1960–1989: Early career Sorum was born Matthew William Sorum on November 19, 1960, in an unincorporated area of
Orange County, California, that later became the city of
Mission Viejo. He started to play drums after watching
Ringo Starr with
The Beatles on
The Ed Sullivan Show in 1964. Later he was mainly influenced by
Ian Paice,
Keith Moon,
Neil Peart,
Ginger Baker,
John Bonham,
Roger Taylor,
Buddy Rich and
Bill Ward. At
Mission Viejo High School Sorum was part of the jazz band, marching band, and wind ensemble. According to Sorum, he and his high school band, Prophecy, would play at
The Starwood on amateur nights. Sorum's work with Chateau produced a four-song set that was covered by local radio stations for a short time, but the music scene changed from grandiose rock to
punk and alternative
new wave music. Sorum left and went to Hollywood to play with a series of bands, including Population Five, with bassist
Prescott Niles from
The Knack, and Hawk, replacing
Scott Travis, who went to play with
Racer X and later
Judas Priest. He then left on a tour around the country with a
blues guitarist, playing
nightclubs and bars. In 1988, he was recruited to play on the
debut album of
Y Kant Tori Read, a band fronted by a then unknown
Tori Amos. In the wake of that project, he joined
The Cult as their live drummer for the 1989/1990 tour in support of
Sonic Temple.
1990–1997: Guns N' Roses, Slash's Snakepit and Neurotic Outsiders. In 1989,
Slash saw Sorum live with
The Cult on the Sonic Temple tour and, shortly after, Sorum joined Guns N' Roses as
Steven Adler's replacement. Sorum with Guns N' Roses can be heard on the 1990
cover of the
Bob Dylan track "
Knockin' on Heaven's Door", the albums
Use Your Illusion I,
Use Your Illusion II (excluding the track "Civil War"),
"The Spaghetti Incident?", the 1994 cover of
The Rolling Stones track "
Sympathy for the Devil" and the majority of ''
Live Era: '87-'93''. Sorum featured fully on the lengthy
Use Your Illusion Tour, drumming on all of the 194 shows, 9 legs and to over 7 million fans. In 1994, Sorum formed
Slash's Snakepit with
Slash and
Gilby Clarke and drummed on their debut album, ''
It's Five O'Clock Somewhere. Sorum also lent his drumming skills to the theme song for the 1995 20th Century Fox film Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie. That same year, Sorum formed the supergroup Neurotic Outsiders, which featured bandmate Duff McKagan. In 1996 they released their only album, the self-titled Neurotic Outsiders''.
John Taylor (
Duran Duran) and
Steve Jones (
Sex Pistols) also participated on this album, and toured behind it. Early performances featured guest spots by
Simon Le Bon (Duran Duran), Slash, and
Billy Idol. In 1997, Sorum was fired from Guns N' Roses by
Axl Rose after an argument with Rose over the inclusion of
Paul Tobias in the band. Sorum claimed that Tobias made disparaging remarks about a Slash performance on TV, resulting in him blowing up at Tobias. Slash had recently left the band, and Sorum told Axl "without Slash there is no Guns N' Roses", to which Rose asked if he was going to quit the band. Sorum said no, then Rose fired him. Sorum had said he went into the studio that night intending to get fired, and was glad he quit since the band was "stagnant", not recording music in four years. In April 2006, nine years after leaving Guns N' Roses, Sorum re-established his friendship with the band's lead singer Axl Rose.
1998–2008: Return to The Cult and Velvet Revolver era In 1998, he released his first and only drum instructional video (Drum Licks and Tricks from the Rock n Roll Jungle) demonstrating his techniques. In 1999, Matt joined The Cult once again and featured on their album
Beyond Good And Evil, which he spent most of 2001 touring in support of. In 1999, Sorum reunited with Slash and McKagan to promote a concert for the independent film
Soundman (written and directed by
Steven Ho) at the
Slamdance Film Festival. Sorum had composed the film with
Lanny Cordola and
Michael Stearns. Realizing that they still had chemistry together, they formed a new band called
Velvet Revolver with former
Stone Temple Pilots frontman Scott Weiland and rhythm guitarist
Dave Kushner. After the 2004 release of their debut album,
Contraband, they embarked on a worldwide tour that continued through December 2005. In August 2005, Sorum broke his wrist in a boating accident, stalling the tour temporarily. While recovering from the wrist injury the drummer
Brian Tichy and Mark Schulman filled in for him. In 2005, the band was nominated for three Grammys, Rock Album of the Year, Rock Song, and Hard Rock Performance for their
Contraband single "Slither", which won their first and only Grammy. After taking some time off in 2006, Sorum and the rest of the band returned to the studio in December to record
Libertad, Velvet Revolver's second album, which was released on July 3, 2007. Sorum toured with Velvet Revolver until Weiland parted ways with the band on April 1, 2008.
Other ventures In 1994, Sorum was one of many guest drummers on the album
Burning for Buddy: A Tribute to the Music of Buddy Rich. Sorum released his first solo album,
Hollywood Zen, in 2003. In the same year, Sorum began playing with the newly formed
Camp Freddy. Sorum has endorsed
Zildjian cymbals, featured in numerous sweepstakes with Zildjian, and lent his talents to Submersible Music's
DrumCore software. In 2006, Sorum began guest recording in his studio with a new project, called
Circus Diablo. That year, he launched a clothing line, SorumNoce. On June 4, 2008, Sorum revealed
Camp Freddy is working on an album. Sorum was featured in episode 54 of TV's
LA Ink originally airing on August 27, 2009. In it,
Kat Von D. tattoos a portrait of his wife Ace on his leg. Matt filled in on
Motörhead's 2009 US tour, while drummer
Mikkey Dee took part in
Kändisdjungeln, a Swedish version of ''
I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!''. After performing together at the Giving 2010 benefit event on May 3, 2010, Sorum formed the cover band Carnival of Dogs with
Tracii Guns (
L.A. Guns, formerly of
Brides of Destruction),
Franky Perez (Solo,
Scars on Broadway,
DKFXP) and
Phil Soussan (previously played with
Ozzy Osbourne,
Billy Idol and
Vince Neil). He made an appearance in an episode of
FSN Sport Science, when a test was undertaken to determine if
a professional basketball point guard had faster hands than a drummer. In 2010 and 2011 Sorum appeared on the reality show ''Rock 'n Roll Fantasy Camp''. He appeared as one of the counselors guiding a new band in a music competition. In 2012, Sorum and Ace Harper formed the band Diamond Baby and are both featured in the music video "The Last Rockstar" with actresses
Jane Lynch,
Juliette Lewis, and the late
Verne Troyer. In 2012, Sorum and Jane Lynch created Adopt the Arts to save the arts from being eliminated from Los Angeles elementary schools. In 2014, he worked with
Animals Asia and adopted a moon bear that had been on a Chinese bear-bile farm, when her bile was extracted for traditional medicine. He has since become an ambassador for the cause. Sorum is also an auxiliary member of the Cooper-fronted rock
supergroup Hollywood Vampires, appearing on the band's
eponymous 2015 debut studio album and playing drums at the band's
Rock in Rio show on September 24, 2015, as well as preceding warm-up shows at
The Roxy on September 16 and 17. Sorum played with the Hollywood Vampires during their February 2016 Grammy Award Performance. In 2018, Sorum unveiled Artbit, a distributed-ledger platform that enables both artists and fans to share and monetise artistic talent from anywhere across the globe. ==Personal life==