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Re: How big of a deal was Steven being fired when it happened?
GNR went through a lot of changes in a pretty short amount of time:
In March 1990, Dizzy joined
Civil War was released on the Nobody’s Child benefit in June 1990 featuring piano on a GN’R song in an extended capacity (the outro of OIAM doesn’t necessarily count..)
Then Steven was fired in July, and Matt replaced him and KOHD was released with Matt in July 1990
So in a matter of six months you had a keyboardist joining the band altering the sound, and the original drummer fired and a very different drummer replacing him
Was there any fan reaction back when it happened? What was the initial reaction to Civil War and KOHD in 90 and GNR’s new sound (prior to the UYI release)?
Re: How big of a deal was Steven being fired when it happened?
It's Matt on Days Of Thunder KOHD, just the production is different from the UYI version.
Matt: They had tapes of a lot of stuff. They had recorded some of the album with Steven already, although a lot of it got canned. They kept "Civil War," which had Steven on it, but before all the rehearsals, we went in and cut the track for the movie Days Of Thunder, "Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door." We rehearsed that for about an hour, got the groove, and went in. That was my first day of playing with those guys, but we had to get the song done because the movie was going to be out the following week. They played the live video that Steven played on, which was weird, but it’s me you hear on the radio. [Modern Drummer, June 1991]
Steven was de facto out of the band - or at least half out - as soon as his probation period expired (on April 28, 1990). They were already rehearsing and doing pre-production with Matt in June at the latest. Initially, according to Matt, the plan was for him to be only the studio drummer and record the album, and then for GN'R to do the tour with Steven (if he got his act together in the meantime). But then, in July, Steven was officially fired and Matt joined as a member - the incident with Erin Everly, which happened earlier that month, was probably the catalyst that closed the door on Steven for good. Right after Steven's official firing, the actual recordings/production of UYI started with the recording of the basic tracks.
The first known press report about Steven's firing and Matt joining was in August and the official confirmation came from Axl in the MTV Famous Last Words interview (there was also a Slash interview announcing it which had been conducted earlier but released in September). Based only on the press of the time, it doesn't seem it was a big deal, but yes, it was a much bigger fuss when Steven sued the band in 1991.
- Tortilla_Man
- Rep: 1
Re: How big of a deal was Steven being fired when it happened?
It should have been a bigger deal since the band have never sounded the same since.
But so much was going, with the world jonesing for new GNR music and the circus that sourounded the UYI release.
It kinda get swept under the rug real quick.
But then when Izzy left I knew it was over.
That's almost half the band,
and GNR was a rare band where all 5 of them had significant input to the sound of the music.
I wish they could have held it together for one more album, I would have preferred a follow-up to AFD that had all the same guys.
- Smoking Guns
- Rep: 330
Re: How big of a deal was Steven being fired when it happened?
What live video is Matt talking about that has Matt in audio but Steven in the video
