Vegas Memories: Charlie Sheen, cocaine, strippers

Charlie Sheen once went on a drug-fueled bender in Vegas with Bret Michaels and Matt Sorum of Guns N' Roses. Since Sheen went crazy again lately, now's a good time to revist Sorum's story he told me in November 2009. This is the column that ran in the RJ:

For a Vegas time, call Charlie Sheen

Who doesn't love a good rock star story? Today's Vegas memory flashback comes courtesy of Matt Sorum (former member of Guns N' Roses and The Cult) ...

Sorum, 49, tells me his Vegas memories are "blurry," but here's "one of" his most memorable trips.

"I came to Vegas with Charlie Sheen."

Uh-oh!

"This is the lost weekend."

It was the late 1990s. Sheen sent a limo to pick up Sorum from his place in L.A. They loaded into Sheen's private jet, along with Bret Michaels.

"I was about six months sober at the time, after coming off the road with Guns N' Roses. I decided to dry out," Sorum says. "He's got a bottle of 1787 (Armagnac). .. I go, 'Well, I'm not drinking.' But I go, 'Ah, what the (expletive)?'

"Next thing I know, we're at the (Mike) Tyson fight. Both me and Charlie just did a huge line of cocaine in the back of the limo, about the size of Oprah Winfrey. It was the fattest line of coke I'd ever done in my life, and I couldn't get out of the car.

"The car door opens and we're on the red carpet at the Tyson fight at the MGM, and there's all these cameras, and I'm high as a kite. Charlie gets out, being the actor that he is, and he walks down the red carpet, talks to all the people.

"I was so (expletive) up, I ran down the red carpet straight to the bar. I ordered three shots and three beers. I looked next to me and Pierce Brosnan was standing next to me. ... I say, 'Hey Pierce! How you doin'?' "

Sorum and Sheen watched Tyson win in seconds. Then they rode to Crazy Horse Too, the strip club. After that, "you can use your imagination," he says.

Sorum rode to his hotel, The Mirage, but couldn't find his room. Security wouldn't help him at first.

"I said, 'This is Matt Sorum from Guns N' Roses, can you please help me find my room?' "

Security helped. The next morning, Sheen sent Sorum "a friend" to wake him up. They immediately flew to L.A. for a Lakers game, where they were put up on the JumboTron.

"Then we went in the locker room and invited Shaquille O'Neal to come party with us. He was like, 'I don't think so.' ... He looked at us like, '(Expletive) that!' "

Sorum went to Sheen's house, where he could barely stand after three days. Sheen sent Sorum home in a limo. Sorum got in bed, turned on the TV and sees ... Charlie Sheen:

"He's on Jay Leno! I'm like, 'That guy's an animal, man!'

"Charlie Sheen was a good time."

These days, Sorum is happy to be sober and with "the love of my life," and Sheen is "a good man," he says.

In fact, Sorum is now the business-minded den father, sort of, for Darling Stilettos as the drummer and manager. (He also still performs in Camp Freddy.)