steven_deanna_adler

Steven: The whole five years that we were together. Every moment. It was magic. It was really magic. We couldn't do wrong and it was excitement 25 hours, 8 days a week. So, just being a part of those guys was great. It was like I was part of the cool kids in school.

Deanna: That was his family. When he was in a band, that was his family. And that was okay.

Steven: Assholes.

[laughter]

Deanna: One of the most exciting times for us is the first time we saw him play.. We went in and we saw Steven and he says "stand over here so you won't get hurt." So he leaves us and all of a sudden the light goes down, pitch black, and then all of a sudden we hear Steven bang on the drums, the guitar, and it was so loud, I actually thought a 747 landed on my head. That's how loud it was, I immediately got deaf, I lost my hearing. My head was going boom boom boom! There was so much weed in that place!

Steven: And that was just from me! That was just me smoking!

Deanna: I was high, I had a headache, I mean my brain was going crazy, I couldn't hear nothing. So I lasted about 3 songs and then we left. On the way home, don't even ask me what was going on in the car, I couldn't hear anything, Jamie fell asleep, he was probably stoned already and he passed out. On the way home I got scared. I said What's going on? What's this all about? What's happening? I never in my wildest dreams thought that they were gonna make it big, that they were going to be the number 1 band in the country at that time.

Steven: Be patient. Just live your life one second, one day at a time. Hang around with people who are not addicts. You are who you hang around with. If you hang around with junkies, you are going to be a junkie. If you hang out with nice, happy, good loving, caring people, you're going to be good, happy, loving, caring person. Definitely go to meetings and listen, and talk. One thing that is really cool about my mom writing her book and then me writing me book was that you should take a pen and paper and write down your life. Be completely honest, it's yourself, you can't lie to yourself, even though people do. Be completely honest and write down your life, everything that was good and bad, and read it, and then burn it and move forward.

Deanna: I am so glad that Steven is back with me, he's back on top, He knows what he's doing. To make sure that everyone out there can find strength and inspiration from this book and hopefully free themselves from addiction.

Deanna: I would also say the same thing, go to these meetings. You can go to Al-Anon, you could go to AA, talk to your friends, talk to your minister, talk to your Rabbi, just don't keep it inside. Don't be like me, where I kept everything inside and denied everything. When I finished writing this book, it was so cathartic for me, because all of a sudden I don't care if anyone knew what was going on in my life. It was wonderful. I'm not ashamed anymore that my son is called a "drug addict" and "alcoholic. “it’s okay I'm not alone. I want people to realize this, that they are not alone.

Steven: Don't give up on this person that you love and just realize that it's a disease. Just like if you had asthma or cancer, you're not going to give up on that person because they need an inhaler. It's a disease. When I was doing drugs and I was hurting my mom, my family, my wife, people around me, I wasn't doing it on purpose. I wasn't waking up like "I'm gonna get high just so I can fuck with my family and piss them off and hurt them." It's a disease and you have to be patient. Don't give up.

Deanna: The book "Sweet Child of Mine" has everything that I went through. I never gave up on my son. He'll tell you, he can stop calling me for a year, and as soon as he called me, I was there in five minutes. I never gave up on him and these parents should never give up on their children because they're babies! They're children.

Steven: When we played the street scene in 1986, downtown LA. There were 100,000 people in the streets, outside, and we started playing. Literally not 10s, or 100s, thousands of people were spitting on the stage at us. I was in the back, so I wasn't getting hit. The coolest thing was, nobody in the band got pissed off , they started spitting back at them. It was one of those moments like "holy shit! What am I doing here? How did I get here? and Why is this so awesome!"

Deanna: I'm so glad I wasn't there.

Steven: That and playing with The Rolling Stones at the coliseum was pretty fucking cool!

Steven: I think that's what Axl was thinking. We played that show at the Ritz that was live on MTV one night and he introduced me as Steven Popcorn Adler. That one and only time. He would always introduce me as Steven California Indica Bud Adler. I'm a big pot smoker. So, that one night that it happened to be live on TV, out of nowhere he just called me popcorn and it just stuck. I think it was like when I play my hair bounces up and down. Like popcorn popping in a machine. I don't know. He's insane. I don't know why the hell he did it. It just happened. He just called me that.

Deanna: I never like that, by the way. I never liked that.

Steven: I had a great time last year doing the couple shows that I got to do with them, but it was everything that I thought it was going to be. It was the complete opposite. If it was going be just the five original guys with Dizzy and Axl, Slash, and Duff and myself, then yes I will, but otherwise, it's not the magic and it's not fair to the fans. Me and Dizzy actually really do wanna be a part of it.