STEVEN ADLER: Ex-ADLER'S APPETITE Singer 'Wasted A Lot Of Our Time And A Lot Of Our Money'

Gerry Gittelson of Metal Sludge conducted an interview with ADLER'S APPETITE drummer Steven Adler (also ex-GUNS N' ROSES) and guitarist Michael Thomas about the recent departure of the band's lead singer, Rick Stitch. You can now watch the chat below. A couple of excerpts follow.

On singer Rick Stitch's departure:

Adler: "I think he went about it the wrong way, 'cause I didn't even find out that he quit the band from him, I found out from someone else."

Thomas: "It was very strange; it was out of the blue. All of a sudden we got a text message saying 'Check your e-mail.' And there was a short little paragraph saying that, 'As of today, I'll no longer be carrying on with the band, I wanna concentrate on my other band, my original band, full time.' So he decided that was where his priority was at, that he was going to work on his original music and continue on with that."

Adler: "Right now we're still going on with our tours. Our tour starts May 5. We have other singers that we've been talking to — even before he decided to quit, we were talking to other singers. And we wanna get more of a solid guitar player, 'cause the one that we hired for the European tour wasn't as solid as we thought."

On a potential new lead singer for ADLER'S APPETITE:

Thomas: "As soon as it went on the Internet that Rick was leaving the band, there was a flood of e-mails and responses [that] came in; it was overwhelming. And now we're weeding through all these people, and what we really wanna do is give a chance to somebody who is a star to walk in the door and sing some of the most legendary rock and roll songs of all time. It's an incredible opportunity. So, for us, we take it very seriously, because we also have to live with this person and create and write with this person, 'cause, as you know, we've released new songs recently — 'Alive', 'Stardog' and 'Fading' — which are actually on iTunes. So they're gonna be singing not only the GUNS stuff, but original material and putting their stamp on this new stuff that we've been writing since we got home from the European tour last month. So there's so much going on; it's a crazy circus. We're just really excited about the opportunity of working with some new cats that can really come to the table and bring it."

On whether they are concerned at all about being able to find worthy replacements and carry on with the band:

Thomas: "Anybody that knows the history of this band knows that we've had lineup changes, and it's all been healthy steps forward. This is just one more step in the process."

Adler: "I agree. It's just one more step forward. And it's a shame that the singer we were working with decided not to work with us. Because we're going into the studio in the next three weeks, which he's gonna miss out on. And what he did to me personally I didn't appreciate. We were planning on him being in the band — that's why we did the recordings with him. So, basically, he wasted a lot of our time and a lot of our money. In fact, if he was gonna do it that way, we would have thrown him out a long time ago, we would have never used him."

Thomas: "But we respect the fact that if he wants to work on his original stuff, that's cool..."

Adler: "You respect the fact. I don't respect the fact. I think he's an asshole for doing it to me, or doing it to us. But God bless him all the same. . . I haven't talked to him yet. That's the kind of person I'm dealing with. I found out that he was quitting the band because somebody told me he saw it on his Facebook. I had no idea. So you can take any story you want out of that, 'cause that's how it happened."

Thomas: "And it's disappointing in the fact that we have this two-month summer tour coming up and so much great stuff on the table. And we just had this incredible meeting with [producer] Jay Baumgardner, who has done PAPA ROACH and a number of great bands, over at NRG [studios] last week. It's a really good situation for the next guy coming in, so that's why we're being very serious about the candidates we're looking at and kind of going over all the details."

Adler: "The next person that we work with is gonna be... obviously, he's gonna be a better singer, and a better all-around person that what we were dealing with."

Stitch announced over the weekend that he was leaving ADLER'S APPETITE in order to concentrate on his Los Angeles-based original project LADYJACK.

Stitch's LADYJACK bandmate Robo (guitar),who was filling in for ADLER'S APPETITE guitarist Alex Grossi on the latter group's most recent European tour, will not be continuing with Adler's outfit.

Grossi recently left ADLER'S APPETITE in order to focus on his work with the resurrected QUIET RIOT.

ADLER'S APPETITE is scheduled to kick off a new U.S. tour on May 5 in Redondo Beach, California.

ADLER'S APPETITE in December released two new singles — "Stardog" and "Fading" — via iTunes and other online music stores.

ADLER'S APPETITE entered the studio in November to begin recording its new album with CINDERELLA drummer Fred Coury producing.

A radio edit of the last ADLER'S APPETITE single, "Alive", was released on July 29, 2010 in conjunction with Adler's tell-all autobiography, "My Appetite for Destruction: Sex, and Drugs, and Guns N' Roses".

Video footage of ADLER'S APPETITE's February 25, 2011 concert at The Diamond in Sutton, United Kingdom can be viewed below.

Stitch made his live debut with ADLER'S APPETITE on April 17, 2009 at the Galaxy Theater in Santa Ana, California.

LADYJACK released a digital EP in 2010. The band's full-length debut will follow in April.

Steven recently joined the cast of VH1's "Celebrity Rehab With Dr. Drew" for another season.

Adler appeared on season two of "Rehab" and the first season of the spin-off show "Sober House" back in late 2008 and early 2009. Adler then went on to stints in real rehab centers after being ordered to by a judge as part of a DUI bust.