Steven Adler

For a brief time in the 1980s, Steven Adler stood at the apex of the music world as the drummer for the ferocious Guns N' Roses, one of the biggest hard rock acts of the decade. A self-taught musician, Adler performed on the group's early, star-making hits, including "Welcome to the Jungle," "Paradise City" and "Sweet Child o' Mine," and enjoyed the spoils of the rock-n-roll lifestyle to the hilt. But like so many before him, the good times caught up with Adler, and by 1990, a formidable addiction to drugs and alcohol led to his ejection from the band, as well as numerous health and legal problems. By 2005, he was known more for his substance abuse issues, as illustrated in painful detail on two seasons of "Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew" (VH1, 2008-12), than for his drumming. Adler appeared to turn his life around in 2010 shortly before Guns N' Roses was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Despite such accomplishments, Adler's life remained one of the most harrowing cautionary tales about the razor edge of a life in rock-n-roll.