In an interview with Gretsch Generations, former Guns N’ Roses drummer Matt Sorum talked about his opinions about the unique music style of the two legendary rock bands, Led Zeppelin and AC/DC, and revealed the real inspiration for his drumming.

As you may recall, Matt Sorum joined the iconic hard rock band Guns N’ Roses back in 1990 replacing Steven Adler. However, in 1997, the lead singer Axl Rose fired Sorum from the band after an intense argument the two had.

In the recent conversation he joined, Matt Sorum mentioned an argument he had with his bandmates about the drummer’s place within a rock band. Sorum suggested that both AC/DC and Led Zeppelin had clean guitar sounds which provided space for the drum to stuck out and sound big.

Here is what Matt Sorum said:

“If you listen to any great rock ‘n’ roll band, they all found space. Space is not the final frontier, it works in music too. I started the argument with my bandmates, ‘Man, you’re just sucking up all the love for the drummer.’

It’s like, ‘Oh, you’re going to take the low end, and you’re going to take the mid, and you’re going to take the highs with these big distorted guitars!’

If you look at Led Zeppelin, the guitars are very clean; same with the AC/DC. The drums stuck out and they sounded big because the band gave them room, which made the whole thing sound big.”

Furthermore, the interviewer wanted to know which song Matt was inspired to play drums and he revealed that it was actually The Beatless icon Ringo Starr who influenced his music dearly. However, Sorum mentioned the band really made him a better drummer was ‘Deep Purple,’ particularly with their album titled ‘Burn.’

Here’s how Matt Sorum explained the source of inspiration for his drumming:

“For me, when I came up with Ringo and The Beatles, and I’ve said this a million times, but the band that really got me into ripping and trying to be a better drummer was Deep Purple with a song and an album called ‘Burn.’

And I used to play that song. Ian Paice was like this jazz monster mixed with rock. And I kind of gravitated towards him a little bit more than Bonham in those days because everyone was into Bonham, and everyone loved Led Zeppelin…”

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