Gun & Roses (Slash)

Slash

Saul Hudson (born 23 July 1965), better known by his stage name Slash, is a British-American musician. He is the former lead guitarist of the American hard rock band Guns N’ Roses, with whom he performed and recorded between 1985 and 1996. He later formed Slash’s Snakepit and co-foundedVelvet Revolver with his former bandmatesDuff McKagan and Matt Sorum, and his debut solo album, Slash, was released in April 2010.He has written a self titled autobiography which was put to print on 2007

Slash has received critical recognition as a guitarist. In August 2009, Time Magazine ranked him #2 on its list of the “10 Best Electric Guitar Players of All-Time”. He was also ranked #21 on Gigwise’s list of the “50 Greatest Guitarists Ever”.

Slash was the first musician to own a signature amplifier created by Marshall for him. In 1996 the Marshall Slash JCM 2555SL was launched, it was built with the specs of Slash’s own original 1987 Marshall Silver Jubilee 2555 amplifier. A total of 3000 of these amplifiers were made before it was discontinued.

In his self titled album,”Slash” he has worked with many artists like Ozzy Osbourne, Fergie(Black Eyed Peas), Myles Kennedy (Alter Bridge), Kid Rock and Ian Astbury (The Cult). The singles released from the album are “Sahara”,”Back From Cali”,”By the Sword” and “Beautiful Dangerous”.

Interviewing Slash

Tomorrow, all going well, I will be interviewing Slash. It is probably a curse to mention it before it's happened - but I thought I could share the research; you'll be able to read the interview so maybe you can contribute to the questions...

I'm interested in talking to Slash. He is a rock star still living in a time when there are not many true rock stars.

But I do not like a lot of his work. I think the new albumSlash is terrible. Here's my review.

Velvet Revolver never meant a lot to me. Sounded like Slash hiding from a Guns N' Roses reunion with Scott Weiland hiding from Stone Temple Pilots reunion (which has now happened with this).

I am definitely a fan of Guns N' Roses. I still play The Spaghetti Incident? I reckon it was overlooked at the time (sadly) and it stands up now with the best of G'n'R's original material.

And Appetite for Destruction just might be the defining album of my life - relative to my discovery of it. There have been other albums that have blown me away but I discovered Appetite as it was released; when it was released. And I still play it regularly. I've played covers of songs from the album. I have owned copies on cassette, vinyl and CD.

I saw Guns N' Roses in Auckland in 1993 - so I saw Slash doing his Godfather-theme thing.

And I'm sure I have air-guitared to November Rain's end solo a few times. I certainly watched a virtuoso air-guitar version of it in my kitchen at 5am just a year ago. I won't name the person who offered the rendition. But I am prepared to start offerin clues if you're prepared to start askin.

The standard criticism of Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II is that they would have made a great single albumm - taking the best parts from both albums and making one. That's pretty much the standard criticism of double-albums and it is generally spot-on. I definitely like both the Illusion albums - they offer different experiences. I would pick Illusion I over II if I had to just pick one. But obviously II has some of the real highlights of the package - Civil War, for example.

In my review of Slash's new album I suggested that his great playing - his important playing - could be summed up by a copy of Appetite and one or two solos from the Illusion albums. I'm happy to be told that's way off, but for me that's about where it sits. Of course I'll be keen to ask Slash about any stories relating to the work with Michael Jackson (see here).

I can ask him about snakes - and several people have already asked me to ask him why the top hat/what's under the hat/do you not own many shirts? I doubt I'll ask those questions. Apparently I'm to ask him questions about living next to Robert Evans. (I do actually wonder if they ever partied together.)

But what else to ask Slash?

Of course he's touring - currently. I'll be speaking to him while he's in the middle of European shows. And he's coming to New Plymouth in August for G-TARanaki (see here for the rest of the lineup). His band will play some old G'n'R material and some Velvet Revolver. And there's bound to be something from this Slash's Snakepit album. Do you remember that?

His singer for this current tour is the guy from Alter Bridge - so that probably means at least one Altar Bridge song too, right? Ew...

Anyway, I'm curious to know what you think. Slash is often rated in lists of great guitarists. So - do you rate him? Where does he sit for you in your list of Top 10 guitarists? Would he make the cut? Or is he not on a list as such - but you really rate/respect some/all of his work? What work/s of his do you rate?

What would you ask Slash if you were interviewing him?

And are you planning to go see him live as part of G-TARanaki?

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