1996.12.25 - Hard Copy - Interview with Steven

Transcript:

Terry Murphy: We've been very, very good. Hi I'm Terry Murphy.

Barry Noland: And I'm Barry Noland and this is Hard Copy for Christmas Day, Wednesday December 25th.

Murphy: We begin this Christmas Day with a story of hope and inspiration. Steven Adler, the musician whose drug habit got so bad it got him kicked out of the band Guns N' Roses, but as Diane Diamond reports Steven straightened out and now he's rocking to a new beat in tonight's Top Copy.

Steven: I am 31 years old and I had a stroke, heart attack, ODed 30 times [?] at least.

Voice-over: A drug induced stroke when he was just 25 years old nearly destroyed Steven Adler's power of speech. Drugs also robbed him of his career as the drummer for the mega hit group Guns N' Roses.

Steven: That's just what it is. Sex, drugs and rock and roll. I just got so involved in it that I got lost.

Voice-over: In this hardcopy exclusive interview Steven Adler and his mother Diana come clean about his drug addiction. He wants to warn other young people that the words in a Guns N' Roses song about drugs are all too true. Quote: I used to do a little but a little wouldn't do, so the little got more and more.

Steven: I don't know anybody, nobody, who did heroin and coke and came out of it a winner.

Voice-over: Steven was just 18 when Guns N' Roses started making headlines. He couldn't believe cocaine could harm him. His own mother was also deep in denial.

Deanna Adler: So when people ask me, "well how is he? what's he doing?" I would make up lies. In fact, I lied so much, Steven, that I actually believed those lies after a while. I actually believed those lies.

Voice-over: Steven says that his life in the fast lane was just like a Guns N' Roses song, Appetite for Destruction.

Steven: I crashed so many cars of mine, I ODed so many times. God just would not take me.

Voice-over: It was Axl Rose, the lead singer of Guns N' Roses who forced Steven's mother to finally admit her baby had a problem. In front of a TV audience of 30 million people, Rose said that Steven was being thrown out of the band because of his drug addiction.

Deanna: And I just stood up and I walked outside and I walked all the way around the block where we lived and then I came back home and I started to cry.

Voice-over: But Steven kept snorting and shooting drugs. Then he suffered the stroke which left this role model for millions of kids broken and bleeding on a filthy bathroom floor.

Steven: I looked in a mirror and said, "you're ugly [?]. Something's gotta change."

Voice-over: Something did change. Steven stopped using drugs and turned to spiritual pursuits. He started painting, he made amends to his family and friends, and of course there is his music what Stephen calls a return to his creative roots.

Voice-over: Steven's playing with other bands now but the beat he wants people dancing to these days is the flipside of his old drug songs, that the life of an addict is no bed of roses.

Steven: I believed in myself, I believed in my dreams, and the heroin and the coke takes all the vision that you could see in the future for yourself. Just wipes it right out.

Voice-over: Even though he's not a superstar anymore, Steven still has at least one devoted fan.

Devoted fan (Deanna): Oh I'm excited for him. I'm so proud of him. All these years I've never given up on him. Never.

Terry Murphy: Steven wants to tour high schools across the country with his band, talking directly to teens about the horrors of drug abuse.