Cult Drummer Experiences Life After Guns N' Roses

06/16/1999 7:00 PM, Yahoo! Music
Craig Rosen

(6/16/99, 4 p.m. PDT) - Drummer Matt Sorum is back playing with the Cult, as evidenced by the band's performance on Saturday (June 13) at the Tibetan Freedom Concert (LAUNCH, 6/14). However, there was a time when he left the Cult to join Guns N' Roses. It was an experience that the drummer will never forget.

"I left to go play with Guns N' Roses, and the band was such a huge band that there was a lot of outside influences and corporate stuff and a lot of money, and it really took a toll on us," Sorum says. "It was a lot of hard stuff to deal with, a lot of pressure, and there was a lot of drugs and alcohol involved...Everything got a little hazy and it was all coming so fast."

Sorum stayed with Guns for a while, but eventually he had to leave the band. "When it stopped being fun, I said, 'I can't do this anymore,' and I left. I took a couple of years off and I started looking at my life and I started changing a lot of things--and just basically kind of went on my own to see if I could do music on my own. I did some movie scores and I put another band together. I did a lot of stuff to satisfy myself as a musician, not to ride on the coattails of Axl Rose, which wasn't that fun."

The Cult, whose new lineup also includes former Porno For Pyros member Martyn LeNoble on bass, plan on touring later this summer.

-- Darren Davis, New York

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