Frank Ferrer, the man who sat behind the drum kit for Guns N’ Roses for nearly two decades, has been talking to Rolling Stone about his stint in the band. He’s also said some very nice things about Axl Rose. Who would have thought?
Rose’s reputation goes before him. But Ferrer paints a picture of a focused individual who looks out for his bandmates. When asked what the world misunderstands about the singer, Ferrer replies: “That he’s a mean guy. I think the world thinks that he’s a scary, mean guy. And he’s the complete opposite. He doesn’t suffer fools, so that might piss people off. But he’s generous and super funny, and worried about us all the time, worried about, ‘Hey, you guys, how you guys doing?’ ‘Hey, is Frank OK? Hey, Frank, are you OK?’ ‘I’m doing fine.’ He’s, ‘Oh, OK, cool.’ It’s that kind of stuff constantly.”
“I wish they could know him the way I know him. That’s the only way I could say it. He’s a great musician, great singer, all that stuff that goes in the pot, but he’s a good man.”
Ferrer joined GNR in 2006, replacing Brian ‘Brain’ Mantia, who had held down the drummer’s spot since 2000. He played on some of the Chinese Democracy tracks and had seen the pressure Rose was under to deliver the album - which by the mid-2000s had already acquired a mythic status – all whilst touring on his own, without the original members.
“He’s out there busting his ass, trying to make everything sound great, be great every night,” said Ferrer. “He’s under immense pressure, and he delivers. He would lead the way. We would go up there and even if you’re feeling like, ‘Oh, man, I don’t know if I feel that great tonight,’ and then he comes out and starts singing and, I don’t know, turning into the Hulk out there. You’re like, ‘Fuck this. I better get to where he’s at.’ And everybody would push. He loves being up there. He loves giving a good show. And we had to rise to the occasion.”
Ferrer stayed with the band until last year, when it was announced via social media that he would be leaving ‘amicably’. It was, the drummer explains, “nothing dramatic...We didn’t get into a fight or anything like that. No.”
“Everything comes to an end,” he reflects. “And I’ve said this before, I knew this thing wasn’t gonna be forever. I was just so happy I got to do it when I got to do it, and now I’m doing other stuff. It’s really that simple.”
