’ former drummer never forgot the first time he smoked crack cocaine. It was the spring of 1985 at Bob Welch’s place in the Hollywood Hills. Adler’s girlfriend at the time had told him about a “fun dude” she knew.
When they arrived at Welch’s house, they discovered he was recovering from a heroin overdose in Cedars-Sinai hospital. Nevertheless, Welch’s housemate let them in, fired up a glass pipe on the living room table and offered Adler a taste. “I inhaled, and had never experienced such a dire need to get high again, right away, now,” he wrote in his autobiography, .
Adler soon joined the other waifs and strays at the property and moved his drum kit into the garage. Bob Welch re-joined the party as soon as he was out of hospital. But the 20-year-old glam rock wannabe and the 40-year-old former guitarist made an odd couple.
The pair would sit up at night, playing music and watching videos of Welch performing at the 1978 California Jam, with Stevie Nicks waving her tambourine and singing backing vocals. Bob, whippet-thin and hollow-cheeked, fired up the pipe and shared tales of the pre-superstar Mac and his solo hits, and . Other future members of Guns N’ Roses were soon rehearsing in the garage, with Welch as their landlord/mentor.
The party stopped six months later when the Los Angeles Police Department arrested Welch for drug possession. “I was smart enough to see the writing on the wall and changed all my friends,” he said years later. “I was be.