MIKE PORTNOY CALLS OUT MATT SORUM FOR HIS BORING DRUMMING

You know you’ve met a true Guns N’ Roses nerd when he or she gets a joke about Matt Sorum’s drum fills on the Use Your Illusion albums. For reasons that are baffling to pretty much everyone, Sorum, who was replacing fired skinsman Steven Adler, decided that the best way to demonstrate the dynamic quality of his own musicianship was to play the same fill, like, a gajillion times. I mean, he plays the same fill so frequently it’s like a parody; it’s totally laughable.

And a few days ago, Mike Portnoy decided to call Sorum out on it via Twitter:

Of course, the terrific thing about the modern era is that pretty much everyone is aware of everything everyone else is saying at all times. So Sorum responded:

I do seem to recall Sorum saying on Makin’ F@*!ing Videos Part II – “November Rain” that Axl Rose instructed him to play in the style of Elton John drummer Nigel Olsson on these songs, and his point about drumming not being all about “fancy” stuff is well-taken. I’d counter-argue that Olsson’s drumming was never as boring as this, though, and that there’s a happy medium between being “fancy” and being soporific. I’d also point out that as much as I love the Illusion albums, saying they sold a lot of copies isn’t really an indication of their quality.

But Portnoy didn’t make any of those counter-arguments, instead just opting to be polite:

Which is silly, because he wasn’t just making an observation — he was being critical (which, in his defense, is not necessarily the same thing as being “disrespectful”). And because he was right. Really, Portnoy should have stuck to his guns. But at least this little exchange occurred in public, so we all got to enjoy it!

-AR