Matt Sorum

Matt Sorum (b. November 19, 1960, in Long Beach, California) is a hard rock drummer and percussionist. Sorum has played in such hard rock bands as Hawk and The Cult. He also played drums on a couple of songs with Johnny Crash in 1989 with their one and only album Neighbourhood Threat. Matt Sorum started out in Mission Viejo, California as a local hot musician. Wearing trademark "Union Jack" shorts and nothing else, he used to pound a huge acrylic drumset and overpower his first band "Prophecy", where he stood out and the rest of the band just disappeared. A local songwriter, Stephen Douglas, pulled him from the band and joined him with other talented musicians in the area to form "Chateau", a wall-of-sound band with grandiose themes and sounds in their songs. Matt endured several scrapes with danger during that time, owing to his illicit drug usage, mainly cocaine. Chateau played the Hollywood circuit, appearing at Gazzarri's and almost getting into a fight with the original members of the band "Ratt", which at the time was known as "Mickey Ratt". Matt's work with Chateau and Stephen Douglas produced a four song set that was covered by local radio stations for a short time, but the music scene changed from grandiose rock to punk and alternative (New Wave) music. Matt left to Hollywood to play with a series of bands, including "Population Five", with the bassist from the Knack ("My Sharona"). He then left on a tour around the country with a blues guitarist, playing dingy nightclubs and bars, and drinking heavily. In 1988, he was recruited to play on the debut album of Y Kant Tori Read, a band fronted by a then unknown Tori Amos. In the wake of that project, he joined The Cult as their live drummer for the 1989 tour in support of Sonic Temple.