Former Guns N’ Roses drummer Frank Ferrer explains the influences behind his live sound

Former Guns N’ Roses drummer Frank Ferrer has reflected on the challenge of performing music associated with different periods in the band’s history. Speaking to the Drum For The Song podcast, he explained how the approaches of Steven Adler and Matt Sorum shaped his own interpretations.

I’ve been asked this question before. I tried really hard to be somewhere in the middle, because both drummers… Guns N’ Roses are eras of Guns N’ Roses. So you had the Adler era, you had the Sorum era, and then you had the Brain [Bryan Mantia] era. The Brain era was kind of set in stone more, because it was cut to a click and the drumming was more proggy, a little more proggy than what Adler and Sorum did. And then Adler’s off-the-rails feeling on that first record that makes you wanna get up and throw something against a wall, that feeling, and then Sorum’s nice, steady foundational feeling. So I was trying to be somewhere in the middle. I don’t know if I accomplished it a lot of times, but I wanted that funky, punk rocky, edgy this-is-about-to-fall apart feeling, but also keeping, the foundational thing.

I think the best song that I was really able to accomplish that in was ‘You Could Be Mine’. Because, from what I understand, they were playing it with Adler, and then they recorded it with Sorum. And I think that song signifies the best version of both, where you have the [loose vibe], but then you have the steady thing at the same time. I loved trying to conquer that, because that first [Guns N’ Roses album, 1987’s ‘Appetite For Destruction’]… I mean, Adler’s going — he’s going off, bro. That record is slamming. It’s so punk. And then Sorum comes in and makes it — like, ‘Locomotive’ is slamming. The drumming on that is ridiculous — just real steady, funky, mean attitude.