Guitar icon doesn't need the 'drama' any more, solo album tour brings him to Atlantic City Saturday at the Borgata
Slash is known for playing a leading role in a pair of seminal bands, Guns N’ Roses and Velvet Revolver. The charismatic guitar hero has also shared the stage with a pair of larger than life vocalists. Axl Rose fronted the former and Scott Weiland belted out the latter’s tunes. But these days Slash is on his own and he’s doing fine.
The legendary guitarist, who will perform Saturday, May 22, at the Borgata, is on tour in support of his new self-titled solo album. In an interview with Atlantic City Weekly, Slash seems like a laid-back character who doesn’t need to be under the lights with a high-maintenance vocalist.
“I’ve done my share of that,” Slash tells Atlantic City Weekly. “I’m good without it. I’m a little older and more mature. I’m in another phase of life. I don’t need the drama.”
However, drama has followed the hard-rock player for much of his adult life.
Watch Slash play The Godfather theme song:
“I’ve dealt with it,” Slash says. “It’s all good. I have great memories of how life was back in the day.”
L.A. scenesters still talk about the mythic G’N’R club shows on the Sunset Strip and about how much fun the good-time boys had backstage.
Slash and his G’N’R pals were the poster boys of the Strip during the hedonistic ’80s.
“We were young and hungry for everything rock stood for,” Slash says. “It was a good time. We were so young. We made the best of that situation.”
G’N’R’s groundbreaking disc, Appetite For Destruction, wasn’t a figurative title.
The mellow husband and father admits that he indulged in rock’s excesses. Slash notes that he has a few life preservers.
“There were two things that helped me survive, my guitar and my music and sometimes that wasn’t even enough,” he says. “The real grounding factor is my family. That’s been a real stabilizing force. When London, my oldest was born, I still hadn’t learned my lesson. I still toyed with self-destruction. But that’s not they way I am anymore. Those wild and crazy days are part of my past. Those days are so gone. I need self-preservation more than anything. But I’m good now.”
Life is a far cry from Slash’s days with Rose, who apparently could drive anyone to drink or drugs. “I loved the Guns ‘N’ Roses experience,” Slash says. “It was amazing and I’m still proud of it, butworking with Axl is a little different than working with anyone else. It’s not easy and I’m sure I’m not the only person to feel that way. It was challenging. But I have no regrets.”
Even though Slash, who is on tour with Alter Bridge vocalist Myles Kennedy as his vocalist, is living the straight life, images of his wasted youth continue to appear. Photos of the original G’N’R lineup pop up on the covers of magazines such as Rolling Stone.
“People love us from that era and I can’t blame them,” Slash says. “We embodied something that really touched people and still hits them today. That’s a really good thing. Even though I’ve moved on and I’m a very different person now in a very different situation, I can appreciate all of that. We made some amazing music. Do I put on Appetite For Destruction? No. But when I hear the songs on the radio or at sporting events, I love it. Why should I feel differently? The fans loved our shows. You never knew when we were going onstage. Much was going on backstage. We were young, excited kids who were having the greatest time in our moment. Who wouldn’t react like we did? We went from nowhere to the top in a relatively short period of time. We did it on our terms. It also burned out pretty quickly. But that’s rock n’ roll. We weren’t the only band to go through that.”
No, but G’N’R was one of the most celebrated groups of the era in part because the members of the band embraced the extremes.
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1. Bateman said... on May 19, 2010 at 04:16PM
“Slash's new CD is unbelievably good..”
2. Reckless Road said... on May 19, 2010 at 05:25PM
“Slash's best friend, Marc Canter, documented every gig slash and gnr played on the sunset strip and the making of Appetite and published it as a multimedia "vook" and softcover book. It was just featured in the NYTimes as the future of publishing and an incredible "behind the music" documentary. Check it out at vook.com or recklessroad.com”
3. MiKe said... on May 19, 2010 at 10:44PM
“Great reading here. Awesome interview and great literature...God, I miss GN'R from the 1980's. I still remember the first time I saw "Jungle" on MTv. I was blown away. Axl, I'll still support whatever you try to do, but sometimes you should let things "Live and Let Die."”