As 1988 neared its end, Guns N' Roses was a lively place to be. The GN'R Lies album was selling well despite the controversy generated by Axl Rose's One In A Million – the singer had spent the month since its release fending off accusations of homophobia and racism – and, behind the scenes, sobriety was an increasingly rare commodity.
In December, guitarist Izzy Stradlin passed out on a flight to Tokyo after consuming the heroin he'd smuggled onto the airplane in a boom box. "He was still out of it when they got to Japan," remembered band manager Alan Niven. "They had to wheel him through immigration in a cart."
The rest of the band weren't in much better shape, and drummer Steve Adler was worse, with an addiction to heroin that would see him enter rehab when the band returned to the US.
The following month, Guns N' Roses were scheduled to perform at the American Music Awards, held at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, when Sweet Child O' Mine would triumph in Pop/Rock Song category ahead of Rick Astley's subsequent meme fodder Never Gonna Give You Up, and Appetite For Destruction would lose out to Def Leppard's Hysteria in the Album vote.
Only problem? No drummer.
No problem. Eagles sticksman Don Henley was signed to the same label as GN'R, and Axl had recently recorded harmony vocals on I Will Not Go Quietly from Henley’s The End Of The Innocence album, which would be released the following June.
"I was in the studio about two or three weeks later, and the phone rang," Henley told Modern Drummer. "It was Axl. He says, 'I got a proposition for you. We've got to play the American Music Awards, and our drummer's sick. We want you to play the drums.' I was a little taken aback by the proposition. So I told him I'd think about it and call him back."
Ultimately, the album's producer, Danny Kortchmar, convinced Henley it would be a good idea, which is how he ended up anchoring Guns N' Roses during their AMA performance of Patience, a song that didn't feature any drums in its original recorded form. "Fortunately it was a ballad that we played, not a balls-to-the-wall number," Henley said. "I rehearsed with Axl a couple of days, although the whole band never showed up. But it was a piece of cake."
For Adler, the AMA performance came as something as a surprise.
"When I got out, someone asked me why I hadn’t appeared on the American Music Awards," he said. "I didn’t know what the hell he was talking about. I was stunned and hurt. I can’t begin to describe the feeling of betrayal. Nobody in our organisation even mentioned the AMAs to me."
The writing was clearly on the wall. Guns N' Roses wouldn't play again until October, when they scheduled a show at the Cathouse in Los Angeles and shot a video for It's So Easy – before opening four shows for the Rolling Stones, when Axl Rose famously announced he would quit the band if certain members didn't stop "dancing with Mr. Brownstone."
Adler played his final show with the band in April 1990 at the Farm Aid IV festival, held at the Hoosier Dome in Indianapolis. Three months later he was fired.
