After telling people that I was interviewing Slash (and believe me, I told people), I received several suggestions for questions. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to ask about "Axl's hair plugs" or if "Slash was drunk" when he called me. Normally I use intro space to make some kind of "cultural comment," but this time Slash did it for me. He also discussed his current band, Slash's Snakepit, how Guns N' Roses really broke up and why Motörhead is "still cool."
Hey, it's Slash. Sorry I'm late.
No problem. First off, how is Ain't Life Good different from the last Snakepit record, It's Five o'Clock Somewhere, which came out in 1995?
Well, back then I had a studio in my house we called Snakepit Studios, because it was next to a snake cage. More like a snake room, really... I was playing around with a lot of riffs, and jamming with people like Mike Inez from Alice in Chains, Matt Sorum and Gilby Clarke from Guns, and Eric Dover from Jellyfish, because I was on hiatus from the other band [Guns N' Roses]. We ended up accumulating all these tunes, so I took them to a professional recording studio, and we released the record. After I ended up leaving Guns I was doing sessions around town and I got the idea from the four guys I was working with that we'd make a great team. I just thought we should use the same name, Snakepit, and do this whole thing again, but take it a little more seriously. And we had Jack Douglas produce this one.
When you were a kid and you decided to do this, you sacrificed a lot?dropping out of high school, practicing your guitar 12 hours a day, etc. What did you want to accomplish?
Being that I was raised in the business, everything you read in magazines and see on tv concerning rock 'n' roll wasn't the issue. It was about trying to get that sound.
Now, the typical artist line is that you have to be a bit fucked up by your family, or maybe be an outcast at school, or very inept socially to be forced into this world where it's just you and your guitar.
I don't want to sound cliched, because everyone's story is different, but the one you just described is spot on. I was an outcast in school, and not necessarily irresponsible, but I couldn't stay in one place or keep a good job, because I was wrapped up in music 24/7. And that's a crapshoot. You're really taking your chances. But once you've gotten knee-deep in it, there's no pulling yourself out and saying, "Well, I have a job at the bank, just in case this doesn't work out." I've known a lot of musicians who had other vocations in case they didn't succeed in this one, but as far as I'm concerned, that's just?
A defeatist attitude?
That's losing half the battle, right there.
So is that your advice to struggling musicians, or struggling bank tellers, or whatever?
You have to have some guts, and you have to stick to your guns about what it is that really turns you on. And it's usually against all odds. But you can't succumb to the pressure. You have to go for it, almost to the extent that you have blinders on. You just step one foot in front of the other and see what happens... I'm not bitter or resentful about any of the stupid shit I've done, because at least I was trying.
Speaking of the past, for years there've been rumors that Guns N' Roses would reunite. It always seemed like Axl was at the wheel, but I did see you quoted as saying, "When Axl is interested in making a rock 'n' roll record again, I'll be there."
Well that sounds loosely based on something I might have said... You get the original five guys in one room to play a session, I'm not necessarily going to turn it down because I'm harboring ill feelings towards Axl or something like that. That's not what this whole thing is about.
What is it about?
When I left, I left because, as far as I was concerned, it was still cool. Where it was headed from there, I didn't know. But I knew I didn't want to be a part of it. In fact, there was a huge weight lifted off me once I finally uttered those words, "I quit." Or "I'm leaving," actually.
What about the Rolling Stones or Aerosmith. Are they examples of people who should've quit?
I think Keith Richards gave me the best lesson on that one, when he and I were having dinner one night. He said, "Well, you just never quit." I was frustrated, and whining: "But Keith! You have no fucking idea what I'm dealing with here!" And he just said, "You never quit." But the disputes in my group weren't based around everybody wanting to play, and having these personal problems that got in the way. In our band, everybody showed up, and everybody wanted to play, except for one of us. And that was the core of the problem.
Who didn't want to play?
I don't want to be pointing fingers, but, uh, I'd say that would be Axl.
When Guns first came out I was like 15 and listening to Led Zeppelin. There was nothing like that on the market. Then you guys hit, and it was like holy shit?even the punks were listening to it.
It's all a matter of timing. Rock 'n' roll never dies out. It goes through periods of hiatus, and then it shines again for a while. And when you're riding the wave, that's great. When you're struggling through the bad periods where there's not a lot of access to that kind of material, because of the radio and MTV and all that shit, you just keep your nose to the fucking grindstone, and it always turns around. This is a really great period, because I think everybody is getting bored with what's going on...and that's what produces great, original bands. The public. Not the industry.
And I'm getting to see the next whoever in a small club with one hand on an amp and a bourbon in the other, instead of in a stadium.
Exactly. I mean a stadium is an "event." That's like packing up the kids and going to Magic Mountain. Or Wally World. On days off now, in whatever town we happen to be staying in, we always go see what the local scene is like. Get up and jam or go get turned on to a new band or just meet some new people and hang out.
So this is an enjoyable time for you, when the new band is in its infancy.
The coolest thing you can do is to hold onto that.
I heard Mos Def wants to make a straight rock album, to "bring rock back to the ghetto."
Well, if it's any good, bring it on. In all styles of music, there are usually three or four good bands that spearhead a whole movement. Unfortunately, a bunch of other people jump on. Then everybody tries to copy it, to the point that they burn the whole concept out completely. That's what happened to rock. I mean I still go back to the New York Dolls. When it got to be L.A. in the 80s, and I will set Guns N' Roses aside, because we were not part of that scene?it was just like the five of us against the world. But the same thing was going on on the East Coast, that whole pop-rock thing that I never thought was very genuine. I think of people like Iggy Pop. They were the originals. Then for a while, as long as you could get hold of your mom's makeup kit...that stuff did get really big. But it died an ugly death, too. Meanwhile, one of the all-time greatest heavy metal bands, which is Motörhead, never did get that recognition. But that's why they're still cool.
Slash's Snakepit plays Fri., June 22, at Wetlands Preserve, 161 Hudson St. (Laight St.), 386-3600.