Guns N' Roses' drummer of the last 12 years, Frank Ferrer, says his tenure in the band wasn't expected to last nearly this long.
"I started in 2008; I was supposed to be temporary, but I pretty much stayed there," he told Eddie Trunk in a recent conversation.
Being that his tenure predates the 'Not in This Lifetime' tour — the return of Slash and Duff McKagan to the band in 2016 — Ferrer has seen things in the GNR world change dramatically over the last several years. But playing for packed stadiums isn't as challenging as accurately performing songs recorded by three different drummers.
"...I really had to work hard to make sure I was able to represent [Steven] Adler's feel, Matt Sorum's feel and [Bryan 'Brain' Mantia's] feel of the Chinese Democracy [era]..." Ferrer explained. "So that was the toughest challenge — finding all three eras of Guns N' Roses and bringing them together to one cohesive way of playing their material."
Adler, Sorum and Brain are fundamentally different drummers, Ferrer continued. He admits that there was also a learning curve when it came to playing off of Slash and McKagan.
The drummer on the band's world-conquering Appetite for Destruction album, Adler repeatedly lobbied to be included on the 'Not in This Lifetime' reunion. While the band never committed to bringing him back full-time, he sat in for a few songs on several 'Not in This Lifetime' shows during the initial run.
Ferrer was happy to facilitate those moments.
"To be there and see the audience, the crowd, that energy when Adler sat down — I thought it was really special ... Adler's such a cool guy — he's a puppy dog, you know?" Ferrer recalls. "So it's nice to see him and have him around, and I'm glad he had that moment and I think the crowd, you could see the emotion in the crowd. I thought it was nice, I had no problem with it. Steven is a really sweet man, I really like him a lot."
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