In 1987, when he was 22 years old, Steven Adler had the world by the balls. He was the drummer in Guns N’ Roses, the most popular rock band at the time, whose album of that year, Appetite for Destruction, has sold more than 28 million copies. His raucous skin-bashing will forever embellish iconic hard-rock hits like “Sweet Child o’ Mine”, “Welcome to the Jungle”, and “Paradise City”.

But the high life caught up with Adler pretty fast, and three years later he was fired from the band over his unrelenting drug use. He would later sue Guns N’ Roses and, in an out-of-court settlement, receive a back-payment cheque of $2,250,000. You can buy a lot of heroin with that.

Nowadays, Adler is known nearly as much for his appearances on TV’s Celebrity Rehab With Dr. Drew—as well as its spinoff, Sober House—as he is for his past musical achievements. As he explains during an afternoon call from L.A.—shortly after enjoying a tasty lunch with current KISS drummer Eric Singer, actually—his experience with addiction specialist Dr. Drew Pinsky helped save his life.

“Working with Dr. Drew helped me in so many ways,” explains Adler, his speech slurred from the stroke he suffered in 1996 after taking a particularly potent speedball. “For 20 years I lived in a big beautiful house, but I lived in the bathroom. I would lock myself in the bathroom—drugs are just that way. But besides Dr. Drew getting me off the drugs, I was able to write my book, My Appetite for Destruction, and writing my book played a huge part in getting my life back together.”

The 46-year-old rocker is currently touring with his group, Adler’s Appetite, which performs a few original tunes but focuses mainly on the music he made with Guns N’ Roses, particularly the multiplatinum material from Appetite for Destruction. Adler hasn’t heard from that band’s singer, Axl Rose, for about five years, although he played on one track on ex–Guns guitarist Slash’s self-titled solo debut of 2010. Yet he still holds out hope for a Guns N’ Roses reunion happening one day.

“We have an opportunity that everybody in the world wishes they could have,” he raves. “Whatever U2 did on their tour recently, if we did a GN’R reunion, we would double that! And we owe it to the fans! We haven’t performed with each other in 20 fuckin’ years, and the fans still have our backs.”

Okay, so say the five original members of Guns N’ Roses—Adler, Slash, Rose, bassist Duff McKagan, and rhythm guitarist Izzy Stradlin—got back together. And say they set up a massive world tour that sold out in five minutes flat. What’s to stop perennial riot-starter Rose from saying, two minutes before the first reunion gig, “Fuck it, my shoelaces are untied, I’m not going on”?

“I’d punch him in the face!” spouts Adler. “Oh God—not the face, not the face! I’d punch him in the kidney! Or I would give him a severe reprimand. Or I would go out there and pick somebody out of the audience to sing for him. There’s many options. I just want to do it!”

Adler’s Appetite plays Venue on Thursday (August 25).