The Time Steven Adler Was Kidnapped by His Own Brother

Former Guns N’ Roses drummer Steven Adler admittedly had a rough time with drugs when he was both in and out of the rock band, as he discusses in his 2010 book, My Appetite for Destruction: Sex and Drugs and Guns N’ Roses. But now his younger half-brother, Jamie Adler, has revealed an extreme instance in which he kidnapped the rocker to try and help him kick his habit.

The story unwinds in a three-part interview with Jamie that emerged this month, where he explains that, back in the halcyon days, the two were still close, with Jamie often visiting Steven in Los Angeles. However, an instance in 1990 as the two returned from an event in a limo showed Jamie just how bad Steven’s dependence had become.

“We’re sitting there, and he had this little bag, this little hippie sack,” Jamie recalls to Yahoo! Entertainment. “He pulls out tinfoil, this little balloon and a lighter, and he starts smoking heroin. I was 14, and he’s f—ing smoking heroin right in front of me. I’m like, ‘What the f— are you doing, dude?’ He’s like, ‘You don’t understand what it’s like to be me. To be a celebrity. … Man, it’s just a lot of pressure.'”

READ MORE: Steven Alder Says He Was Getting Better Before Parting Ways With Guns N’ Roses

Jamie continues, “I’m like, ‘Bro, smoke f—ing weed.’ He says, ‘I wish it was that easy… But don’t worry; I’m not addicted to this s—.’ And then he started convincing me that it’s not as bad as I think. But he also said, ‘Please don’t tell Mom. We’re brothers. Whatever happens, when we’re together, that’s just between us.’ I never told Mom. But I was just so hurt.”

Adler’s addiction only spiraled further out of control, Jamie says, with a stint at Eric Clapton’s Crossroads rehab facility and an intervention assisted by Guns N’ Roses’ Slash not doing much to help Steven, who was out of the Axl Rose-led band by summer 1990. Things had gotten desperate, with Steven needing a prescribed drug to help him survive.

“The doctors told him and my Mom that he needs to take this medication for the next 30 days to clean out his blood,” Jamie explains, saying he had no confidence Steven would comply but that “if he doesn’t do this, he will die.”

That’s when the kidnapping happened. “I said, ‘F— it,'” Jamie remembers. “We’re going to go and literally kidnap this dude. … Because everybody around Steven knew that he was going to die.”

Per Yahoo!:

Over the course of a month, they moved Steven among three residencies. Each was locked from the inside. Escape was impossible, but Steven tried every day. Jamie kept his distance, remotely calling the shots as two security guards, known as G and the Shadow, were on 24-hour duty, making sure Steven got his medication.

A month into the confinement, Jamie finally revealed himself to his brother. ‘You could keep me here for a week, a month, a year, 10 years,’ Steven yelled at his brother. ‘ As soon as I leave here, [the] first thing I’m going to do is go get high. And there’s nothing you could do about it.’ Once Jamie released Steven, the drummer made good on his threat, returning to Vegas and his heroin abuse.

Though the kidnapping plan didn’t work, Adler subsequently appeared to get the help he needed, as seen on the reality shows Celebrity Rehab With Dr. Drew and Sober House. Still, the kidnapping damaged the half-brothers’ kinship. “It was so bad that to this day, we still don’t have a relationship,” Jamie laments.

Read the complete tale of the kidnapping at this link.

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