| 31. December, 2000
: Slash Interview at Pandomag.com
|
Partying With a Humble Rock God
Slash and Rod Jackson talk about Snakepit, AC/DC, Les Paul, fucked up songs, and why there will never be a Guns N' Roses reunion
By Gail Worley
For Slash, the 35 year old guitarist who has no need for a last name or an introduction, the band, Snakepit, (originally known, for marketing purposes, as Slash’s Snakepit) was just something to occupy his time while Guns N’ Roses attempted to get their act together in the wake of a crumbling infrastructure despite phenomenal worldwide success. Slash is, according to those who know him, a workaholic who didn’t want to sit around waiting for the hammer to fall, so he took the songs that, apparently, Axl Rose had rejected for a new GN’R album, and recorded them as a solo album on which he enlisted the help of friends like Matt Sorum and Gilby Clark (both members of GN’R at the time), vocalist, Eric Dover and bassist, Mike Inez (of Alice in Chains). That record, It's Five O'clock Somewhere, released in February of 1995, was a project on which all were enthused to be involved. When Guns N’ Roses still wasn’t ready to record or do anything, Slash decided to take his record on the road and whoever was available to go on the road went with him. Five years later, Guns N’ Roses as we knew and loved them are long dead and buried, and while members of the first incarnation of Snakepit have gone on to other projects (Gilby Clark with a solo career and various projects with Alice Cooper, Matt Sorum as drummer for The Cult) Snakepit has risen again as a lean, mean, rocking machine with a second full length album, Ain’t Life Grand, released to rave critical reviews in October of 2000.
A few days before Halloween, I met with Slash and Snakepit vocalist, Rod Jackson, in the Bar of the Parklane Hotel, across the street from NYC’s Central Park. It was 2 in the afternoon: Slash was drinking a double Stoli with Cranberry Juice, Rod had a Corona while, despite Slash’s insistence that we all party, I opted to stick with gingerale. Slash and Rod were two of the biggest total sweethearts I’ve been privileged to interview, and the scene was ultimately very rock and roll, as it should be when in the presence of a humble rock god.
*******
When GN’R was starting to self-destruct -- and guys are leaving the band for whatever reason -- it was pretty well-hidden from the public. Was there any one turning point or one event -- an epiphany you had --where you looked at what was around you and thought "This is going to end"?
Slash: Yeah. It’s really not as complicated and it’s not as "Rock and Roll Heroic Break Up Stuff" as everybody makes it out to be. When Steven (Adler, drummer) got kicked out, and then we kept going from there, that was one thing. Then when Izzy (Stradlin, guitar) quit, that’s when I went "Oh..." And the only reason Izzy quit is...it had a lot to do with Axl. So, I hung in there, because we set out on a mission to do this thing -- and we did it -- but the camaraderie was not totally there. We hung in as long as we could, then it finally came to a point where I was like, you know what, I can’t fucking hang in there anymore.
Was it hard to walk away from that?
Slash: At that point, by the time I had to walk away, technically, logistically, yeah. But from an emotional point of view, no. What’s done is done, you know. It’s like getting divorced. The orgasm wasn’t there.
Following that, I was talking to another journalist about you and we were saying that artists can generally move on but the fans can't. You want to talk about Snakepit and everyone else wants to talk about GN’R. Do you have any problems with people not letting you move on and do new things and being hung up on Guns N’ Roses?
Slash: It’s not an issue. It’s like [a reunion of GN’R] wouldn’t happen. If it were going to happen it would be for a second, just so that the guys -- all sort of being more or less still friends -- could go "Hey! Hi!" and then play like a song. But it’s so not that.
Rod: Can I comment on that?
Slash: Wait, before I forget...because you know I’ve got a short attention span...
Rod: He’s on a roll!
Slash: The thing is, when it ended, it was a series of events that made it end. When I got out of it I was just like, okay that’s a chapter done! I can’t foresee it all coming back together and being what it once was. That’s my whole attitude.
What’s cool is that you don’t seem to have problems looking back and saying "This is what happened when..."
Slash: I was in one of the fucking biggest rock and roll bands in the world.
Rod: It’s hard to leave a fast moving train, is what I was going to say. That’s got to have been the hardest thing in the world for him to have stepped off that train. I mean, I wasn’t even into heavy metal that much, and I even realized what they were doing.
Slash: It hurt more than anything else. Sometimes you just have to go out there and do it, and I won’t name any names but [there are some bands that] I wish they would break up.
Ain’t Life Grand was recorded for Geffen, so why did Interscope chose not to put this record out?
Slash: The whole Geffen thing started going through its own demise when [David] Geffen left his own company. When he went to Dreamworks, then Geffen became a former shell of itself. People started getting fired and those were most of the people I grew up in this business with, as far as who I was committed to working with. So, I didn’t really take it that seriously as far as "Well so-and-so’s not here and so-and-so just went blah blah blah...." Geffen turned into Interscope and it was like we were dealing with a hip-hop label, and we’re a fuckin’ hard rock band. Geffen is now basically run by hip-hop guys...
Rod: They literally didn’t know what to do with us. They didn’t know how to market us.
Slash: ...and the only good thing that came out of that whole thing was Jimmy Iovine introduced us to (Producer) Jack Douglas. When we got into making [Ain’t Life Grand] it was like, they had no idea what to do with us. They’re on one page and we’re on another. They didn’t know what to do with the Guns record either. I had to sit on the Guns record.
I don’t even get that. But I’m such a rock head.
Slash: You’re pink!
You know, even though rock has been making a real comeback in the past two years, it’s still the underdog, it’s not very fashionable to be a rock and roll musician, really. Do you find it’s a struggle -- not within yourself but in this business -- to really stay true to the kind of music you want to make, even if someone’s telling you that rock and roll isn’t cool?
Rod: You know something, nobody tells him that. I swear to god, he does what he does and I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who’s told him rock and roll isn’t cool.
Slash: It’s never been justifiable. There’s always been really cool rock periods, then some sort of fuckin’ trend, or wave, and then rock comes back. And that’s the only thing we’re good at. I could never conform to all that fuckin’ [stuff]. It’s weird, because people ask that all the time. (Adopting high pitched voice) ‘With all of this that’s going on right now, how do you feel you fit into ...’ If anybody remembers correctly, at least from my personal history, I was one of the members of one of the most notoriously anti-what’s-going-on-now bands. Before that, ten years before that, it was the same thing. Every time these trends come around, sometimes it’s really creative and really cool, but then everybody starts to capitalize on it. They make a million dollars, sell a million records, and make a lot of money and the whole business goes haywire. Madonna, I think, is the only person who’s been skimming off the same shit forever. But genuine rock and roll bands don’t change. They just fall into the cracks for awhile. Do you get my point?
Yes I do.
Slash: So you just hang in there. I’m just trying to get better at what it is I originally started out to do. That’s what I like. If I had to start doing stuff I don’t like I’d be fucking miserable. I’d still be out there just playing some licks.
On Ain’t Life Grand, there seems to be a really overwhelming feeling of freedom, especially with the way Rod sings. Do you feel that way as well? How about you Rod?
Rod: The band pretty much just let me do what I wanted to do and that was the cool thing about getting in this band. Of course, they showed me ‘This is here and this is that.’ But they pretty much said ‘Just go for it.’ And that’s pretty much the band, everybody just does...
Slash: ...what they do.
Rod: It’s funny because we never argue over music. When I first got into this band, I watched the way they work and, watching these guys work, everyone wants to do the right thing. Everyone takes that bassline home or that guitar riff home, and brings it back the next day to its simplified and its complete form. They just let me go.
Slash: That’s how it started. A piece of music, which in my mind’s eye is some fuckin’ really killer riff, but it’s just instrumental. Being a guitar player you can come up with some very whacked shit, but you have an idea in the back of your mind like ‘This is a great song!’ as long as everybody else understands it, which isn’t always the case. I gave a piece of material like that to Johnny (Blackout), our bass player, he gave it to Rod, Rod fuckin’ sang on it...and we all go ‘Yeah! That’s it!’ (laughs)
Rod: (laughing) It was a fucked up song too.
Slash: And it will be on the next record.
Rod: Yes, it will!
Slash: We just didn’t finish it. That was when I was like ‘There you go!’ after I don’t know how many songs we went through that didn’t work out. That was what started it. From that point on we just said, everybody does what they do. It’s not about someone going ‘Can you change this?’ We don’t do that. The only thing is Matt (Laug, drummer) might go ‘Well, your guitar’s a little out of tune.’ (laughs).
I know that Ryan Roxie was the Snakepit rhythm guitarist but he was obligated to tour with Alice Cooper. Since he and Kerri Kelly were in Dad’s Porno Mag together, did Ryan make that introduction for you, with Kerri?
Slash: He did, there was a little bit of irony there. Ryan introduced us to Kerri, and Kerri came in and it was like one of the Team Guys was missing. There was nothing we could do about it. We had to get this record out. But Ryan plays on the record.
Rod: I want to say this, at the time Kerri Kelly came in, we were like ‘Oh wow, what are we gonna do now [that Ryan is gone]?’ I have to say, he walked in and went ‘The glass is half full.’ He is such a part of this and I’m so happy he’s in this band. I love Ryan, but Kerri is, like, so down with this. He drowns himself in this.
Slash: He’s flexible and...charismatic.
Rod: He is, yeah. It was funny because he didn’t really know Slash, and we were sitting in his kitchen, and I was wondering ‘How are these two guys going to get along?’ Someone was trying to talk to Slash and Kerri goes ‘Yo! Slick!’ (laughs). That’s what he called him, ‘Slick.’
Slash: It’s like being on a baseball team. Everybody’s just going to do their jobs. Everybody carries their own weight.
Rod: And [Kerri] does his job to the fullest.
Slash: We did 37 shows with AC/DC. If you’re gonna cut your teeth on anything, it’s going to be that.
How was the AC/DC tour?
Rod: They were great. They were so awesome. It was funny because when we started opening up for them, our album wasn’t out, so we literally had to win over the crowd.
Slash: Some shows they didn’t even know we were coming.
Rod: At the end of the show everyone would be on their feet.
Slash: They were like ‘So, this is Snakepit." And AC/DC were great, they were like ‘Why don’t you stay on?’ It was great because we had a good camaraderie going. But it was a hard gig, not because we had to live up to any particular reputation, but because we had to go out there and play songs nobody had ever heard before and go out there and play in front of a band who’s been around forever and has had so many hit songs...
Rod: Their catalog is amazing.
Slash: ...and go out there and be good enough to play in front of them. Otherwise people would be throwing shit at us. So we figured we were ok (laughs). That was the beginning thing for us, that tour, and now we’re back in the states and we’re doing the whole national thing, just with Snakepit. We might play with another band but, actually, AC/DC was the best band for us to play with. I’m not really sure what’s going to be going on at the beginning of [2001]. I always think of good concerts as being a package deal, so we’ll see what happens.
Do you have questions for Rod because I’ve gotta go get some cigarettes.
Rod: (laughs)
(Slash exits temporarily.)
So, Rod, what were you doing before you joined Snakepit?
Rod: The funny thing about Slash and me is we knew the same people. We were both friends with West Arkeen, who helped write a lot of the stuff on Appetite (For Destruction) [Note: West Arkeen is credited only with co-writing "It’s so Easy"]. We were a part of that thing that I call ‘Old Hollywood’ -- the Hollywood Billiards and all of that. The thing of it was, I knew him and he knew me but we really didn’t know each other, you know what I mean?
You knew each other by Reputation.
Rod: Exactly. So I would see him at West’s or he would see me doing my thing and it’d be like "Hey man!" or whatever. Finally, Johnny, our bass player, said ‘Hey man, why don’t you sing for Snakepit?’ And I was like ‘Er, I don’t know.’ So I went and checked it out and I was like ‘Yeah, I’m down with this.’ And that’s about it.
(Slash returns with a pack of cigarettes at which point Rod gets up and disappears for ten minutes.)
What’s the difference for you between making a GNR album and making a Snakepit album?
Slash: It was not really that much different. It’s just like that ‘strength in numbers’ [thing], when you get a band together and you just go for it, and it takes you...wherever. I mean, Guns was not some sort of preconceived thing. There was only five guys in LA at that time that could have made up that band. As soon as you get back into another situation, where you’re in a band, it’s like a gang. You go into it, taking into account the different personalities that you’re dealing with and the differences and so on and so forth. For me, personally, I’m still the same guy and, as individuals, we all fell into it. Comparatively it’s the same as with Guns or any other band. You’re just like ‘Hey! I’m having a good time! Are you?’ You take your chances and it’s you against the world.
Slash: With Appetite, [that success] surprised everybody, especially the band -- other than the fact that we thought it was cool because we were playing it. But we were all playing that shit for ages before anybody recognized it as being good music. The only thing that was cool about it after the fact was that kids who heard us play this song or that song fucking responded to it. That’s what made it huge, at least for me. It wasn’t about how fucking great we thought the record was, because that was just us. It was exciting when it started to sell.
As well grounded as you are, does it ever just blow your mind to know how much your fans idolize you?
Slash: I’m just a guy who plays guitar. The one thing I do from time to time, every so often I’ll go and I’ll play along with some blues stuff, something on the radio and I’ll realize that I do have a thing for the guitar: I love it. That’s the only thing I have. It’s not about anything else.
Do you have to practice or do you just let the inspiration flow through you?
Slash: It’s hard. I want to achieve something when I’m playing and, in order to achieve it, I have to really approach it with respect. I hate to sound so philosophical about it (laughs), but I could just sit around and bend this note and bend that note for days. But, to actually play is the hard part. But I love it. I played a birthday party once and Eric Clapton goes, he goes (adopting British accent) ‘Oh, he can play.’
He said that to you?
Slash: He said it to Ron Wood. But it goes all the way back to the original question, it’s all a matter of wanting to play it and having a little bit of control of it and having a personality. That’s all it took, that’s all you’re about, you pick the fuckin’ thing up and...(to Rod, who has returned) remember that one night when we were all fucked up together?
Rod: Yeah (laughs).
Slash: I was like ‘I just can’t play right now.’ But when you’ve got all the components together, and you’re emotionally intact it’s like ‘Oh, I LOVE this!’
Rod: He’s one of those guys who like, when we write a song and when we’re recording at his house and jamming and stuff, you’d show up [the next day] and he’d be sitting at the table in the kitchen, still playing a song. And you’d be like, ‘Have you been here all night?’ ‘Yep!’ He’s married to it.
Slash: Can you imagine the divorce situation (adopting high brow British accent ) ‘Oh, I’ve taken up cello!’ (both laugh).
Are there any songs on this record that feel especially personal to you?
Rod: "Just Like Anything," because of the space in the verses. And "Shine," I love...
Slash: I get a little dew drop...
Rod: Because [the band’s] going (imitating guitar riff) ‘Na na na, Na na na" and I’m singing straight. That was one of the first songs that they gave me and I went ‘Oh Fuck! This is like a cross between Led Zeppelin and the Beatles,’ and that just floored me, that song "Shine." When I heard that, it blew me away.
Slash: The song "Ain’t Life Grand," [is special to me]. There’s a story behind this. "Ain’t Life Grand" is a song that I penned for Les Paul. I did it with Iggy Pop, Lenny Kravitz, Kenny Aronoff and Duff McKagan. We recorded this song and it was supposed to be on a Les Paul tribute record. Time went by and all of a sudden I went ‘What ever happened with that tune?’ It was called "Burn Out" back then. Les was really sick and I thought Warner Bros is just waiting for him to croak so they can really capitalize on this record, so I bought the song back. I had the music and the exact same arrangement that we do, so me and Rod sat down one night in the studio and we created this song, "Ain’t Life Grand" to the already more-or-less existing music. Then the horns came into it and [created] the whole vision of what the song was supposed to sound like. That, to me, seems really special because it was a conglomeration of the entire band doing this thing.
Rod: And that song really paints a scene, you know (Quotes lyrics) "End of the summer/Down in New Orleans..." I got another story for it. [Slash] comes to me one night and he goes ‘We’re gonna write!’ And I went ‘Cool.’ Jim Mitchell, who was recording us at the time, is hanging and Slash comes in with all these candles. And we’re like ‘What the fuck is this guy doing?’ Jim’s looking at us like ‘I’m outta here!’ Slash lights the candles and I’ve got my pad and the music’s playing. Slash just starts going "End of the summer/Down in New Orleans..." da da da da. And I’m like, ‘Where’s he getting all this from?’ I’m writing and writing, and I look up and go ‘What do you want to call it?’ And at the time, the candle had hit his face right here (points under chin) and he looked like the Devil, and he goes (pause for dramatic effect, whispers) ‘Ain’t life grand...’ and I went "Ah, yeah cool.’
Slash: So that was special for me and Rod.
Source: http://pandomag.com/featurestext/slash.htm
| 31. December, 2000
: The three guitar assault in action
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As most of you know, the new Guns n' Roses are likely to initiate 3 guitars in their music contrary to the usual 2 (rhythm and lead). There's a frequently popular question about the technique used with three guitars that made me want to scan and then type out a brilliant article about the subject from the May1999 issue of GuitarOne. It was part of an article on Collective Soul, another band that employs the three guitar attack, but there's a snippet that concentrates on it's history and theory. Following is the scan and then the text for those who can't or don't like to make it out. But it's one cool and very informative article!
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THREE OF A KIND
Fleetwood Mac, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and other great guitar trios from the past
Collective Soul isn't the first band to successfully sport a triple-guitar attack: Folk groups and Country & Western bands have often featured three acoustic guitarists or a combination of electric and acoustic instruments. But the idea has always proven problematic for heavy rockers. One loud electric guitar can sound like an entire rhythm section, while two might approach the harmonic richness of a small orchestra. With three roaring electric guitars, you could end up with the aural equivalent of a rock and roll earthquake, which could be either cool or disastrous, depending on your point of view. The solution for most rock bands with three guitarists has been to employ arrangements that give each musician a clearly-defined part that doesn't intrude on the others' sonic space. In reality, this often translates into two guitarists playing standard rhythm accompaniement while the third plays fills. Sometimes, one guitarist will play rhythm while the other two intertwine complementary, or harmony, lines. And then there's the triple guitar freak-out with warring leads. Most groups have used one or all of these methods in their presentation.
Fleetwood Mac started out in the late 60's as an authentic blues band and most likely was the first commercially-viable aggregation to front three accomplished guitar players. Led by the phenomenal Peter Green (B.B. King once referred to him as "the only guitar player who makes me sweat"), Mac also included Danny Kirwan and Elmore James-clone Jeremy Spencer. Green usually was out front while the other two backed him, although they all soloed. On songs like "Fighting For Madge" from Then Play On, they blend snaky riffs and driving rhythm parts, with each guitarist taking a solo. "Oh Well," the classic rock cut from the album, displays unison, octave, and harmony lines that are expertly crafted into a powerful, tautly wound linear statement.
Lynyrd Skynyrd rose from Alabama in the early '70s with a southern, bluesy feel married to a crunchy, British hard rock sound. With Allen Collins, Gary Rossington, and Ed King (who was later replaced by Steve Gaines) wielding Firebirds, Les Pauls, and Strats, they created a slew of hook-laden numbers. "Free Bird" (their magnum opus), takes full advantage of the potential of three guitars. Starting with Rossington's melodic slide over arpeggiated chords, this rock anthem explodes into an orgasmic firestorm. As Rossington and Collins duke it out over Ed King's thumping rhythm accompaniment, their repeating lead figures merge into a wailing banshee that still drives listeners into a frenzy.
Blue Oyster Cult, the "thinking man's heavy metal band" from Long Island, started life as the Soft White Underbelly in 1967. Their 1972 self-titled debut was led by guitarist Donald "Buck Dharma" Roeser (whom Jimmy Page once referred to as his favorite player in the mid-'70s) and supported by Eric Bloom and Allan Lanier. B.O.C. was not strictly a three-guitar band, as the members usually doubled on keyboards and other instruments, but their studio albums were rich with multiple, muscular, intertwining riffs. "Cities on Flame with Rock 'n' Roll" lived up to its name, as did the aptly titled "Godzilla." In 1976, the band escaped their underground "cult" status with the Top 40 smash "(Don't Fear) the Reaper." Pushing the envelope on the multi-guitar concept, B.O.C. would close their concerts with the drummer stepping out from behind his trap kit to strap on an axe and join the three guitars and bass player for a five-man phalanx.
Other hot groups from the '70s that experimented with three guitars were the Outlaws ("Green Grass and High Tides"), The Eagles ("Hotel California"), and April Wine ("You Could Have Been a Lady"). Suffice it to say that the possibilities for polyrhythmic and harmonic invention have not yet been exhausted along these lines. Perhaps with Collective Soul exploring the angle once again, other bands will heed the call to join 18 strings together.
-Dave Rubin
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What Makes Slash Burn
Slash is a no-nonsense guy when it comes to gear.
“He knows what he wants to hear, he knows how the guitar should react in his hands and he knows if it’s not right,” says Slash’s guitar tech of over 12 years, Adam Day.
Though he’s accumulated nearly a hundred guitars, his live sound is Les Paul all the way. In the studio he supplements that with a BC Rich Mockingbird that serves when he needs tremolo. He uses Ernie Ball strings -- .011 to .048 gauge.
Marshall is Slash’s amp of choice, and he is the first artist to have procured his own signature series amplifier from the company. The Slash Marshall is actually a modified Jubilee (2555), a model the company only made for two years between 1987 and 1988. Because of the limited production run, Slash was only able to obtain a few, and after discussing the matter with the manufacturer, Jim Marshall approached Slash with the idea of reissuing the amp as a signature series limited edition. It went over like a proverbial house on fire. Now Slash owns a stash of some six or seven Jubilees and about ten of the JCM Slash model. In addition to the amps he keeps on hand wherever he’s currently playing, the guitarist has an arsenal of them stockpiled across the globe in New York, Los Angeles, Europe and Japan -- a precaution he’s taken ever since stadium riots in his Guns N’ Roses days resulted in the loss of precious equipment.
With regard to effects, what Slash’s rig lacks in diversity it makes up for in quantity. Live he uses several Dunlop wah pedals plus a Boss graphic EQ GE-7 and a Boss DD3 digital delay that Day runs from off-stage.
“If we’re playing a big place I’ve got four [wah-wah pedals] so that wherever I am, I can get to one,” Slash explains. “With Guns N’ Roses I had eight wah-wah pedals doing the stadiums ’cause I don’t stand still very long and it’s like I can’t, like, stand there with a pedal in front of me and wait to have to use it. But that’s basically it. I have a little Boss EQ I use for guitar solos to make the amp louder and that’s about it.”
In the studio Slash and crew have a few more tricks up their sleeve. Aside from rhythm guitarist Kerry Kelly’s set up, and Slash’s Mockingbird, the Snakepit crew uses a feedback generator that Duff McKagan’s tech, Mike Mayhue, came up with back in Slash’s G N’ R days.
“It’s our own invention,” Slash says. “We have an amp in the control room and an amp that’s out live and the monitors. So all this is coming at me and I control the volume on the amp that’s right next to me with my foot and so what happens is you get this really fucking insane feedback coming in.
“I was so frustrated ’cause I always play in the control room and I can never get the right kind of feedback in the control room as I would standing in front of them. But I play so loud that I can’t even hear through the headphones. I hate headphones anyway so I stay in the control room as it is and what we do is we run a line from my amp into another amp so that the amp is right here and I just control the volume.”
Slash prefers vintage gear in general -- tube amps and old Les Pauls, though he does pack some more contemporary instruments. Aside from the Mockingbird, his acoustic guitars include a 1964 Martin D-28 and a variety of Guilds including a model (the Crossroads -- available from the Guild custom shop only) he designed that features two necks -- one electric and one acoustic.
“I don’t know why anybody never thought of that before so you don’t have to use one of those stupid stands and do a Steve Howe thing,” he says. “It works great, so I have four of those. They’re just hard to get, really expensive, and they’re really only for live performance.”
Slash’s partner in fretful mayhem, rhythm guitarist Kerry Kelly, uses G.M.P. guitars exclusively with a Marshall 1987 amp. He’s not an effects fanatic either but packs more than Slash -- a Morley Bad Horsey wah pedal, an MXR phase 90, Dunlop tremolo, Boss volume and Ernie Ball volume. He uses an Audio Technica wireless system and Ernie Ball strings (.010-.046 gauge).
-- Sandy Masuo
In the five years since Slash started parting ways with Guns N’ Roses he’s followed his muse down various paths -- from two incarnations of his own band, Snakepit, to guest appearances on albums by artists ranging from Michael Jackson to Rod Stewart as well as an acoustic venture called “Obsession/Confession” that appeared on the soundtrack for the 1996 Quentin Tarantino-produced film “Curdled.”
But wherever he may roam musically, he’s most at home grinding out raunchy rock. His bristling riffs and soaring solos gave Guns N’ Roses its punch, and both Snakepit albums -- 1995’s It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere and this year’s Ain’t Life Grand -- are thoroughly grounded in his distinctive playing style. The original Snakepit was more of a side-project with fellow Guns guitarist Gilby Clarke and drummer Matt Sorum plus Alice In Chains bassist Mike Inez and Jellyfish singer Eric Dover. This year’s model is a solid band. Drummer Matt Laug, bassist Johnny Blackout, guitarist Kerry Kelly, and charismatic frontman Rod Jackson stir up a compelling commotion around Slash. As affable as he is rambly, the guitarist talks about life in and out of the Pit.
Guitar.com: In the past you’ve talked about how you need to keep playing in order to avoid boredom. What led to you leaving Guns in the first place?
Slash: I thought we were just getting good at what we were doing and Axl headed in a different direction. I was basically too fucking stubborn -- still trying to perfect the one thing I was just getting good at to be able to go there. My whole trip is still based around the same original concept from when I started playing when I was 15… For me it’s basically all the same shit, and as far as what Axl had in mind I’m still waiting for the [next] Guns N’ Roses record to come out to see what that was. That’ll be a huge relief for me.
Guitar.com: Do you still keep in touch?
Slash: I haven’t talked to him in five, going on six years.
Guitar.com: Were there things you wanted to do musically that you couldn’t in Guns?
Slash: Most of the [Snakepit] stuff I’ve done is stuff I couldn’t do in Guns. Originally Snakepit was just a bunch of me noodling around. I just happened to be hanging out with the friends in the band -- Gilby Clarke and Matt Sorum and Mike Inez from Alice In Chains, and that’s who I jammed with. Snakepit was really just the name of the studio because it was next to a room filled with snakes and we called it Snakepit Studios. When we went to record we didn’t have a singer, let alone a name for the band. “What are we gonna call it?” “We’re gonna call it the Snakepit.” “Cool.” It wasn’t serious ’cause at that point I was still in Guns. Matt was contractually obligated to Guns, Mike Inez was in Alice In Chains. Gilby [subsequently] got fired from Guns, but this time around I took it really seriously because I put the band together, and so on. What was the original question?
Guitar.com: Was there a lot of stuff you wanted to do in Guns but couldn’t?
Slash: Oh yeah. So what happens is like, I’ll write something and the stuff from point A to point B is a collaborative thing, so whatever I came up with or whatever ideas were flying around from any individual guy will turn into a band thing. So I would get locked into Guns in some ways but I always found an outlet to do something I wanted to do and experiment a lot. But I’m pretty single-minded. Like, I do my hard rock shit and that’s my main thing and then I have more R&B and bluesy stuff. Most of the stuff I’ve done with other people is my release of stuff I couldn’t do with Guns -- like “Mama Said” was a song that I originally wrote with Guns in mind but Guns was not the band for it, and Lenny [Kravitz] heard it and went “Whoa!” And there it went. There was some soundtrack stuff I did called “Obsession/Confession” which is a flamenco kind of thing and that was definitely not a Guns N’ Roses style thing… The Snakepit from its inception all the way up until now is all the stuff that Axl doesn’t like to do any more. It’s a huge outlet for me now.
Guitar.com: In hard rock there’s a certain rapport that goes on between singers and guitarists. Was it weird working with singers other than Axl?
Slash: It probably would be more weird if I hadn’t done so much stuff whenever Guns had any period of time off. I would play with so many different people that I’ve learned to be pliable, to be able to fit into pretty much any situation… The thing that really drives me is the drums and then the bass, and then it goes to the vocals. Fuck man, I’ll play to the fuckin’ moon if the singer goes there and vice versa -- that’s chemistry. That’s why it takes so long to find the right guys in the band ’cause sometimes you just don’t feel it.
When I was looking for a drummer to replace [Guns’] Stephen [Adler], there was a point where we had a million top-notch drummers and I could not find anybody. That was probably the first real break-up of Guns, was when we couldn’t find a drummer… It’s like -- a bad drummer? Can’t do it. It just won’t happen. The same with the singer too. Rod [Jackson] is like, a diamond-in-the-rough kind of guy -- fuckin amazing. I was lucky to find him ’cause I went through 200 fucking singers or something before I found him. It started to turn into a job. Then it turns out that Johnny [Blackout] our bass player -- knew this guy and he’s in this fuckin band [Shady Tree] and the band’s not all that great and he takes me down to go see him and overall I wasn’t very interested… but the singer was good.
One of the tactics I used to audition people was giving them [an instrumental] tape and letting them sit with it for a day or two and make up their own stuff to it. Johnny gave the tape to Rod and gave it to me and said “Listen to this!” And it turned out to be the guy I saw months earlier at the Roxy and I was like “Wow.” So it’s not weird for me not seeing Axl running around doing this that and the other or hearing his tonal changes or whatever it was that would make me play a certain way. As soon as I hit the right vibe I’m there.
Guitar.com: What do you like in a drummer -- power, flexibility, groove?
Slash: A groove and simplicity. Feel. You gotta be able to screw to it.
Guitar.com: Who’s your favorite drummer living or dead?
Slash: Favorite drummer of all time -- easy -- is John Bonham. John Bonham and Keith Moon. When “Coda” came out and John died, I was in a band at that time and I remember always having a problem with drummers but I was so ignorant. I had just started playing guitar and I didn’t know anything about anything. I learned as I went along about what makes me tick and what makes things happen and when John Bonham died I was like “Oh fuck, Led Zeppelin broke up just ’cause of the drummer!?” And then later it was like, “Oooooh. I get it. Fuck. That’s major.”
Guitar.com: When you’re not working on something specific do you have a practice regimen?
Slash: No. I’m fucking terrible. I’m really disciplined when I’m focused on something, when I know what I’m doing but… Here’s a classic scenario: I’ll be sitting there watching TV and there’s not fuck-all to do, and I won’t hang out with anybody and I’m just watching the food network and I’ll keep looking at the guitar case. So I’ll open it, and take the guitar out and sit it standing up. I have to go through this whole ritual -- and then once I have it with me I don’t put it down and maybe I’ll write something…
I make myself play because I have to do it, but when it comes to just practicing, the best thing for me is to go out and do a fuckin’ physical full-out rehearsal. That’s when the whole physical thing comes into it and you realize that ten hours a day of practicing doesn’t mean shit because the whole thing is completely different.
I learned that a long time ago. No venue is the same, and playing in your bedroom is not the same as playing in front of people. Playing at rehearsal is not the same as playing in front of people and playing with [one group of] people is not the same as playing with some other different people.
Guitar.com: So you play every day?
Slash: Either that or I don’t play at all.
Gutar.com: A man of extremes.
Slash: Yeah.
Source: http://www.guitar.com/features/viewfeature.asp?featureID=194
Uplister.com has a page listing Slash's choice flashback tracks.
Slash's 13 Track Flashback
by Slash
On the eve of the release of the Snakepit's "Ain't Life Grand," Jaan Uhelszki got Slash, nee Saul Hudson, to talk about the lucky 13 songs that make him want to sing. And everyone knows Slash never sings.
Genre: Rock Theme: Favorites
Mood: Nostalgic Length: 13 tracks
1. Superstition by Stevie Wonder
My favorite song in the world is probably "Superstition." There's something about Stevie Wonder that's so natural funk. And his riffs--because I'm a riff guy--just flow. It's almost like without thinking. And that's probably what I've been working on since I was 15. Just go with it. That's where my stuff comes from. I never sit down and premeditate anything. I hear it in my head first. So "Superstition" is just one of a million Stevie Wonder songs that has that kind of [dum dum dum dum dum dum]--you want to fuck to it!
2. Back In The Saddle by Aerosmith
That's my favorite Aerosmith song. I could go on. I chose "Back in the Saddle" because back when I was about 13 or 14 years old--and not to put any age on the Aerosmith guys--the first time I heard that song I was in a girl's apartment&I was chasing this girl and she had that record on. It just went [da da da da da da] and I was just like, "Whoa." And it went [da da da da da], and I had been trying to get this girl for months, and I finally got into her apartment. I was still riding my bike then, and I heard that and I listened to the whole record about six or seven times and then said, "I gotta go. Bye." And I took off and I started playing guitar.
3. Kick Out The Jams by MC 5
My dad turned me onto them. My mom and my dad were both in the music business. That's how I moved from London to Los Angeles. My dad made album covers. He worked at Geffen.
4. Tell Me Something Good by Rufus
That's so typical because it's popular right now... When I first heard it, I think that and "Dancing Machine" were the two hottest songs as far as I was concerned. I just met Chaka [Khan] recently. She's six times hotter now. She's got that gooey eye look.
5. Bell Bottom Blues by Derek & The Dominos
I love that song.
6. Steven by Alice Cooper
The first time I met him he was doing a photo shoot with my dad's best friend, John. He had a studio on Santa Monica, in Hollywood, and me and my dad went down there when he was shooting Alice. And I can't remember if it was for "Billion Dollar Babies" or what it was...but he was such a character. He was so cool. That's when I became an Alice Cooper fan.
7. Down Payment Blues by AC/DC
That's pretty self-explanatory, that song. It's got that great AC/DC thing to it, but it's got a great groove and great chord changes. It's just set up for a great arrangement. Very simple, but it grabs me by the balls.
8. Out On The Tiles by Led Zeppelin
John Bonham got a credit on that song. I have no idea about the history of it, but that's sort of the forefront of--if anybody's interested--where I get my riff styling from, that's pretty indicative. All the songs I really like are all riff-oriented, and that was one of the most obscure songs on that record. And I learned that to a tee. It's out of time in some places. Before I even started playing guitar, before I had any nightmares about being a musician or anything like that, I knew exactly what I didn't like and exactly what I did like. One of those things was ["Out on the Tiles"]. "Back in the Saddle" was the same way. I remember what turned me on: I always loved music because I was always around it. When I became a musician, when I picked up an instrument, I knew exactly what I wanted to do--I didn't even know anything about it technically at all.
9. Won't Get Fooled Again by The Who
Easier said than done. That particular record is awesome. I want to say it's on "Who's Next." There are a couple of songs on there that are really good. There are a couple of songs on every Who record that are really good. I was raised on The Who. My dad broke a lot of things to The Who. I remember him and I throwing the couch out the window because of The Who. Because we hated this couch and we finally decided in the middle of the night, by candle light, to get rid of it. And I was like, what, seven years old? It's probably still sitting on the front lawn in the fucking house in Stokes-on-Trent.
10. Free Man In Paris by Joni Mitchell
This one's going to sound out of left field. I was there when she recorded it, and I always loved that song when I was a kid...1971 or 1972.
11. Paradise City by Guns N' Roses
I heard it on the radio yesterday...I have no ill feelings--no regrets about any of the stuff I've ever done. The only reason you did it was because you were into it at the time. You never look back and go, "Fuck, I wish I hadn't done that." It's all an adventure. Life is a big adventure. You go along with how it goes. It was written in a fucking van between San Francisco and Los Angeles. I think when I was originally singing it, it was "Take me down to Paradise City where the girls are fat and they've got big titties." Paradise City could be anywhere.
12. Life's Sweet Drug by Slash's Snakepit
And then off the Snakepit record, the Ain't Life Grand thing, I hate to be partial on any one song, but "Life's Sweet Drug." It's the first song that we play in the set, and it's just one of those energetic...I just love that song.
13. Kill City by Iggy Pop
Everything on Iggy's "Kill City " is awesome. One of my bands is called Kill City. We grew up on that. I can't think of the name of the song, but that record in its entirety. I went through so much shit listening to that--but that was one of those--that fueled some fire for me. That was the record around the time when me and Duff first met, all we listened to was Kill City. And we named the band that.
In an interview with Metal-Sludge, HOTD singer Ryan Cook brought up Guns n' Roses in one of his twenty questions:
11. What rock star deserves a smack in the mouth and why?
Just one? I'll give you four: Axl, Duff, Slash and Izzy. Get Guns back together already! Of course, HOTD would be the support act on their World tour.
You can check the questionaire in it's entire format at http://www.metal-sludge.com/20QuestionsRyanCook.htm.
There's an interview at cmj.com with Slash that's short but interesting. In
there though, he mentions that the original Snakepit band "didn't count" and
also mentioned something that seems to destroy hopes of a full fledged GNR
reunion... that when he quits something, he really quits. Also among the interview was a tongue in cheek popup comparison chart between Slash and
Buckethead. Just click on the pic below to see it.
The soft-spoken Slash needs no introduction. Our interview was two hours
late, but sometimes you gotta make concessions to a star whose music changed
your life and the lives of just about every other kid in your generation.
Slash's Snakepit just released Ain't Life Grand on Koch Records.
I saw Slash's Snakepit open for AC/DC in August. But I got there in the
middle of the set because I forgot that arena shows run a tight ship and always
start on time. We even start on time when we play in clubs. I think we've been
late only one time; we were 15 minutes late because we couldn't get a flight in.
We're antsy because we wanna play.
How long has Slash's Snakepit been in existence?
Oh shit, that's a
hard question to answer. [Long pause.] The first one doesn't count.
Why doesn't the first incarnation count?
We had a bunch of guys
together, and we recorded stuff and called it Snakepit because I had snakes. But
I was still in Guns then; it wasn't a permanent thing. This one is a career
move. This is everybody's individual fucking-let's-lock-arms-and-do-it. Not for
myself, but every individual in the band was like, "We gotta make this thing
happen." It took a year to get it all together.
Why is it called Slash's Snakepit?
It was originally supposed to be
called just Snakepit, but Geffen wanted Slash's Snakepit; they figured it would
sell more records. Then there was this all-chick band from San Diego that popped
out of nowhere named Snakepit. I drove out there to meet them, and they didn't
want to give up the name. They were all in college and one wanted to give us a
blow job. I was like, "My problem is Snakepit. You need to come up with a name."
And she was like, "I know. Let's go to the bathroom." They had a three-song demo
and they copyrighted it.
Do you think a lot of your fans from Guns N' Roses are surfacing?
I
think the only issue having to do with GN'R fans is all the fans that got fucked
over because the band broke up -- and they didn't deserve all that. Under the
circumstances, well, someone is out there fucking rocking. We do, more or less,
what Guns... It's a sensitive issue. What Guns was best at -- hard rock and
guitar playing -- that's what I do now. I don't wanna say anything bad about the
other guys; they're doing their own thing. But as far as going out as hard rock
band and doing it, we're the only ones that are doing it.
Am I asking too many GN'R questions?
I don't wanna talk about Guns
N' Roses. That's boring.
Do you think there will ever be a reunion? Because, to me, it ain't GN'R
unless it's Axl, Slash, Stephen, Duff and Izzy.
A reunion? I wouldn't do
a Guns gig unless the entire original lineup was there and it would be one show
-- yeah, cool. Reunion gigs are... What's the word I'm looking for? Uh, it's
cliché. For me to quit anything is a big thing in and of itself. So when I quit,
I quit. As far as I'm concerned, I quit when it was still cool -- [with] still
some semblance of cool left. I did what I had to do. We just went in different
directions.
Story by Amy Sciarretto
There's a very positive review of the new Snakepit album at Electric Basement that's very positive and very interesting.
SLASH'S SNAKEPIT - Ain't Life Grand
(Koch)
It's been 51/2 years since the Snakepit quietly issued It's 5 O'Clock Somewhere, just about the same time a new Gn'R album should have been out. Met with sporadic nods of approval and a few anti-Eric Dover protests, it was mostly lost in the shuffle of a declining hard rock scene.
Somehow, Slash has the balls to return a half decade later with the same band moniker and a revamped lineup. The most effective change comes with the addition of thick throated, soul rocker Rod Jackson. He contrasts Eric Dover in just above every way possible, including spirit and range. But also of note, ex-gunners Gilby Clarke and Matt Sorum are no longer hovering around. Surprisingly, this sounds more like a GnR record than the Snakepit debut. It's meaner, more energetic and quite honestly, more inspired. It ain't perfect, but it is a nice, wide-eyed step in the right direction.
Things get off to a jangley start with the Motown meets Humble Pie meets well...GnR rocker in "Been There Lately." By far, this is the most immediately hooky and naturally smooth construction on the album. "Just Like Anything" is a teeth clenched, bloody knuckle rock n' roll shuffle that could easily fight its way onto Appetite for Destruction 2. The only difference is the ultra 70s ghetto soul chorus. But hey, Slash does have to have his own vibe here. This ain't a GnR record after all you know! "Shine" has one of those trippy guitar intros straight out of '75 and just as much fun in 2000. Very cool. "Mean Bone" will undoubtedly cause a few shudders with its cheese ball rap/chick pre-song rant. But once that riff kicks, things are okay and all is forgiven. Now mind you, the riff doesn't really go anywhere, buy fuck it, it still a riff and it really rocks. Nice dynamics. Like a lightning fast, electric snake, Slash spends much of the album cutting through average riffs and leaving the hook to the general structure of the music. Take "Speed Parade", a stomping hummer that shakes and breaks rock n' roll ass, building to euphoric crescendos and "Highway Star" cliches (thank God, we need more road songs!). Next to "Been There Lately", the the biggest blast is had in the adrenalizing space rocker "Alien". The chorus will get even the most curmudgeonly long hair be-bopping his rusted soul into a neck brace. In between all this is hit and miss, slow and fast, all of which tries its best to get our attention, and that's at least worth something.
Remember when rock n' roll was fun? Slash not only remembers, he lives it. He is 1975. Not Physical Graffiti territory mind you, but a highly defended Nazareth record on a good day. - Brian Coles
1/2
In an interview with metal-is.com, Slash goes into depth with his new Snakepit album, the glory and fall of Guns n' Roses, and his tour with AC/DC.
IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE
08 September 2000
Former Guns N’Roses guitarist Slash tells Murray Engleheart
why things are looking pretty rosy right now.
Slash was in Australia to promote his debut solo album, ‘It's Five O' Clock Somewhere’, a Sunday afternoon cruise on Sydney harbour was held in his honour. The relaxed guitarist wandered casually about, chatting effortlessly to anyone and everyone, while being careful not to get his new tattoo in the hot summer sun. A month or so later, I was trying to reconcile the relaxed atmosphere of that afternoon with the Slashster squeezing out fret sparks in high style for Michael Jackson at the opening of the Grammy Awards.
"Michael's bad!" the guitarist declares. "I played with Michael for the simple fact that he's something that I listened to as a kid. But he's like the genuine article, and he's one of the most talented motherfuckers I've ever played with. So when I got the offer, I was flattered. “I've played with a lot of diverse people. I played with Boz Scaggs a couple of years back and nobody expected that either!" he laughs. "I just played with Rod Stewart. I do it all the time."
For the moment, though, that broad worksheet has been put on hold. Slash is in full, flat-out rock ‘n' roll mode once again. His second solo album, the pumpin' ‘Ain't Life Grand’, is due in October, and what better environment to break in the new band and material than opening for AC/DC in stadiums across North America?
You must be very happy with what you have achieved
this year...
Slash: It's fucking great! Are you kidding? It's a blessing!
When I decided to make this real career move and quit Guns N' Roses and all that kind of stuff and really buckled down and decided to put a permanent band together, there were so many fucking changes that went on having to do with the record company, management, attorneys, this, that and the other - all the shit that goes on behind the scenes that just nobody would
ever really know about. I had to clean the slate and just get back to doing a simple rock ‘n' roll thing. I recorded the album out of my own pocket in my own house and once that was finished, I left the record company, I got divorced, I left my band like I left Guns N' Roses, all that shit I had to go through. Now it finally gets to a point where (the second album is) coming out in October, and it's like I beat all the odds and I'm playing with AC/DC. It's great.
Any jams with Angus?
Not so far. I hung out with Malcolm yesterday, but I haven't jammed with those guys.
The new album is far more focused that the ‘It’s Five O’ Clock...’ album...
Well, there's a long story that goes with that. ‘It's Five O' Clock...’ is exactly what it sounds like. It was my release to get away from whatever pressures that Guns N' Roses was becoming while I was still there. So ‘It's Five O' Clock Somewhere’ is exactly what it implies. But I hadn't quit Guns N' Roses at that point. It was just sort of a haphazard, almost a fluke, record that once I got together with enough guys and we were having a good enough time, I just kept going to the point where it had a cover and it become a CD, and then I went on tour with it. But at the same time, everybody was contractually obligated to all their different bands, me and Matt (Sorum) and Gilby (Clarke) being contractually obligated to Guns N' Roses, Mike Inez to Alice In Chains and Eric Dover to Jellyfish. So we knew it was just going to be a fun outing. But for me, it was a real shot in the arm. I was like, “This is the reason I do what it is that I do!” For one, it was a good time and for two, to be close to my audience, an audience, any audience, and to travel and go out there - the same thing when Guns started, what turned me onto the whole thing in the first place. Anyways, this particular record, ‘Ain't Life Grand’, was when I finally made that decision to quit the sort of - I don't know - corporate monster that Guns N' Roses had become. I thought, ‘Snakepit's still a cool name. Put another band together and make it permanent and make a serious record.’
It's very rock...
There are so many passing trends and fads and so on and so forth that go on. Every decade, there's got to be at least a half dozen of them. I started doing what it is that I do because I was turned on to rock ‘n' roll for whatever it was that turned me on to it, and that's what I follow.
At what point did you realise that you had to get
out of Guns N' Roses?
It was somewhere during the original Snakepit record, the ‘It’s Five O' Clock Somewhere’ record. Before that was even really a concept as far as an album was concerned, when it was just like demos, I was like, “Well, this would make great material”, at least a great foundation for the band to work on. But Axl had made up his mind that he didn't want to play that type of music any more. So I was like, “OK, cool. Fuck it then!” I went off and I did the Snakepit thing and the tour and everything and by the time I came back, I realised that the direction that he wanted to go in, or whatever, the conflict of interest, was definitely against whatever it was that we'd been doing, and that we weren't going to come to any kind of plausible meeting of the minds.
Do you see him much? Are you at peace with him?
I guess so. I haven't spoken to him since (laughs). I see Izzy and Duff and Steve Adler and Matt, those guys. I haven't talked to Axl for a long time. Five years ago.
The amazing thing is that in the time since you left, you've done an album and you're on tour and they're still working on the same record...
I guess that would be the reality of it (laughs). But as hard as it is or as hard as it's been for me to get all my shit together on my own, he's (Axl) going through the same thing, because he's the only remaining member of Guns N' Roses left. So my heart goes out to him, because I know what a tough fucking job it is.
Was ‘Use Your Illusion’ a pinnacle or a downfall?
‘Use Your Illusion’ was actually one of the most personal fucking achievements that anybody - and I can speak on behalf of everybody in the band - made. The material on there is so close to home, and it was such a hard couple of records to make. It was the whole growing up period in his particular business, fucking going from being some little garage band to being this stadium act and all the shit that went along with it. I thought those two records were a fucking achievement that is unparalleled (laughs). But you can't expect everybody to understand that, because you'd have to live it.
How did you see the ‘Live Era 87 - 93’ album?
The live record was cool. It was one of those things that came out of nowhere and I got involved with it because, regardless of any kind of, you know, rumoured animosity having to do with myself and the Guns guys, that's still my family, that’s where I came from. So when I heard that that was going to happen, I got into the whole mixing of it and all that kind of stuff. I was surprised we were as good a band as we were! (laughs) I was sort of amazed! But it's a really good honest representation of our shows. That's like about as in-your-face, blatant fucking Guns N' Roses as it gets. There's no fixes, no fucking bullshit.
Any real chance of a Guns reunion?
You know what? Everybody keeps talking about it. Chances are, I don't see it in the foreseeable future (laughs). There's too much bullshit. I mean if somebody goes, “Hey, you know what? There's a weekend here, or a weekend there. You guys want to all get together and fucking go and do these two shows here at such and such a place or whatever”, I'd be like, well, first things first. It's got to be the original band and then you've got to get us all into one room and, schedules permitting, I have no fucking intention of slowing down what I'm doing with Snakepit. I'm saying that, but, more so than anything, I think the person that would rather not have that happen would be Axl. That's the whole reason this all started in the first place.
| 26. August, 2000
: Guns free zone - Former Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash is making his own sounds.
|
The Indianopolis Star has an article resulting from an interview that deals with Slash's band and sound. You can check it out by clicking HERE.
Guns free zone
Former Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash is making his own sounds.
By David Lindquist
Indianapolis Star
August 25, 2000
Rock 'n' roll isn't finished with Saul "Slash" Hudson, any more than he's through with it.
The ex-Guns N' Roses guitarist flails away at the authentic stuff, even as his old band is held hostage by the scattershot whims and biblical procrastination of W. Axl Rose.
"I'm still working on it," Slash says during a recent telephone interview. "That's probably one of the reasons I left Guns. It took a strange left turn somewhere. I'm still trying to get the raw, pure rock thing down."
So, while Rose puts the finishing touches on a years-in-the-making industrial/grunge/rap album to be called Chinese Democracy, Slash's Snakepit will have its second recording in stores on Oct. 10.
To promote Ain't Life Grand, Slash's band has hit the road with the godfathers of authentic three-chord detonation: AC/DC.
"It gives me newfound hope in the whole concept of staying true to your school," says Slash, 35. "It's not about making rock 'n' roll some sort of stupid kind of thing, but something that really has a point."
For the former, Slash could have spent his summer studying Tommy Lee's ridiculous new rap-metal band, Methods of Mayhem. That would have meant a tour of duty with Ozzfest, where mutated rock rules.
"If I had to pit the two tours against each other, I'd probably be playing with AC/DC than playing on that thing," Slash says. "We don't necessarily fit in the whole rave-up kind of deal that's going on."
The new deal
When AC/DC visits Conseco Fieldhouse on Sunday, Slash's Snakepit will open the show with 40 minutes of what the guitarist calls "slam-bam, in your face" music.
Ain't Life Grand includes blazing rockers, as well as sweeping epics and the traditional blues of its title track.
Unlike a mid-'90s incarnation of the Snakepit, this lineup has no ties to Guns N' Roses aside from Slash.
Vocalist Rod Jackson wears his long hair braided and manages a fairly distinctive singing style. Slash describes Jackson as a close friend who's dedicated to the job at hand.
"He's one of the few vocalists who works as hard as the other band members," Slash says of Jackson. "That's one of the magic things about him."
Bass player Johnny Blackout, rhythm guitarist Kerry Kelly and drummer Matt Laug round out the Snakepit.
After wrapping its dates with AC/DC, Slash's Snakepit is scheduled to tour the world to promote Ain't Life Grand.
The guitarist expects the shows to happen on time and without incident -- in contrast to turmoil-filled excursions with Guns N' Roses.
A 1992 concert in Montreal stands as a definitive example of what are perceived as the band's misplaced priorities.
On the night Metallica cut its performance short because James Hetfield was hurt in a pyrotechnics accident, headliners Guns N' Roses were asked to go on a few minutes early to appease the Olympic Stadium crowd.
Instead, the band played later than originally scheduled. Rose, complaining of throat problems, lasted just 15 minutes onstage.
In the aftermath, 2,000 fans vandalized the arena and looted a souvenir shop.
"It's really one of the only regrets I have: any time fans have been disappointed," Slash says. "It's not my fault, and it wasn't a lot of other people's fault.
"I'm not going to name names, but there's definitely somebody responsible for that."
(Because of pending litigation in the Guns N' Roses camp, Slash has been instructed not to make specific references to Rose during interviews.)
Indianapolis fans no doubt remember Guns N' Roses' visit to the RCA Dome on the same 1992 tour. Thanks to a tardy start, the band didn't finish playing until 2:30 a.m.
Slash sounds exasperated when revisiting the band's record of unreliability.
"All you have to do is walk up there and do your thing," says Slash, who parted ways with Rose in 1996. "It's what you're supposed to love more than anything else in the world, and it's got to have a hitch in it."
