Former Guns N’ Roses drummer Steven Adler was taken to the hospital Thursday with a reportedly self-inflicted knife wound, according to Fox News. The Los Angeles Police Department confirmed that they were at the rocker’s house around 6:30 p.m. and that Adler had been transported to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
While the emergency call had mentioned a possible suicide attempt, it wasn’t clear whether the injury had been intentional or accidental. TMZ reported that Adler, 54, sustained a knife wound to the stomach.
Representatives for Adler told TMZ on Friday that the wound was “very minor” and “superficial” and said Adler was not trying to commit suicide. They said he will still perform in Las Vegas on July 12.
No other parties were involved in the stabbing, and police said that no crime had been committed. It was not clear who made the 911 call from Adler’s home on Thursday.
Adler’s Stormy Past
As Rolling Stone described him in 1988, Adler was “the happy-go-lucky drummer” for the hard rock band Guns N’ Roses from 1985 to 1990.
Adler’s drug use caused him to miss time touring with the band after breaking his hand in a brawl and during a stint in rehab in 1989, People reported.
After his addiction issues got out of control, the band said they were forced to kick him out in 1990. He was allowed to rejoin after agreeing to stay clean from drugs but was kicked out again a year later after failing to keep to his end of the contract.
The former drummer appeared on two celebrity rehab shows in the late 2000s and was inducted into the Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame in 2012 — though he had not been a drummer for the band in over two decades.
His publicist said that he has been clean for several years now. If true, it is unlikely that Adler’s addiction issues had anything to do with his medical emergency.
Questions Raised
The knife incident raised questions in light of Adler’s history, which included two previous suicide attempts that Adler described to Ruckus magazine in 2011. Adler said that he felt like he had lost everything after being kicked out of the band.
“From having hundreds of friends, to getting kicked out of the band by my best friend — and a guy who I was doing the drugs with! — it left me with no one to turn to,” Adler said at the time.
He also said he felt lonely and depressed after his wife left him, but added that he didn’t blame her for not wanting to watch him self-destruct.
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