This is Radio Slash

Slash is the man sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll were invented for. The erstwhile Guns n’ Roses and Velvet Revolver guitar hero has been there and shagged, snorted or jammed that. But at an age (44) when most multi-millionaire rock stars with an ex-model wife might be taking it easy, Slash has just one thing on his mind: touring with an all-new solo band. “At the forefront of my consciousness right now is the overwhelming excitement to get on the road,” he says when Hot Press catches up with him at home in North Hollywood.

The Stoke-on-Trent-born (yes, Stoke-on-Trent, as in Lemmy, Discharge and Robbie Williams) musician quit Guns n’ Roses in 1996, fed up with the band’s procrastination over album number five (Chinese Democracy eventually surfaced in 2008). A couple of records with Slash’s Snakepit – basically an outlet for potential G n’ R riffs rejected by front-man Axl Rose – plugged the gap before he and fellow ex-Gunners bassist Duff McKagan and drummer Matt Sorum put together Velvet Revolver in 2002. The supergroup – also featuring Stone Temple Pilots singer Scott Weiland and journeyman rhythm guitarist Dave Kushner – topped the US charts with their 2004 debut Contraband, and toured across the globe.
Slash played arenas in Dublin and Belfast with Velvet Revolver – and headlined Slane in 1992 with G n’ R – but this month a few thousand lucky fans will see him in the much more intimate environs of Vicar St in Dublin and the Mandela Hall in Belfast. “I’ve got a killer band, and I know that coming into Ireland everybody’s going to dig it,” says Slash. “It’s a hardcore rock gig.”
To agree to an interview to promote a pair of already sold-out shows is an indication of Slash’s coolness. Put it this way: Axl doesn’t even talk to the press when he’s struggling to half-fill arenas. To be fair, Slash also has an album to plug. His debut solo release (it’s been decided the Slash’s Snakepit records don’t count), Slash, features guest vocals from a string of top artists. There are veterans – Ozzy Osbourne, Iggy Pop, Alice Cooper – as well as newer names like Andrew Stockdale of Wolfmother and M Shadows of Avenged Sevenfold. Slash’s ex-G n’ R band-mates McKagan, rhythm guitarist Izzy Stradlin and drummer Steven Adler also pop up, as does Chinese Democracy-era tub-thumper Josh Freese.
But perhaps the most surprising collaborators are the pop starlets Fergie of the Black Eyed Peas and the Pussycat Dolls’ Nicole Scherzinger. Critics had the knives out for Fergie as soon as the team-up was announced, but she reveals a powerful set of pipes on ‘Beautiful Dangerous’. Slash says: “The most commonly asked question when I was putting this record together was, ‘Why are you working with Fergie?’ I played a gig with her about three years ago, where we did a rock medley and she sang ‘Black Dog’ like nobody’s business. I discovered that she has this phenomenal rock ‘n’ roll voice and attitude, this whole persona that you just don’t know about. She really comes from a rock background, and that’s probably what she would be doing had she been given the opportunity. I’ve done a handful of shows with her, where she sings ‘Barracuda’ from Heart and ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’, and every time I’ve been blown away.”
Elsewhere on Slash, the likes of ‘Ghost’ featuring Ian Astbury from The Cult and ‘Crucify The Dead’ with Ozzy find the rock legends in their best form in years. “Quite simply, I wrote the music first and I would listen to it and think what voice would suit it best,” explains Slash. “I focused on the people I thought were most likely to say yes – Lemmy, Ozzy, Alice Cooper, Iggy Pop. When I wrote the music for the Ozzy track, as soon as I put those first four chords together, I thought this sounds like Ozzy. It never sounded like anybody else. He was actually the first guy I approached for this record. He liked it, and that set the ball in motion. It was done very old-school – a band in the studio, played to two-inch tape and then the next day have the singer come in and lay down the vocal.”
Although this is his first solo project, Slash knows a thing or two about big-name collaborations. As a session guitarist-for-hire, he has worked with Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson and indeed most other musical icons you could mention. But it is 1987’s 38million-selling Appetite For Destruction – still the most successful debut album of all time – for which he is most known. Slash helped Guns n’ Roses create signature tunes like ‘Welcome To The Jungle’, ‘Paradise City’ and the US number one ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’, showcasing the musician’s unique skills. (Time magazine rated him the world’s number-two best electric guitarist.)
Guns n’ Roses made their name as grunge was aiming its shotgun blast at the poodle perms of the Sunset Strip. Though the five-piece – once dubbed ‘the most dangerous band in the world’ – were far from typical party-rockers, and their racket owed as much to Motörhead as it did to Mötley Crüe, their bitch slap-rappin’ and cocaine tongues made them sitting targets. It’s strange now to think that Use Your Illusion I and II were released in the same month, September 1991, as Nirvana’s Nevermind – and sad that the bloated double albums would turn out to be Slash’s last original work with Axl Rose and company.
Born Saul Hudson in Stoke on July 23, 1965, Slash moved to Los Angeles at age 11. His mother was a costume designer for David Bowie, his father an album artist for Neil Young and Joni Mitchell. Admired by punks and pop fans alike, the perennially chilled-out six-stringer has managed to largely side-step the negative vibes that regularly come former musical partner Rose’s way. Known for being an engaging interviewee and a decent person, Slash is smart (and rich and famous) enough to realise he has no need to be a dick.
The guitarist’s new touring band features Myles Kennedy of post-grunge sensations Alter Bridge on lead vocals. Kennedy sings two songs on Slash, and will be tackling a few others live. “I’m not going to force an audience to sit through the whole record,” says Slash, “but we do five or six songs off the album. I also got some Snakepit stuff in there, some Guns and some Velvet Revolver. It’s a pretty well-rounded set.” Slash is thrilled with his latest vocal foil: “Myles is a great performer, an amazing front-guy. I didn’t know what to expect when I was putting all of this together, but it’s coming together really nicely. I wouldn’t be saying it if I didn’t know, but it’s a really great live band.”
Slash says it was always the plan to have different guys – rhythm guitarist Bobby Schneck, bassist Todd Kerns and drummer Brent Fitz – on the road, rather than Jane’s Addiction’s Chris Chaney and the ubiquitous session man Freese, who perform on the CD: “The thing with those guys is Josh had just quit the Nine Inch Nails tour and Chris had just turned down going out with Jane’s, so I didn’t really have a lot of expectation for them to go out on the road. If I did, it would have been really expensive anyway. I got those guys because they were the coolest guys to go in the studio to make this record. As far as doing the tour goes, I had to put a band together out of the blue. I was really fortunate that I picked the people I did. Putting a band together, as you probably know, is a very hit-or-miss thing.”
Unusually for a solo project, Slash has done well commercially, perhaps an indication that fans were dissatisfied with Chinese Democracy. But Slash has nothing but praise for G n’ R’s comeback, hailing it as “the definitive Axl Rose record. I know everybody’s expecting me to say something bad about it, but it’s a fucking great record. There’s no denying how great his voice sounds on it. The cool thing is that whenever Axl sings about anything it’s always very sincere, and that’s one of the things that comes across right away.”
Slash is clearly pleased about the reception to his own album, yet says so with characteristic humility: “I made a point of not having any expectations, because who’s to say that it’s going to do anything in particular? In the first week that it came out and went really high on the charts, I was really fucking shocked. It’s been a positive and exciting time.”
In the UK, Slash was packaged alongside a limited-edition issue of Classic Rock magazine featuring a history of the guitarist and background information on the album – the Slash Fan Pack, they called it. However, this novel new way of releasing music wasn’t the guitarist’s idea. “That was Classic Rock,” he smiles. “I wouldn’t have had the gall to go to them. I think it was an idea that they’ve been toying around with. They did something similar with Joe Perry [of Aerosmith] a while ago, but this one was full-blown. It sold out pretty quickly, so I think it’s something they’ll be doing more of. It’s almost as good as buying an actual vinyl, because of the size of it. It gives you something to look at when you’re playing the record. Unfortunately in this digital age, with everybody listening to shit on iPods, the identity of the record is lost.”
Steven Adler was a good friend of Slash from the pair’s pre-G n’ R days in the band Road Crew. Adler has experienced recurring drug problems over the past 15 years, and even sued his former bandmates in the early ’90s. Slash says: “I’m pretty sure it was the first time Steven’s been in the studio for... Wow, I guess it’s been, like, 20 years. The second he showed up and got behind the kit, it was like reliving the old memories of working with him in the past. He’s got a certain energy and spirit to him that’s undeniable. To revisit that in a snapshot, one-day session was pretty special.”
After the solo tour has wound down, Slash plans to get back to searching for a new lead singer for Velvet Revolver. One name reported to be in the running is Phil Conalane of Co Tyrone metal outfit Million Dollar Reload, but Slash isn’t giving anything away. “I don’t remember the name, but there have been a lot of different people that have came across the Velvet Revolver audition podium,” he says. “He might be one of them, though I don’t recall. At this point we’ve collected a lot of singers to listen to. As soon as my tour is over, and Duff is done making a record with Jane’s Addiction, we’ll see if we can put together the definitive Velvet Revolver record.”
As for the inevitable rumours of a reunion of the classic Guns n’ Roses line-up, Slash is hesitant to speculate. For a start, he hasn’t spoken to Axl in more than a decade. Is the relationship between the two iconic rockers over for good? “It’s one of those things where I know he’s not planning to get in touch with me anytime soon, and I haven’t been making a huge effort to get in touch with him,” says Slash. “It is what it is.”