Drummer Dave Abbruzzese is best known for his 1991 to 1994 stint with Pearl Jam, but did you know he almost was also a member of Guns N’ Roses? Abbruzzese rehearsed with Axl Rose in the late 1990s during the Chinese Democracy sessions, and the drummer discussed the experience in a new interview with Songfacts.com.
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Abbruzzese told the website that before he ever met or worked with Rose, he chatted with the singer nightly via the phone for months, beginning not long after he was fired from Pearl Jam.
“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,” he recalled. “I was leery of entering the big machine again because of it.”
Once he did begin rehearsing with Rose, Abbruzzese explained, the collaboration was “moving along well”; that is, until he told the Guns N’ Roses management that he thought Rose’s new music “might be better suited to an Axl solo album rather than a GN’R album.”
Abbruzzese said that Guns N’ Rose manager at the time told him the management and the label were hoping that the new album would be a failure, which, in turn, would be “the catalyst for getting Axl to reunite with Slash.”
Chose to Step Away from GN’R
The drummer told Songfacts that once he heard this, he felt “forced to choose between informing Axl about it or just bowing out.”
He added, “I felt that if I told him of their plan, it would destroy what little faith he had in the [music business] machine,” so he decided to step away from the Guns project.
“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,” Abbruzzese explained.
The drummer noted that the decision was difficult for him, but it was one he inevitably was glad he made.
“I love that guy,” he noted, “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.”
About Chinese Democracy and Slash’s GN’R Return
Chinese Democracy finally was released in 2008, to mixed reviews, although it did reach No. 3 on the Billboard 200. Rose did eventually reunite with Slash, who rejoined Guns N’ Roses in 2016.
More About Dave Abbruzzese
Abbruzzese joined Pearl Jam just before the release of the band’s 1991 debut album, Ten. He played on the group’s next two studio efforts, Vs. (1992) and Vitalogy (1994), and co-wrote most of the songs on those records.
He was fired from Pearl Jam apparently because of personality conflicts with some of the other members.
Abbruzzese went on to work with a variety of other artists over the years, including guitarist Stevie Salas and one-time Rolling Stones backing singer Bernard Fowler.
(image via @EricMurray46 on X)
