Superstar Facts & Pix - No.16 - 1988
by Mike Greenblat


One-on-one with one of metal's true wildmen, Slash the axeman!.


Slash: I have a headache you wouldn't believe.
MG: Not enough sleep?
Slash: Too much Jack Daniels. Drink it all the time. I burned my damn finger last night and I can't remember how. Hey, how'd that Poison magazine get on the bus?
MG: Uh, oh. I gave it to (drummer) Steven and told him not to show it to anybody.
Slash: Hey, I don't care, man. I'm no (bleepin') baby. I just wanted to know where it came from.
MG: You were right there when I gave it to him. You were sitting in the corner with a beautiful girl on your arm.
Slash: That's my girlfriend.
MG: There were all these other girls waiting around for you backstage.
Slash: I got the reputation for being drunk all the time but I'm really not that bad. I'm actually a nice shy kid.

MG: Where do you live?
Slash: Nowhere. I live out of a suitcase on the road and when I'm not on the road, I, uh, live around.

MG: Major musical influence?
Slash: I don't have one. It's just something that developed over my 22 years. I went to a lot of concerts when I was a kid growing up in England. But I never saw anybody who directly influenced me.

MG: You sure looked like you were influencing all those kids out there tonight!
Slash: They were drinkin' too much. Those kids out there looked like they've been following the band around all over. Y'know, you got to make choices in life. You can't keep on following bands around your whole life and partying out. One day you're gonna wake up and you'll be 30 years old and you won't have done a damn thing with your life.

MG: What did you do before you were a musician?
Slash: The last job I had was in a music store and I got fired. I worked other jobs too. One job I never even showed up at because I found out Motley Crue was recording in L.A. so I went to hang out outside the studio.

MG: If you weren't doing this, what would you be doing?
Slash: I'd probably be doing something that had to do with art and wouldn't be a nine-to-five thing. I just can't do that mundane sort of every day thing. It would have to be something where I could make my own schedule. What about you?
MG: If I wasn't writing about rock 'n' roll, I'd be playing it. You'll find that most rock scribes are frustrated musicians.
Slash: Those are the ones who are really into it. The critics who are into it because they love it and not because it's a job are the only true critics. So why don't you join a band?
MG: Not enough time. But this is about you, not me. How 'bout a self-description?
Slash: I'm pretty much shy and quiet. But I am short-tempered. I like to read. I like to draw. That's probably a real contrast to what's been written about me so far.

MG: What do you think of your competition out there... the other bands?
Slash: My peers? Sometimes I don't like to say because I got myself in trouble one other time but that's ok. My peers suck! They're really bad. I hope that in another five years Guns N' Roses isn't considered another Poison or Kingdom Come. I hope we're remembered as being different. I mean, we're in a bad time for rock 'n' roll now. It's like here in the late '80s, people just ain't doing anything from their soul. It's turned into a very business and money oriented type of industry. I would hope that we're a bit away from that as far as the music goes. Don't forget we didn't have to play any games to get signed. We signed our record deal on our own terms and did things our own way. We told people that we were gonna do just what we said we'd do and that's the only way we'd sign a contract. And we stuck to it! So I would hope that we're like one in a million right now.

MG: Well, you are the band to see right now. The problem is longevity. How can you possibly hope to keep up this pace?
Slash: Longevity ain't a problem for us at all. Longevity is something that everybody else thinks about, not us. We're just going to keep doing this until it's no fun anymore. I know that's almost a cliche but it's true. When it's not a turn-on anymore, that's when we quit. We're not going to be one of these bands who say well, we gotta keep going out there even though we hate every minute of it.

MG: That's business, pure and simple.
Slash: Not us. Right now we're on the road and we'll be on the road for a long, long time. Then we'll finish the next album and stay in the studio for a long, long time. And the whole time, it'll be fun. After the album is finished, we'll go back out on the road and do it some more. Then the whole process will start again and we'll keep doing it and doing it until I won't wanna turn around and look at Steven behind those drums anymore. It doesn't matter what anybody else says about how long we'll last.

MG: You guys live the life of rock 'n' roll to the hilt. There's only so much abuse a body can take. You can't keep on playing and drinking and not sleeping and not eating and then playing, drinking and starting the whole cycle over again. You'll burn out completely in two years or less!
Slash: We're not stupid. Axl doesn't do any drugs or even drink hardly anymore. He lives to be on that stage. He eats, sleeps and plays. That's it. Izzy hardly even smokes anymore! Steven doesn't have any problems in those regards and Duff and I drink. I try and get my sleep but I'm just naturally an excitable person and can't get much sleep on the road. We always seem to be on the bus at night. Y'know, my whole personal life is wrapped up in this band and it's real hard to separate the two. I like to drink and hang out a lot. I have a steady girlfriend who you saw. I only see her about twice a year when I'm not touring. I take her with me on the road sometimes.

MG: How can you stay so tight as a band while going so nuts onstage?
Slash: We have signals onstage that help us... whether it's eye contact or something else. We improvise the whole time we're playing. A lot of times we won't know what song we're gonna do and I'll suggest one and we'll debate it right there onstage! Sometimes I'll start improvising and they'll know not to mess around until I'm finished and I give them a nod. We do go off on our individual things but it somehow all stays together. We do the whole show like that. We screw up every so often but not that much. And that's when we're headlining. When we're opening, it's harder because you have to do it all in a much shorter amount of time. We don't have that big a space between songs and we can't take any long solos. When you can start to predict stuff, the fun goes away. Right now, nobody can predict our set.

Fast Facts

Name: Slash
Instrument: Lead Guitar
Birthplace: England
Birth Date: December 23, 1965
Height: 5 foot 11
Weight: 145
Currently Lives: Nowhere
Favorite Song: "Nobody's Fault" by Aerosmith
Favorite Band: The Sex Pistols
Favorite Musician: Jimmy Page
Favorite City: New York
Favorite Actors: Al Pacino/Robert DeNiro/Jack Nicholson
Favorite Actress: Jessica Lang
Favorite Movies: Scarface/The Godfather
Favorite TV Show: Tales From The Dark Side
Favorite Food: Mexican
Favorite Sport: "I'm not into sports."
Favorite Book: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson
Looks For In A Girl: Quiet
Dream Date: To New York City to see a show
Favorite Thing About Touring: To go shopping
Least Favorite Thing About Touring: Never any time to go shopping
First Concert: The Moody Blues
First Favorite Group: Aerosmith
Former Occupation: Music store/Recording studio assistant
Biggest Turn-On: "Doin' a great show and feelin' proud."

©Copyright Alan Hylands 2001