During a recent interview on the GN’R-centric “Appetite for Distortion” podcast, drummer Mike Portnoy clarified that he never meant to insult Matt Sorum by tweeting that he played the “same exact fill” on “November Rain” “every 4 bars”.
In the interview, Portnoy clarified:
“It was a misunderstanding. It was one of those Twitter wars that kept blowing up out of nowhere.
“”November Rain” came on wherever, and I heard the fill, and it dawned on me, ‘Oh my God. It’s literally happening every four bars or every eight bars.’ And I counted them, and it was something like 37 times, the same fill.
“Look, I have nothing but respect for Guns N’ Roses and Matt Sorum. Matt’s a great, great drummer and he’s done amazing stuff both inside and outside of Guns N’ Roses.
“So I never am trying to insult another drummer. I could find something impressive or inspire from any musician out there, and I never wanna come down or insult any of ’em. But I just kind of randomly posted that random thought, like, ‘Why is this same fill happening 37 times?’ or whatever it was.
“And I regret that I did that ’cause it probably came off as an insult to Matt, and I did not mean for it to be. But he responded something to the effect of, ‘Oh, at least I don’t need a hundred-piece drum kit to play.’ And then I was, like, ‘Well, hey, you’re talking to the biggest Ringo [Starr] and Beatles fan of all time. Don’t pull that card with me.’
“And we ended up privately e-mailing each other and I apologized and I said, ‘Look, I really meant no disrespect whatsoever.’ So I do regret that tweet and have learned to kind of be a little more careful about the observations I make online.”