Josh Freese is one of many great drummers to have featured in Guns N’ Roses over the years – and as far as he’s concerned, nobody could ever play the way Steven Adler did on the band’s legendary debut album Appetite For Destruction.
Freese joined Guns N’ Roses in the late ’90s as the replacement for Matt Sorum, who had taken over from Adler in 1990.
Freese’s two-year contract with the band (1997-1999) was the result of friend and colleague Paul Westerberg of The Replacements nudging Freese to go for it.
Freese performed on the GN’R single Oh My God, which appeared on the End Of Days film soundtrack in 1999. In addition, he was credited as co-writer on that track.
During his two years with the band, Freese recorded an estimated 30 tracks for what would eventually become the storied Chinese Democracy album. He was also a co-writer of that album’s title track along with singer Axl Rose, guitarists Paul Tobias and Robin Finck, bassist Tommy Stinson, keyboard player Dizzy Reed, producer Caram Costanzo and engineer Eric Caudieux.
However, when Chinese Democracy was finally released in 2008 after 14 years in the making, Freese was credited only for ‘arrangements’. His performance on the title track was replaced by a new recording by Frank Ferrer, while the remainder of Freese’s drum parts were re-recorded by Bryan ‘Brain’ Mantia.
Speaking to MusicRadar, Freese says of his role on one of the most expensively recorded albums of all time: “All I know – and that I am happy about – is that the song I wrote ended up being the title track of that album. So if you look at the album credits, my name’s always attached to that record.
“It's not ‘Josh Freese the drummer’ on that record. It’s like, ’Oh, Josh Freese wrote the music to the title track?’ That's kind of cool.”
Freese has his own take on why his drum parts were replaced by Bryan ‘Brain’ Mantia.
“I think that Axl was wanting Brain to feel a part of the project,” he says. “So when he came in, Axl’s like, ‘You know, hey, let’s redo the drums!’
“I think there’s also an excuse – at least in the Guns N' Roses thing, since they were taking so long to do everything – to prolong things by another month or two. You know, sometimes you do stuff and you want to feel like you're busy. ‘Oh, we gotta re-record these drums, you know?’ But do you really have to re-record those drums?”
Freese says he enjoyed the experience of working with Axl Rose, despite the singer’s reputation for being somewhat difficult.
“It was great!” he says. “I think that people, a lot of times, want to hear horror stories about Axl, and I really don't have any. He was always real generous with me, and easy to get along with.
“I really don't have anything bad to say about him! I enjoyed working with him, and I liked the fact that he was open to other people writing and open to me as the new drummer.
“If I had a good idea, he'd want to use it, and he did. And I had other songs that were kind of in the running, so to speak, that didn't end up on the A-list, but that's fine. I mean, the fact that I've got the title track, it's kind of cool, you know?”
During Freese’s time with Guns N’ Roses, it was reported that a new version of the band’s classic debut Appetite For Destruction was recorded using more modern Pro Tools techniques with producer Sean Beavan.
Freese tells MusicRadar that the magic of the original album could never be recreated – in part due to the unique feel of Steven Adler's drumming.
Freese says of Adler's performance on that record. “It had a swing and a weird swagger to it that can't really be duplicated, and it was of a time. I don't even know if Steven Adler could do that again. Honestly, it's just kind of the way it worked out, kind of like lightning in a bottle.”
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