Page 85 - Guitar Classics Magazine - The Les Paul Bible 2019

SLASH

Rose and Duff McKagan for the first time since his
first stint with the band came to an end in 1994.
The ‘Not In This Lifetime…’ tour brought to an
end one of the most acrimonious splits in the history
of rock and pulled in over half a billion dollars in its
two-year run, making it the second-highest grossing
tour in history. Fans clearly loved it, then, but we’re
curious as to what it felt like for the man himself to
step back out on stage with Guns N’ Roses for the
first time in over two decades…
“Oh man, it was overwhelming – it was so cool,”
Slash enthuses. “Because it was a long time – we’re
talking more than 20 years from the last show in
1994… it was 22 years since the last time we’d
played together. And obviously I’d played with Duff
[since then] but there’s a certain dynamic in the
three of us together. It was awesome, and it’s a really
great experience.”
After so long doing his own thing, we couldn’t help
but wonder if Slash found the reality of being back
in Guns different to being in The Conspirators, but
in truth, Slash remains Slash no matter what band
he’s in… “Actually, I don’t do very much different in
either band,” he confirms. “Axl of course is the focus
point of Guns, and I just sort of run around doing my
thing! And in that respect, it’s very similar with The
Conspirators, in that I leave it up to Myles to be the
front guy. I don’t talk to the audience or anything,
Again, I just run around doing my own thing!
But I’ve been doing that for almost 10 years now,
so I’ve gotten used to that, but with Guns I just
fell into my normal place in that configuration!”

HOME TURF
Touring Europe also offers Slash the opportunity to
spend some time in the UK, where he spent the early
years of his life. Revisiting his old stomping ground
gives him a chance to reflect on the considerable
impact those formative years in England had on the
musician he’d become. “I didn’t know it at the time,
but that was where it all started for me,” he reflects.
“My dad and his brothers were huge rock ’n’ roll
junkies – the kind of kids that pulled a record out and
felt the texture of the sleeve, put it on the turntable
and analysed every song – serious stuff! I was raised in
that… and it was like The Kinks, Gene Vincent, the
Stones, some Beatles, The Who was the big one, and
The Yardbirds and The Moody Blues.
“That was a very big part of my earliest memories,
and then going in to London on the train and hanging
out in the whole 60s beatnik scene that my dad
was part of, crashing at their flats, doing all that! So
rock ’n’ roll guitar for me began in Stoke, and that
was just part of my upbringing, so when I picked
up a guitar, that was one of the reasons I was never
a big 80s-guitar-influenced guy, because what really
touched me was Eric Clapton and Keith Richards,
Brian Jones, Mick Taylor, Dave Davies… all those
different guys.”

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