Former Pearl Jam drummer Dave Abbruzzese played with the group from 1992 to 1994 and appeared on two of their most successful albums, “Vs.” and “Vitalogy.”
Abbruzzese was ousted from the band in 1994, but just a few years later, he nearly became the drummer for Guns ’N’ Roses. In a new interview with Songfacts, Abbruzzese explained why he ultimately declined the gig.
“The Guns thing was tough,” he said. “Axl and I became familiar with one another through nightly phone calls for months before we actually met and played music together. It was a tough time for me because I had quite a bit of soul poisoning from the way my manager handled my termination from Pearl Jam. I was leery of entering the big machine again because of it.”
Things were progressing for Abbruzzese to join, however, until he shared his opinion of new Guns ’N’ Roses material at the time. “Things were moving along well until I spoke to the GN’R management regarding my opinion that the new music might be better suited to an Axl solo album rather than a GN’R album,” he said. “Guns’ manager at the time told me that the management and the label had a plan of letting the album we were making be the catalyst for getting Axl to reunite with Slash. The plan was to let him fail, and the hope was that this failure would inspire him to reunite with Slash and get the big train back on the tracks. When I heard this, I was forced to choose between informing Axl about it or just bowing out. I felt that if I told him of their plan, it would destroy what little faith he had in the machine.”
He continued: “So I opted to take one on the chin and sacrifice my new friendship for the sake of Axl’s ability to continue to be a creative force. It was a difficult decision but ultimately one that I am glad I made. I love that guy, and I didn’t want to be responsible for ruining the chance of him and the band continuing to make music for their fans that had waited so patiently for so long for GN’R to get back to it.”
