Quiet Riot's Kevin Dubrow CHOKED OUT a member of Guns n Roses, Alex Grossi Saw It - Beardo&Weirdo Ep. 86

Quiet Riot guitarist Alex Grossi reveals never-told stories from inside the most chaotic tours in 80s metal history — including the night Kevin Dubrow physically choked out Guns N' Roses drummer Steven Adler on their shared tour bus. Chris Kael of Five Finger Death Punch and comedian Craig Gass sit down with the 23-year Quiet Riot veteran for a raw, uncensored conversation about addiction, dysfunction, and survival in the heavy metal touring circuit.

Grossi details the 2004 Bad Boys of Metal tour where he served as house guitarist for Kevin Dubrow, Steven Adler, Janie Lane of Warrant, and Joe Leste of Bang Tango — all sharing one bus, all battling active addiction. The band burned through four buses in four weeks, and the tour crawled to its finish line at a biker bar in Yucaipa, California. Grossi also recounts how VH1's Celebrity Rehab production team deliberately supplied alcohol to Janie Lane and set up Steven Adler's on-camera arrest, staging moments designed to capture train wrecks rather than provide actual help.

The episode covers Grossi's path from playing Connecticut bars at age 15 to getting accepted at Berklee College of Music, dropping out after realizing his instructors had never made it as working musicians, and learning the business side of touring directly from Kevin Dubrow and Frankie Banali. He shares firsthand accounts of Rudy Sarzo's legendary niceness, Kevin Dubrow's second-act humility, and how the 90s forced arena-level bands to reinvent themselves with rental cars and local backline. Grossi also discusses Jizzy Pearl's departure from Quiet Riot and the viral emergence of John Tora, a young vocalist whose Kevin Dubrow impression is so accurate that fans accused him of being AI-generated.

Now five years sober after hitting his breaking point during the pandemic, Grossi reflects on watching addiction destroy Janie Lane, Steven Adler, and Mitch Hedberg while sharing hard-won perspective on what it takes to sustain a career — and a life — in rock and roll.