Slash
Musician/Artist, Guns N' Roses/Velvet Revolver
Los Angeles, USA
SLASH, one of the best electric guitarists of all time, and his Celebrity Interview at Canadian Music Week 2010
Time magazine chose him as one of the best electric guitarists of all time, along with Hendrix himself. To us he is the man who defined the sound of Guns N’ Roses, and the last great guitar god. He is Slash, late of Slash’s Snakepit and Velvet Revolver. In this very special Celebrity Interview today, March 11, 2010, the virtuoso axeman shared memories and insights on life, love and playing loud.
JUAN CARLOS CORDERO / Special from Toronto, Canada for UNO NEWS NETWORK and ROCK TOP MAGAZINE
Slash gave CMW delegates what they wanted during his keynote address at Canadian Music Week on Thursday morning in Toronto: Sex, drugs, rock’n’roll, and Axl Rose The former Gun N’ Roses/Velvet Revolver guitarist did not speak badly of his onetime band mate and GNR’s lead singer, one Axl Rose. “You have to attempt to understand him as a human being and where he’s coming from,” commented Slash, 44, in his trademark black top hat, sunglasses, a black leather jacket and torn black jeans, the famous pose for Gibson Guitars and “Guitar Hero” videogame, in a packed ballroom at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel.
“I see things very black and white. That’s just me. And that doesn’t necessarily mean that that’s right. And he sees things in a very colorful kind of way, and I can’t really knock it, ’cause that’s just him. So I try not to sit there and say derogatory things about his personality, because it’s his personality that makes him so f---ing great, and just difficult to deal with.”
On his coming solo debut album, Slash, due in stores April 6, the guitarist pairs up with various singers including former Black Sabbath front man Ozzy Osbourne. “Working side by side with Ozzy, which is a voice that I had been listening to since my early rebellious days, taking acid and being 13, and listening to Iron Man and s--t, was a really great experience,” Slash expressed. He plans to tour in April with a backing band comprising Myles Kennedy of Alter Bridge on vocals, Bobby Schneck (Slash’s Blues Ball band) on rhythm guitar, Dave Henning (Big Wreck) on bass and Brent Fitz (Alice Cooper) on drums.
Slash, whose real name is Saul Hudson but given his famous nickname by character actor and youth friend Seymour Cassel, said he remains to this day still turned on by the sight of a guitar.
He even told red jokes such as he is so in love with the guitar that even he keeps one in the bedroom to keep things interesting with his wife, Perla, if they forget passion. “Why do I like the guitar? For the same reasons, I am fascinated with girls. We keep a guitar at the end of the bed, in case I need some imagination,” he said with a laugh. “There’s something about a guitar that is just innately sexy. And it is still to this day, when I open up a guitar case, there’s still this sense of ‘Ahhhhh.’”
Famous for his heroin and cocaine addictions, Slash also said that he has only been sober for three-and-a-half years, despite being a married father of two young boys — aged five and seven. “When Perla announced that she was pregnant, I was loaded on Oxycontin going to an Aerosmith gig, and I was out-of-my-mind high that night. And I was like, ‘Okay so now it’s time to start taking care of this issue,’ but I thought I could juggle it, which I did up until about three-and-a-half years ago. So really the sobriety thing is relatively new, and it’s almost like you could fall off any second. But I’ve been holding on to it because I want to be attentive to the responsibilities that I have, and also because after years and years of doing it, it starts to get old.”
Remembering Michael Jackson and his drug-related death last year, Slash said of the man he performed with live: “It’s sad that he’s not here ... When all that stuff happened in 2001 or whenever it was, he got all of those (accusations) and stuff, the one thing that Michael really wanted, and the one thing that made him happy, was he wanted everybody to like him. And so all of the sudden he was completely ostracized, pretty much by North America, for all these accusations (even) though he was acquitted, and it sort of just killed him. I only recorded a song for “Black on White” album, but it was a showpiece for me. When we shot the video, I could appreciate the grade of perfectionist Michael was, oh yeah!!! He was details’ intense and maybe that experience alienated some of my fans, but I have to recognize that he make me step out of my box completely. He saw something in me that I even me did not know existed. It was fucking amazing to see his level of perfectionism!”
“I started as an early rebel, when I was like 13 years old. Actually, at 12 I already have sex, smoke a joint and cigarette, I stole, I was acting out, and was expelled from school. I did not fit; I was into art, music, culture, with a family typical of the 1970’s. Not like fighting my demons, but having fun. I had issue and I did not fit in the regular society. I used long hair, but when I picked the guitar, all changed.”
“Yes, my first guitar was a Flamenco guitar that belonged to my grandmother. It was good, because I like to play riffs in one string and I am still doing the same thing. Guitar allowed me to have an expression, to create music, and was so powerful, well, I don’t want to sound so serious, and it was like that!”
“As a kid, I grew within an artistic family: my dad did graphic design and my mother was a theater and show business custom-maker. My grandparents both were painters; it was the whole 70’s music. My father had one of the best personal record collections I have ever seen, he keeps everything including my gold and platinum records. But not me, I am not so expressive and my wife Perla still hates me for that.
“I remember going with my mom to many concerts and rehearsal. She was a custom-maker in Britain and I was at The Beatles, Joni Mitchel, around many famous musicians. I was fascinated listening Joni Mitchel in person to play the instrument and her lyrics. I never put my fingers on those instruments, but they fascinated me for the rest of my life”
I did have a guitar incredible. It was a 1959 Gibson Les Paul, only two made in the world. I bought from Joe Perry’s wife, Aerosmith guitar leader. It was about 1989 and we were finishing touring with Aerosmith, some guy told me about this guitar, I said if they can send me pictures of it to my apartment in Los Angeles, and then when I returned a lot of Polaroid showed that amazing guitar. As a rock star, I did recognize it, he lost that guitar when he was so druggy, his wife sold it to me But I gave it back about 196 or 1998, as a birthday present,. I got for USD $ 8,000 and it would cost over a million dollars today, however life is not only about money”
"Only in 1992 we realized with Guns & Roses how the people were following us. You see all the fans to come early and think that they do not want to be stuck on the city, but they were listening our music, so we did great double bill with Aerosmith, and our song “Paradise City” was amazing. But music life is so transient that I don’t even want to keep my gold and platinum records, my wife Perla still put them on the wall. I learned to even live in music storage, without any money still I felt comfortable living like Gypsies type of thing. And I did not feel bad or a hard life, because it was an active lifestyle”.
"If I wondered how I was kept alive after all the drugs and exhaustion of sex, drugs and rock and roll? I don’t want to own bragging rights. But when you reach to a point, when no more coke or heroine is to make you happy, the n you struggle with those excesses. You start thinking to quit, it was tough but when Perla got pregnant, I knew I had different responsibilities now. You get old, you get tired, and it is like a bag added to your back. I tried to start fresh with Velvet Revolver but at the end we all were on drugs. Guns & Roses was not so much a thing of drugs, but personal issues between Axl and me. I think everyone was dealing with their own demons. Amazed that I am not dead? Come to a point where you think you are blessed to be alive, not dead, and that is a turning point realization.
"Do my kids will be artists? Well, I don’t know, they are 5 and 7 years old, they have the piano, drums, guitar and all that kind of things, but it doesn’t feel the same sensation as when I was starting. However, if they wanted to be artists, your responsibility as a father is to support and help them to reach their dreams.”
"We passed many things with G&R. We have a friend, Mark Cantor, who helped us with a $ 100 dollars and so on, but more than the money he helped us with a sense of stability, no fixed on stardom, the chicks or drugs. The first time I heard Axl, it sounded like glass broken, but actually his voice sounded perfectly in key, that was amazing, that attracted us to Axl. He is dramatic, theatrical. As human being, he sees things in black and white, I see them in colors.
"Do I miss Guns & Roses times? Not necessarily, you don’t need to go back to feel well, that moment just passed. Life has changed on the surface and we have talked about funny stories, but now as a solo artist I have to be focused in the music, the concerts, and this industry is so cut throat that you need to care for the business side aspects and the money. You have to be smart, even if you have a manager, and learn to keep the sanity. Certainly, I am not a money person, that is my personal defect, but pay attention to those details is important because there is always a risk of not being compensated.
"I like what I did with ray Charles; he is an America’s classic artist. He opened the way for black music in radio and survived the same addiction I did have. Unspoken bond that only junkies shares? Well, he was a producer and not aware of me, actually. But he offered me to be involved with his band to –re-records all his music for the movies, he invented an amazing kind of style”
