Matt Sorum Reveals How Lars Ulrich Helped Him Get Hired By Guns N’ Roses

Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich celebrated his 57th birthday over the weekend on Dec. 26. Among those who wished him a happy birthday was drummer Matt Sorum, who also revealed that Ulrich helped him get hired by Guns N' Roses in early '90s.

"Happy Birthday to my pal of 31 years Lars Ulrich," Sorum wrote in an Instagram post of the two drummer together. "We met when the Cult opened the Justice For All tour and spent many nights on the road together living the life of Rock 'N' Roll."

"After that we remained close as Lars was the one that gave Slash my phone number to get in GN'R," he continued. "Of course the Epic GN'R, Metallica Stadium tour was legendary. Besides all of the musical accolades most importantly he has always been there as a friend."

See the post below.

Guns N' Roses hired Sorum in 1990 following the firing of original drummer Steven Adler, who played on a single song from the Use Your Illusion albums — "Civil War." Sorum appeared on the aforementioned 1991 double album, as well as their 1993 covers album The Spaghetti Incident? before being fired in 1997 by Axl Rose.

"In '97 I got into a little bit of an argument with Axl about the state of the band. He'd brought in another guitar player, Paul Huge, and none of us really wanted to play with him," Sorum told LJ World in 2001. This was after Slash had left the band, and Sorum told Rose that he should have Slash return.

"[Rose] was like, 'I don't need Slash.' And I said, 'Well I think you do.' And he asked me, 'Are you gonna quit?' And I said, 'No I'm not going to quit.' And he said, 'Well you're fired,'" the drummer remembered. "So I left, and I remember walking out the door and I went back to my six-level palatial estate, where I was producing a band called Candlebox, they were in my house. And I said, 'I've just been fired from Guns N' Roses.' And we sat down and we celebrated."