Matt Sorum has made a significant impact on the world of music, particularly with his role as the drummer for Guns N' Roses. Born on November 19, 1960, he has contributed to one of the greatest albums in rock history. These albums showcased Sorum's exceptional drumming skills and played a pivotal role in shaping the sound and success of Guns N' Roses during that era. Joining the band in the late 1980s, Sorum became an integral part of the lineup during a crucial period in their career.
Happy Birthday to Matt Sorum!
Here are some interesting facts:
1. He started playing drums at age 4 after seeing Ringo Star with the Beetles on The Ed Sullivan Show
2. A respectable list of almost all the fathers of the tom-toms and snares influenced him: Ian Paice, Keith Moon, Neil Peart, Ginger Baker, John Bonham, Roger Taylor, Buddy Rich, and Bill Ward.
3. In the mid-1980s Matt left his childhood home in Orange County and moved to Hollywood where he played with a number of groups in bars and nightclubs.
4. In 1988 he was recruited to play on the band's debut album "Y Kant Tori Read" which was led by singer Tori Amos which became a diligent failure and was abandoned by the record company after two months.
5. At the end of the recording of Amos' album, he joined the band The Cult as a drummer, a British hard rock band formed in 1984.
6. Slash who was present at one of the band's shows was very impressed with Matt and hence the road was short for him to join Guns after Steven Adler's departure.
7. During his time with Guns he was part of recording masterpiece albums "Use Your Illusion I & II".
8. He was also a part of the tour of that double albums which included 194 appearances in 9 different rounds.
9. He also recorded with Guns the controversial album "The Spaghetti Incident?" And the cover
of "Sympathy for the Devil"
10. He was of course part of Guns' live album 'Live Era '87 -'93'
11. He was one of the drummers who participated in the album "Burning for Buddy: A Tribute to the Music of Buddy Rich", in which various drummers played with the orchestra of the famous drummer Buddy Rich. The person who initiated and produced the album is none other than the super drummer, the professor, Neil Peart from the band Rush.
12. In 1995 he formed with Slash and Gilby Clark the band Slash's Snakepit, when in the same year they released their debut album (and the only one with Matt) "It's Five O'Clock Somewhere".
13. That same year he was also part of the supergroup Neurotic Outsiders with his friends Duff McKagan, Steve Jones, and John Taylor (Duran Duran) when a year later they released their only album of the same name.
14. In 1997 he was fired from Guns following a dispute with Axl over guitarist Paul Tobias, Matt was the last one left with Axl from the double album era.
15. After he left he released an instructional film on drums called "Drum Licks and Tricks from the Rock n Roll Jungle" which was also the only one.
16. About Guns' famous reunion he heard, like everyone else, through the media publications and is as we already know not part of the union!
17. In 1998 he co-created the soundtrack for the movie "Soundman", which was part of the Slamdance Film Festival. To promote the film, Matt invited Slash and Duff to play with him at the festival. Some say that following this performance they felt that there was still chemistry between them and they formed the supergroup Velvet Revolver.
18. There is another version that says the trio felt the chemistry in the fundraising show they did in honor of Randy Castillo who died of cancer.
19. With Velvet Revolver he released 2 albums, "Contraband" (2004) and "Libertad" (2007) and went on several tour appearances. They were nominated for 3 Grammy Awards and won one.
20. In 2001 he returned to The Cult and recorded with them the album "Beyond Good And Evil".
21. In 2002 he formed the supergroup "Camp Freddy" together with guitarist Dave Navarro. The supergroup performed in the years 2002-2014 with cover versions of rock 'n' roll songs and included many guest artists including Scott Weiland, Chester Bennington, Sebastian Bach, Ace Frehley, Courtney Love, Tom Morello, Corey Taylor and more ...
22. He has released two solo albums in which he sings and plays, "Hollywood Zen"(2004) and "Stratosphere"(2007).
23. In 2009 he took the place of a Motorhead drummer for 13 shows. Matt said he accepted the offer via text message, with Lemmy asking him to play the drums. Matt (who to this day does not know why) asked, Why me? Lemmy replied "Because Dave Grohl is not available".
24. In 2012 he formed the supergroup "Kings of Chaos" together with Duff McKagan and Gilby Clarke. Also in this case the lineup included a crazy list of well-known guest artists like Joe Elliott, Glenn Hughes, Gene Simmons, Mike Inez, Myles Kennedy, Brian May and many more. The band played cover versions of the artists hosted by it and also recorded a cover version of the song "Never Before" which was included on the tribute album "Re-Machined: A Tribute to Deep Purple's Machine Head".
25. In 2014 he adopted an Asian Black Bear after many years in captivity, he tried to create awareness in order to stop the captivity of this bear breed that is used to create different types of drugs (you do not want to know how).
26. He was also a member of the "Hollywood Vampires" supergroup formed by Alice Cooper, Johnny Depp, and Joe Perry and focused on cover versions of artists who died in the 1970s.
27. In 2018 he formed a new supergroup called Deadland Ritual with singer Franky Perez (Apocalyptica), guitarist Steve Stevens (Billy Idol, Michael Jackson) and bassist Geezer Butler (if you do not know go look).
28. Matt has been featured on albums by many artists, including two by Billy Gibbons "ZZ Top" guitarist , with the latest of which "Hardware" he also co-produced with Billy.
Listen to one of the great live album albums in which he was a partner: Spotify, Apple Music