give it a rest. He was a huge – and important – part of GNR. 

I still believe both Matt & Stevie should have been part of the reunion – rather than some replacement drummer that had nothing to do with GNR when it was the biggest band on the planet.  

And as such – Matt has a right to talk about the band and his experiences as much as he wants.

He's earned it. 

Hi Matt 👋🏼😅

[Rindmelon]

58 minutes ago, madison said:

Matt has a right to talk about the band and his experiences as much as he wants.

He does, I agree. & fans have a right to point out he often comes across as bitter if that's what they observe from his comments.

[lunastar]

And why is all the focus on Matt? We are talking about the fact that this was Lemmy's last deathbed party. Is reunion money more expensive than a friend's dying wish?

[Gordon Comstock]

1 hour ago, lunastar said:

And why is all the focus on Matt? We are talking about the fact that this was Lemmy's last deathbed party. Is reunion money more expensive than a friend's dying wish?

 

I think you've wildly misread the quote...

[DoMw94]

2 hours ago, madison said:

 

For those ragging on Matt, give it a rest. He was a huge – and important – part of GNR. 

I still believe both Matt & Stevie should have been part of the reunion – rather than some replacement drummer that had nothing to do with GNR when it was the biggest band on the planet.  

And as such – Matt has a right to talk about the band and his experiences as much as he wants.

He's earned it. 

They couldn't have been part of "the reunion" because a "reunion" didn't happen. I'm sure if one day there is one, they will get the call, but there hasn't been one yet.

The current drummer has been in the band nearly 20 years. You think people should respect Matt when he's running his mouth? How about returning that for someone who's been reliable, dependable, and knows how to play the game and isn't firing shots at his bandmates every five minutes.

Nobody "earns" the right to act like a fool and needlessly shit on people. All Matt does these days is say things that don't need to be said. He'd be a lot more respected if he wasn't throwing people under the bus all the time. Great drummer, and as you say, a huge part of GN'R's history, but he constantly makes himself look like an ass. Once upon a time Matt, Slash, and Duff were an inseparable package deal, but it speaks volumes that they keep distancing themselves from him these days...

[MaskingApathy]

3 hours ago, madison said:

 

For those ragging on Matt, give it a rest. He was a huge – and important – part of GNR. 

I still believe both Matt & Stevie should have been part of the reunion – rather than some replacement drummer that had nothing to do with GNR when it was the biggest band on the planet.  

And as such – Matt has a right to talk about the band and his experiences as much as he wants.

He's earned it. 

This 100%. Matt is just an outspoken guy who tells it like it is. Maybe that comes across as being bitter or immature but I don't see it that way. Plus he's not under Axl/TB's thumb so he can say and do whatever he wants.

 

10 hours ago, Free Bird said:

If it weren’t for Slash’s phonecall, who knows where he would have ended up.

He still would've been very successful. He was already playing in a big touring band (Cult) and he was well known and connected in Hollywood due to being a fun outgoing guy. He still would've had a long career as a pro musician.

 

8 hours ago, DoMw94 said:

This'll be it. There was already press speculation that Slash was returning in 2015. Forget Carrie Underwood; Slash, Duff, and Matt on stage playing GN'R tunes? The press would've had a field day!

 

5 hours ago, GnR Chris said:

Nailed it. Lemmy’s birthday is in December. Plans for Coachella were already in motion.

Matt has previously claimed Duff was avoiding him altogether during that period. According to Matt, Duff told him at the end of summer 2015 that the three GNR partners were in early talks through lawyers. 
 

See here (from the first draft of his book):

“Around the same time Lemmy died, news that Guns N’ Roses were reforming broke all around the world. There were reports that Slash, Duff, and Axl would, among other things, play Coachella that April. That was only the first of the letdowns. I just never saw it coming from Duff McKagan.

“At Lemmy’s funeral in L.A. on January 9, both Duff and Slash were sitting in front of me, in the front row at the chapel, when I got up to give my eulogy. It wasn’t exactly easy to focus on what I wanted to say about Lemmy. My thoughts were swirling around my head. So many of my friends had died in the space of just a few months (including my old bandmate Scott Weiland), and we were all sad about that, but it was clear that we couldn’t manage to care about one another while we were still living. I continued to call Duff, but he was constantly evading me.”

Matt is painting it like Slash didn’t wanna play with Carrie,  but Slash has never had an issue playing with anyone. Slash and Duff didn’t want to appear with Sorum in a high-profile performance right before news of a reunion broke to the world. 

Yup. Correct me if I'm wrong @Blackstar but I believe the last time Matt, Duff, and Slash (and Gilby) played GnR songs on stage together was July 2015 (Kings of Chaos). I don't think Coachella and all that was fully in place yet. The Slash and Axl dinner wasn't until October right? By December Slash and Duff knew that 2016 would be all GnR and there was already lots of online chatter about who the drummer would be. 

 

 

Regardless of what you think of Myles and his singing, this sounds much more GnR that what we got later, and a big part of that is Matt.

[DeNfr]

they keep distancing themselves from him because they let him down when a reunion was in the move.
I understand Axl doesn't like him that much, mainly because Matt wasn't afraid to say to him straight to
his face when he thought he was wrong, when the other guys cowardly stepped back.

musically 85% of the fans think he's a better fit than Frank and that's what I think too, too bad
there's not much chemistry with Axl. but yeah, I can see why he said Duff's attitude and Slash was a let down.

 

[Gordon Comstock]

31 minutes ago, DoMw94 said:

They couldn't have been part of "the reunion" because a "reunion" didn't happen. I'm sure if one day there is one, they will get the call, but there hasn't been one yet.

 

The "reunion" was always about Axl and Slash, obviously. Axl said years before it happened that a "reunion" would be Duff and Slash joining his current band, and he has no desire to work with Steven or Matt.

They were never gonna get a call for more than guest appearances, and at this point Matt's shot himself in the foot so many times that even if they did bring back other classic guys, Matt's not getting that call.

[DoMw94]

23 minutes ago, Gordon Comstock said:

 

The "reunion" was always about Axl and Slash, obviously. Axl said years before it happened that a "reunion" would be Duff and Slash joining his current band, and he has no desire to work with Steven or Matt.

They were never gonna get a call for more than guest appearances, and at this point Matt's shot himself in the foot so many times that even if they did bring back other classic guys, Matt's not getting that call.

In fairness Matt apparently did get a call to be a guest, but it was to be unpaid...

 

I mean, duh. Why would you get paid to play one or two songs with a band you're not in or didn't found?