What has become of Matt Sorum?

“And Since I Don’t Have You my Sweet Child O’ Mine, let me do some Knocking On Heaven’s Door, I want to go to Paradise City, but what’s this?! Welcome To The Jungle? Used to Love Her so much, but what can I do? Sometimes I just want to Live and Let Die!”

Sorry, got carried away 😉

Just a few of our favorites songs from the band Guns N’ Roses. By the way, ever wonder how’s it going with Matt Sorum after the 2016 GNR reunion and why he was not part of it? Well, please do continue reading and I will try my best to tell you a secret. Hussshhhh… in 3… 2… 1…
But before the secret, let’s have a little introduction to know Matt Sorum a bit more 😉

Born as Matthew William Sorum on 19 November 1960 in California. He idolized Ringo Starr in his childhood years after he watched The Beatles performed on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1964. But he was mainly influenced by Buddy Rich, Neil Peart, John Bonham, Keith Moon, Ian Paice, Roger Taylor, Bill Ward, and Ginger Baker. When he was in high school, he was a member of wind ensemble, marching band, and jazz band.

After a series of gigs, in 1988, Matt Sorum was invited by the band Y Kant Tori Read, the band fronted by the American singer-songwriter and pianist Tori Amos, to play for their debut album. Then he joined The Cult, he was the band’s live drummer in their 1989-1990 Sonic Temple tour. And the next is history!

During the Sonic Temple tour in 1989, Slash saw Matt. And I guess you know what happened next 😉 To those who got it wrong, but I guess none? well, what happened was GNR’s then drummer Steven Adler was replaced! Fast forward a bit, in 1997, after an argument with Axl Rose over Paul Tobias being the new member of GNR, Sorum was fired. Awww, so sad! But in April 2006, after nine years, Axl and Matt became friends again. Sweet!

Alright, they became friends again, but why is it Sorum still not included in the 2016 GNR reunion? Well, here it is… According from the interview of Rolling Stone to Sorum, he learned about the reunion through rumors even though he was with Slash and Duff in a South American tour. When they got back to Los Angeles, Sorum confronts Duff. And here’s their short conversation, an excerpt from the interview:
“Axl wants to use his drummer (Frank Ferrer),” Sorum remembers Duff telling him.
“Go to Axl and tell him you want me on drums,” Sorum responded. “Period. Now’s the time.”
“Oh, man,” Duff replied in a soft voice. “I already signed the deal.”

I feel you Matt but what can we do? Life goes on. Here’s another excerpt from the interview:
…but Sorum says he’s gotten over it. “I’ve come to terms with the fact that they’re doing their own thing, and I’m doing mine,” he tells Rolling Stone. “I can’t say that when it went down, I was completely happy with the circumstances. At the same time, I feel really good about my time in the band.”
You did a great job Matt! Aside from GNR, he was also with Velvet Revolver, Motörhead, the Hollywood Vampires, and Kings of Chaos.

Here’s the discography of the Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame inductee & Grammy Award winning Matt Sorum. He released two solo studio albums and a further 14 studio albums with various groups:

Solo (Album)
• 2004 – Hollywood Zen
• 2014 – Stratosphere
(Other appearances)
• 1999 – Humanary Stew: A Tribute to Alice Cooper – Elected

With Y Kant Tori Read
• 1988 – Y Kant Tori Read

With Guns N’ Roses
• 1991 – Use Your Illusion I
• 1991 – Use Your Illusion II
• 1993 – The Spaghetti Incident?
(Other appearance)
• 1994 – Interview with the Vampire – Sympathy for the Devil

With Slash’s Snakepit
• 1995 – It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere

With the Power Rangers Orchestra
• 1995 – Mighty Morphin Power Rangers the Movie: Original Soundtrack Album – Go Go Power Rangers

With Neurotic Outsiders (A rock supergroup with Matt Sorum and Duff Kagan of GNR, John Taylor of Duran Duran, and Steve Jones of Sex Pistols)
• 1996 – Neurotic Outsiders (album)
• 1996 – Seattle Head (song)
• 1997 – Spanish Ballroom (song)
• 1997 – Planet Earth (song)

With Hawk
• 2001 – Hawk

With The Cult
• 2001 – Beyond Good and Evil

With Velvet Revolver
(Studio albums)
• 2004 – Contraband
• 2007 – Libertad (EP)
• 2007 – Melody and the Tyranny (Singles)
• 2003 – Set Me Free
• 2004 – Slither
• 2004 – Fall to Pieces
• 2005 – Dirty Little Thing
• 2005 – Come on, Come In
• 2007 – She Builds Quick Machines
• 2007 – The Last Fight
• 2008 – Get Out the Door
(As featured artist)
• 2005 – Across the Universe
• 2005 – Tears in Heaven
• 2010 – Kissed It
(Video Albums)
• 2010 – Live in Houston
• 2012 – Let It Roll: Live in Germany

With Camp Freddy
• 2006 – Employee of the Month: Original Soundtrack – Surrender, and Twentieth Century Boy

With Johnny Crash
• 2008 – Unfinished Business

With Kings of Chaos
• 2012 – Re-Machined: A Tribute to Deep Purple’s Machine Head – Never Before

With Deadland Ritual
• 2018 – non-album single – Down in Flames
• 2019 – non-album single – Broken and Bruised

Guest appearances: (Year – Artists – Album)
• 1987 – Jeff Paris – Wired Up
• 1993 – Duff McKagan – Believe in Me
• 1994 – Gilby Clarke – Pawnshop Guitars
• 1994 – Buddy Rich – Burning for Buddy: A Tribute to the Music of Buddy Rich
• 1995 – Poe – Hello
• 1995 – Glenn Hughes – Feel
• 1996 – Teddy Andreadis – Innocent Loser
• 1997 – Sammy Hagar – Marching to Mars
• 1999 – Glenn Hughes – The way It Is
• 2000 – Milkweed – Milkweed
• 2001 – Mr. Big – Actual Size
• 2001 – T-Square – Truth 21c
• 2001 – Haven – The Road
• 2002 – Haven – Haven
• 2005 – Tommy Lee – Tommyland: The Ride
• 2006 – ApologetiX – Wordplay
• 2006 – Stevie Salas – Be What It Is
• 2007 – Gina Gershon – In Search of Cleo
• 2007 – Circus Diablo – Circus Diablo
• 2008 – Sammy Hagar – Cosmic Universal Fashion
• 2009 – Macy Gray – Drive A
• 2009 – Macy Gray – The Sellout
• 2011 – Atif Aslam – The Dreamer Awakes
• 2018 – Billy Gibbons – The Big Bad Blues
• 2021 – Billy Gibbons – Hardware

If you still want to know more about Matt Sorum, well, this coming 10 May 2022, Double Talkin’ Jive: True Rock ‘n’ Roll Stories from the Drummer of Guns N’ Roses, The Cult, and Velvet Revolver book will be released. It is an autobiography where the music fans of any generation will find value in every pages, this is according to Matt 😉
To know more about the book, you can visit his website at mattsorum.com .
Oh well, I guess this is good bye… But just for now! Hope to see you on my next blog! Stay safe everyone!