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I just loved the sunset strip,

because it was fun,

and there were a lot
of things going on,

and there was a lot
of music going on.

And I loved to come down
here with my parents,

especially my dad,
and go to gigs

and watch them set up.

And then there was
something very exciting

about that moment before
the band actually walked on,

where all the gear was just
sitting there waiting to go.

My dad was telling me,

"yeah, well, you were
conceived in Paris.”

And I guess my mom
and him met there

and then went to england,

and I was born in hampstead.

But my family, my British side
of my family lives in stoke,

so I lived there.

And grew up there
for a little while

and went to school
and hung out in stoke,

and I think that was the last
vears of stability I ever had.

And then moved to los
Angeles with my dad.

My mom was living
in L.A. at the time,

and I've been here ever since.

At the time, you
know, 1969, 1970,

it was an interracial
couple, the hippie thing,

it was a lot of interesting
things going on.

I first met slash in 1976
while I was in the fifth grade.

What I first started
noticing special about slash,

was his talent for art.

It was pretty exciting,

and at that point we were
living in Laurel canyon,

so we were right in the thick

of that huge sort of
bohemian creative scene

that was happening there.

And my dad was
doing album covers

for Jackson browne,
and joni Mitchell,

and a lot of people
up there in the hills,

and then my mom was doing

clothes for all these
different entertainers.

So, I mean, it was
like Linda ronstadt

and joni Mitchell
were one of them,

but then she was also doing

like the pointer sisters, and
she was doing flip Wilson,

and all these different
kind of entertainers,

so I was, it was a lot
of fun, sort of being

raised in that chaos.

I don't remember
him as a little kid,

even though I do
know his dad, yeah.

His dad, I remember his dad

actually did a lot
of our photography.

So that was kind of a tight-knit

bunch of people back there
in Hollywood back then.

When you look back
at the '60s and stuff,

a lot of these individuals that
I was sort of raised around

were really astute,
very intelligent, smart,

very cool people.

And it was a very inspired time.

I think that's the
best way to put it.

A lot of creativity going on,

a lot of just brilliant
thinking happening.

And, yeah, I enjoyed that a lot.

All these young
comedians, you know,

I mean Steve Martin
and Albert Brooks,

all these guys were kids.

They were all writing for
the smothers brothers show.

I lived right next door to
Micky dolenz, for the monkees,

and frank zappa
lived right under us.

So all those writers, it
was like a pretty tight-knit

kind of thing.

But that's when I
first met his dad

and everything like that.

My mom was doing
bowie's wardrobe

for a while there,
and then they became

sort of an item,
in that sort of,

in those days, in that
loosey-goosey kind of way.

He mentioned that
his mom had done

some things for David bowie

and different people like that,

so she was in the industry.

Soon after that,
we started riding,

fooling around with bmx bikes,

and instantly he was a star.

I took the bike thing,
the bmxing, pretty seriously,

but there was a
funny dynamic to bmx,

because we also used to
do a lot of freestyle

and ride around, well,
all over Los Angeles.

We would race our bikes
in the valley on weekends,

and when he'd go off a jump,

there'd be flashes
going off from everyone,

because he just had more style,

he was a little quicker,

and usually won his races.

And then on the weekends,

we would tow over Laurel
canyon into the valley,

you know, just grab the sides
of cars and go over the hill.

And there'd be, you
know, any time, anywhere

from a half dozen to a
dozen of us all in traffic,

and it was pretty insane.

And then we'd ride
all the way out

to Van nuys, I guess it was,

and compete, and they
had the weekend races,

and then we'd ride
all the way back

in the middle of the night

and come home from
Laurel canyon again.

So part of it was very
sort of professional,

and the other part of it was
just simple hell-raising.

Yeah.

I was a skateboarder,
he was a bmx bike rider.

Well, we met in
junior high school.

I was running around
in my classroom.

I ran in his classroom, and
his teacher had his finger

in his face and was telling him

he was going to be a loser
and a bum all his life.

And that instant, 1
realized I had somebody else

that was just like me.

I met Steve adler
at the school one day,

and he fell off a skateboard,

and he looked like
he bit it pretty bad,

and nobody was concerned
about him,

he was just laying
flat on his back,

so I went over to
see if he was okay,

and he and I struck
up a friendship,

and it turned out
that his mother

had kicked him out.

He was living at Chatsworth,

and his mother kicked him out,

and he had been relocated
to his grandparents'

in west Hollywood, so that's why

he suddenly turned up.

And I went over to his place.

His grandparents
worked in a bakery,

so they'd leave
early in the morning,

and we'd ditch school and
go hang out at his place.

And he had a kiss
alive ii record,

and he'd put that on this little

piece-of-shit
stereo that he had,

and he had a cheap little
electric guitar and an amp,

and he would crank that
all the way to ten,

turn the stereo to ten and
just bang on this thing.

And that was exciting.

He came over to my
house for the first time,

and I put on my kiss record,

and I had a little guitar,
and I started playing it.

I was actually doing like
two chords and one scale,

and I just did all my
Ace frehley positions

and playing it really
loud, and he loved it.

And he went from riding
bmx bikes to guitar.

And my grandmother
had one in the closet

at her apartment, and
she pulled it out,

and it was a Spanish acoustic,

and it had one string
on it, and that was it,

and I started learning
riffs on the one string.

A guitar with
one string, no less.

You know, no wonder
he can master

each string so amazingly.

And that was really it.

All of a sudden, I
was just completely

absorbed in a guitar, I mean,
like a crazy person, you know?

There was nothing else in life

that was important
at that point.

How old were you then?

I was 14, 15 years old.

That's quite old, actually.

Well, like I
said, prior to that,

I had no inclination to pick
up an instrument, you know?

And his name, let's
start off with his name,

how he got his name.

He's been slash since
we were 13 years old.

An actor, a friend of ours,
his dad is a big actor,

and he is the one who
gave him his name.

His name was Seymour cassel.

His son was my best friend.

And when we were in the
last year of junior high,

the summer before
high school and stuff,

we used to hang out at
Matt's all the time,

and I guess Seymour
would see me,

I mean this was a very
sort of old-school

sort of rock and roll
household, you know?

Very liberal.

And, I mean, we could ditch school

and hang out at Seymour's,

and as long as we
prune his pot plants,

it was okay, you know?

So I guess, you know, he'd
see me running around,

and at some point I had
started playing guitar,

and I was putting bands
together and this and that,

and so I was always in a hurry,

always sort of, you know,
never had time to sit and talk,

and so he just got into the
habit of calling me slash,

because he always saw me as this

that went by, you know?

So he said as a joke,
"you're like a slash.

"You're here and
then you're there."

And he just like,
"wow," you know?

He just like picked up on
this, said, "that's cool,"

and came up with,
just started saying

that would make a
good stage name,

and he started
calling himself slash.

And he's been slash ever since.

Everybody called him slash
except for his grandmother.

There was this great
little music book that I found

that had, it was like,
I think it was just

“how to play rock
guitar”, you know,

which seemed pretty
intriguing at the time,

and it had a little disc in it,

and there was a picture
of Hendrix in there,

there was a picture
of Clapton in there,

and Mike bloomfield, Jeff Beck,

like all these guys
that I was really into.

And I remember looking
at the tablature in there

and figuring it out,

and all of a sudden putting
these three notes together

that sounded like
rock and roll to me,

and it was like, you
know, that moment

when the skies part and, "ahhh."

You know, I mean I'll
never forget that.

Of course, loved motorhead.

Went to see them at the
Hollywood palladium, me and slash.

All I ever wanted to
do after I seen Elvis

was to be a rock and roll star.

And whereas the circumstances
have somewhat changed,

I still love it.

I love doing that.

All my dreams came true now.

Not many people can say that.

Most people have
to work at a job

they fuckin' despise
all their lives, right?

And then you get a frickin'
wristwatch if you're lucky.

I was very lucky to
get out of that.

I worked in a
factory for a while.

My stepfather got me
the job so he could

keep an eye on me, you know?

So he grew me there
till they fired me.

Fuck you, you know?

I mean, he's more
excited than me,

because I'm old now, you know?

Tough to be an old
fuck, you know?

But he's still
really enthusiastic.

And I'm enthusiastic about it,

but like, he's still a kid
in his enthusiasm, you know?

At the same time, there
was the whole scene going on

here on sunset and
on Santa Monica,

and that's what Steven was into,

and at this point I think
he'd switched over to drums.

And neither of us had any money,

so he didn't have a drum kit,

and I was, I think the
first electric guitar I got

was a cheap Memphis
les Paul copy.

So I was already onto the
les Paul from day one.

And then finally
Steven and I ended up

hooking back up together.

He'd finally got a drum
kit, and at that point

he started dragging me over
here and checking out bands

and it started to
become sort of a habit.

Well, we used to hang
out at this pizza place

on Santa Monica and sweetzer,

and they had a juke box there,

and we would play Van
halen over and over.

Over and over we
played Van halen,

aerosmith, that
was pretty much it.

Van halen and aerosmith over
and over and over.

Well, he told me a
story, that was funny,

the first time we met actually.

He saw me, when he was 13 years old,

saw me play at the California
world music festival

at the coliseum here when my
band's first record came out,

and we had a hit
song called hold on,

and he was in the audience,
and he remembers seeing me,

and I thought that
was very amusing.

And that was kind of a starting
point of our friendship.

There were these
girls in the class

that were full-on sort
of glam rocker chicks,

and they were sort
of hot, you know?

Too much makeup, leather
jackets, fingernail Polish,

jet-black hair, and they
were raving about this band

motley crue.

And so one day, and
they had flyers,

and they would go out and
they would pass flyers.

And I was like, you know,
a little bit jealous.

I was like, "fuck, why can't
I get some chicks to fuckin',"

and I don't even have a
functioning band, you know.

But anyway, so one day they
met Nikki sixx and Tommy Lee

outside the school
giving them flyers,

and they came down in their
full, sort of "rockstumes"

you know I guess you call them.

And I actually went to the
gig that that flyer was for

and saw motley crue
at the whiskey,

and they were just phenomenal.

They were like, Nikki knew
how to take everything

that was every kid's
fantasy, you know,

as far as what they wanted
to see in a rock show

from Alice Cooper
to New York dolls

to Marc bolan and, you
know, to name a few.

But Hollywood
was the place to go,

because there was a scene.

It was a scene,
whether it was punk

or this kind of the whole thing

with like Rodney
bingenheimer's english disco

and then you had Kim fowley,

and I started hanging
around with him.

It was such a scene in
Los Angeles, you know,

different eclectic
types of musicians,

and I've always loved
the Los Angeles history,

if you know what's happened
on sunset boulevard.

And when I felt I was ready,

I called slash up, and I said,

"why don't you meet
me Sam and Sydney park

at like 8 o'clock,”
and I went down there,

set my drums up,
and he came down.

I played for him, and we said,

"okay, we're going to make it."

You know, at some point,

I remember him saying
there's this band called Rose

or Hollywood Rose,
and the singer axl,

or bill at the time, he
was going by bill and Izzy,

really love to get
them in my band.

And then I had
an ad in the paper

looking for a bass
player at one point,

and it turned out to be duff.

And somebody told me about

the recycler newspaper,
that's where you look

for other musicians.

But I went and met slash
and Steve at canter's.

So we're sitting at our booth,

and we're sort of
watching the front door

to see who this
character's going to be

when he walks in,
and eventually,

this literally 6'7 " or 6'6" guy

in a black and red
leather trench coat

walks in with like spiky,
up-to-the-ceiling blonde hair,

and I'm like, "that's
got to be him."

I met them at canter's.

And they had long hair,

and I had like short blue hair,

but they were really like,
slash had a girlfriend,

that was really
like, sweet to me,

and we hung out for probably
two hours at canter's

and just talked about music.

And then we went back
to slash's mom's house,

and he lived in the basement,

and he had a snake,
and he picked up

an acoustic guitar
and started playing.

And I'd never, like,
I'd played with a lot

of guitar players, good
ones, but slash had

like this, he was 19 years
old, and he was playing

like kind of a really
smooth old blues guy.

It like played with so
much age, so much depth

to his musicality.

I was kind of stunned, you know?

And, so really, I mean,
slash and Steve were

the first two guys
ti met here in L.A.

We went up to the bathroom

and polished off
a bottle of vodka,

and we've just been friends
ever since, you know?

Yeah, it was just, you know,

there was just a lot
of different people

coming together then.

Punk rock was over.

There was sort of a, probably
a first wave of metal,

motorhead kind of changed
everything in 1980.

Like, a lot of things that
weren't okay before 1980

were suddenly okay.

Slash took me to my first
sunset strip show, I guess.

It was at the troubadour.

It was L.A. guns with ax.

Ironically enough,
duff was living

across the street from Izzy

in this cheap apartment,
and so they met,

and then Izzy and axl
and duff and tracii guns

ended up having a band,

and that ended up being
called guns n' roses,

called Hollywood Rose.

Recently, aerosmith
used a drawing of mine

for their gate
fold on the album,

and it was a drawing that I did

probably before I
picked up a guitar,

when I was just a fan, you know?

And when I did the drawing,

I'd given it to a friend of mine

who was a massive, like,
die-hard aerosmith fan,

and he'd printed up copies of it

and gave them to
people, I guess.

And one day I was working
in a guitar store,

and I think he had
like blue creepers on,

sparkly black pants, and
a pink leather jacket,

and his hair was all
teased up, you know,

but at the same time
not overdone, very cool,

and he came in and he asked me

"do you have a copy of it?"

And I said no, and
that was the first time

I'd ever met Izzy.

Yeah, then Izzy moved
across the street from me

in Hollywood, and
he was kind of like

the Johnny thunders character,

and axl was this just
sort of really gifted

savant of a singer, you know,

like who sings like that?

But everybody brought
these influences,

everything from like
10cc and nazareth,

we all agreed on motorhead,

but we all agreed on
each other's music

that we turned ourselves onto.

The saints from Australia
were a big influence

and magazine and nazareth,

I'd never really been introduced

to the deep cuts on
old nazareth records,

and we all agreed on
aerosmith and the dolls.

So I don't think we
looked at our differences,

we just kind of like, the
stuff we had in common,

we really, that
group of five guys

really understood how to excel

at the things we have in common.

I think we were
the only five guys

in L.A. at the time that
could've made up that band.

Like, we couldn't
wait to go to sleep

so we could wake up
and go rehearse again.

It was that kind of excitement.

So anyways, they
come to canter's,

a, to have a good meal,
which they haven't had

in a little while,
and to do a photo session,

because they had just
booked some gigs,

and they needed to make flyers,

so they took a photo
around the booth,

and the look on that photo

basically shows the
hunger in their eyes,

and they know that
they're a band

to be reckoned with,
and they're here

to fuck up los
Angeles and show them

this is the way to do it.

He'd bring his
guitar over to my house,

and we'd just sit
around and drink,

and he was always
playing guitar,

and kind of, I felt like
he was like a brother,

like a little
brother or something.

I really, really, I loved him.

I loved his spirit.

I loved how he was
like salt of the earth,

and we really bonded over music,

to be honest with you,

and he told me about
this little band he had,

guns n' roses, like
later when I went

and checked them out, and
I really saw something

magical happening, and
they were still playing

the roxy and Perkins palace,

but we were still pretty
much just hanging around,

and they recorded
their first record,

which actually Tom
zutaut, who signed them,

had asked me to produce it,

but at the time I was so
strung out on heroin,

I couldn't even fathom the
idea of leaving my house,

much less taking on a
production of a band.

I think I first
heard of slash, I mean,

clearly because
of guns n' roses,

but then from Alice Cooper
songs too that he had played on.

It was my comeback tour.

It was my first time
ever playing Alice sober,

because I had never
done it sober.

So that was the very first show

that guns n' roses
opened for us.

I mean they made no
bones about the influence

we had on them, you know,

as one of the bands
they listened to

when they were coming up.

There was definitely a
mutual admiration society,

because it's really exciting
to see a band like that

that's really good, that's
really paid their dues,

to see them go from
being like a club band

to like, you know, they're on
their way to being headliners

and selling records
left and right.

There's a feeling
there that just never

happens again in your career.

And it was great to
be a witness to that.

I just had an
experience with Joe

that was really cool
where he presented me

with an award in Cleveland
a couple days ago,

and he was just so genuinely,
like his little sort of speech

before I came out
to accept the award,

was talking about his generation

and how I came with the
next generation

and guitarists
and all these very

sort of complimentary
things that he said,

but he was somebody
that when guns n' roses

first opened for
aerosmith in like 1988,

you know, obviously this
guy was a huge hero to me,

but when I met him,
very down-to-earth

and really not so
much what his image

that you got in magazines
and all that kind of thing,

sort of changed my whole
perception of rock stars, you know?

With slash, I mean, his dad
was a well-known designer,

and if you've got David
geffen and David bowie

popping in and
out of your house,

vou know, that's not usual.

Around the time
when I was a kid,

when he was around, he
was just David, you know?

And he was always cool, and my
dad and him got along great,

and I used to love hanging
out at the geffen offices

when it was asylum and before

geffen records actually became.

But then I didn't
talk to him for years.

I guess he kept in
touch with my mom.

We were bound and
determined to make sure

that David geffen didn't
know who Saul Hudson was...

Until he got to a
point where the record

was sufficiently
successful that David

started to want to
know who was involved,

and then David's
sitting there and going,

"this is Saul Hudson?

"It know Saul Hudson.

"What do you mean he's
in one of my bands,

"on one of my labels?

"How did that happen?”

We wanted to avoid
a sense of nepotism.

We wanted to avoid any baggage

that might come with
that and play on that.

He wanted to stand for
himself and stand on his own.

So we kept that entirely quiet.

At some point around that time,

he'd called my mom and said,

"so, how's Tony,",

"how's the kids?"

Said "how's Saul doing?"

Because he knew me by Saul.

And he's like, "well
you should know,

"he's on your record label.”

And he's like, "he's
on our record label?

"What band, what
artist is that?"

And he goes, "well
he's in guns n' roses.

"His name's slash."

But I remember him saying

"yeah, I'm going to
fly out and see you."

And his whole thing was to
come over and manipulate me

into doing an edit of
sweet child o' mine,

because he knew we had
personal relations,

which he never did get,

and I remember him trying to
sort of massage me into this

going, "well, what are you
going to do with all the money?"

And he didn't realize
who he was talking to,

which it had no influence
on me whatsoever,

because I have no, couldn't
give a shit about money.

So he never made a dent.

I'll always remember,
then we never did an edit

for sweet child o' mine.

So we went to the show,
and we were hanging out

backstage or whatever, and
some of the band came out

to sign some
autographs or whatever,

and I think axl came up to
me, or was signing autographs,

and I handed him, slipped
him a little demo tape move.

I remember him walking away,
and he handed it to his

security guy, and his security
guy threw it on the ground.

That was awesome.

Someone said, "oh, yeah, in
the new guns n' roses video,

axl's lying on a table
shaking, talking to a therapist

or something, and he's got
a nirvana hat next to him,

and we're like, "you mean
one of those baseball hats?

"The blue one with
the yellow writing?"

"Yeah, he put it right there,
because he likes your band."

And we couldn't
imagine this dude

liking what we did,
because for the most part,

like, we were the kids who
would get our asses kicked

by the fuckin', like,
big rock and roll guys.

They'd be like, "you're a
fuckin' punk little fag,"

and they'd kick our
asses, you know?

So we were like, "well,
wait, how does that work?"

You know?

It was that transition.

Something was happening.

And I think, what I now realize

is that in some way, we were
all playing rock and roll.

It got weird once.

It got weird at the
mtv awards in 1992.

Axl and Kurt had a
little screaming match.

Duff and krist novoselic
had a moment together.

I was 23 years old and having
the fucking time of my life.

Like, I was born for
chaos, so I thought,

"okay, great, let's do it.”

I would say, "dude, when are you

"going to change
those fucking pants?"

"Oh, the only pair
I brought on tour."

He'd wear the same pair
for a fucking year.

And these were those
guys, you know?

And the hat thing,
that came by accident

I mean, he loved Alice Cooper
and all that, you know.

Who'd worn that hat before?

Marc bolan?

And he got the
hat and put it on,

he liked the way it
looked on him, I guess,

and people started
recognizing him,

and he had his thing.

It's like lemmy, you
know, they got a uniform,

and that's who they are,
and they wake up like that.

Like I used to say fuckin'
slash wakes up like that.

But he would fuckin'
wake up on the tour bus,

same guy he was, you know,

I remember the first
time I joined the band

I went to get in the
shower after the show.

And like, "what are you doing?"

I'm like, "I'm
getting in the shower.

"Gettin the gig
butt out," you know?

And they're like, "why?"

I mean, they were dirty,
filthy scoundrels, man.

Dirty, filthy
fuckin' scoundrels.

And I was wearing top
hats, you know, 1968, '67,

you know, and I thought that,
I had a corner on the top hat.

But, I mean, it was a top hat.

Who cares?

You know, I mean I, but
every time I saw slash,

I thought maybe he
wore it a couple times,

and all of a sudden he
wore it all the time,

and I went, "well,
okay, you can have it."

And I looked at him and I said,

"what do you want from this?

"What's your expectation?

"What are you looking for?"

And he sat back and he said
the most perfect thing.

He said, "I want to
be recognizable."

And I would say that's
a watershed moment

in my relationship with him.

I would say that's the moment
where I sat back and went,

"okay, I'm dealing with
a really intelligent

"live wire here."

That's what he wants.

He's not like Lars in
his autobiography, saying

his dream come true was
the first orgy he was in.

He's saying, "I want
to be recognizable.”

Joe Perry was more of
an influence on the image

that slash was, Joe
Perry always looked cool,

and slash was always
about being cool.

I think he's going
to be an iconic figure,

because he adopted a look
very quick, you know,

like along with
"slash," you know,

like picking out a cool rock
and roll name very early on.

To hold on to that and
hold on to that thing

about rock and roll, I mean
he's made out of the stuff.

I mean, you see the silhouette

and the les Paul
guitar, and you're like,

we all know that's slash.

We came back from
that appetite tour.

At least in my memory, there
was no Internet then, right?

So you didn't know what
was going on in L.A.

But we got back, I looked
at a band magazine,

which was a magazine then

that everybody
would advertise in,

and everybody had
like, cowboy boots on,

bandanas, ripped jeans,
leather vests, looked like us.

I'm in London,
and I can't remember

why I was over there,
but I see this fuckin'

bus go by with fuckin'
slash on it, right?

It's like "guitar hero!"

And I call slash and I go,

"dude, you're on the side
of a double-Decker bus!"

He's like, "I know, I should've
asked for a lot more money."

Here we are at velvet
revolver shows, right?

And I look out in the audience,
and I see a lot of kids.

Like, long-haired little
15-year-old dudes,

and then they come backstage,

and they're like, "hey,
slash, we love you, man!"

"Hey, kid, how'd you
find out about slash?"

"Guitar hero."

He's just sitting in the corner,

and we kind of didn't
really notice him,

because he's so, like,
kind of blends in.

And he just gets up with a
couple of beautiful women,

and we were just so like,

and he goes, "hey,
who are you guys?"

And we're like, and
it was as if slash

was standing and talking to you.

We were all kind of
looking at him like,

"we're from Canada.”

You know, it's like, "oh, wow!"

He's like the mayor
of the rainbow.

He's just going around,
"hey, how are you?"

When the resurgence of
this sunset thing happened,

all of a sudden it was
hairspray, glam, big shows.

Bands that weren't even great
bands were doing great shows.

They were stuck in the
middle of that sea of shit,

because there was so much
shit you had to Wade through

in order to appreciate
what they were doing.

I mean, most of those
bands had just become

a parody of music.

Bands like poison,
bands like warrant,

bands like, you know that
were doing great shows.

Cinderella, bon
jovi, motley criie.

I mean every band had a look,

and they were
attitude all the way.

The guns n' roses
guys were trying

to be their heroes, you know,

whether it was Johnny
thunders or sid vicious

or Steven Tyler or John
bonham, whatever it was.

I mean, you know, it's
clear that their roots

were in something
substantial and real.

When people ask me
what about rock and roll,

what is going on
in rock and roll?

I say I can only name you
five rock and roll bands.

I said this band, you
know, what slash is

and those conspirators
are a rock and roll band.

The Foo Fighters are
a rock and roll band.

We're a rock and roll band.

This band, the
stripes, from Ireland,

great rock and roll band.

How the fuck is some kid
in Springfield, Virginia,

going to relate to
some guy who's got

more hair than your sister?

And he's fuckin'
got more makeup on

than your fuckin' mom.

You know, if you have
a banjo and an accordion

in your band, you're
not a rock band, okay?

How does that apply
to my fucking life?

You know?

I get it, man, if
I need to escape,

I'll fuckin' take some acid.

It's all good.

And then grunge happened
after that, you know,

which was just the opposite.

There was a point when I
wanted to go to Seattle

and take all the grunge bands,

put them in buses and
take them to Disneyland.

Music was kind of changing,

and those guys were a big part
of that, I think, you know?

And what happened in
Seattle happened after that

as well as a musical
change kind of everywhere,

and you know, to be that
lightning rod sort of a band,

you know, I don't
think they expected it.

I could tell you one great story

that he doesn't even
know, I don't think.

On hey stoopid, I know
this about guitar players.

When they first hear a song,

their first impression is
their best impression of it.

And I played, I said, "why
don't we run this track,

"and you just riff with
it and get a feel of it?"

I told the engineer,
"tape this."

We did 30 other takes,

and at one point I went, "oh
that last one was perfect."

And it was like this,
and he was a little tired

and everything at this point.

We used the original.

The run-through tape was the
exact perfect guitar solo.

I broughtin a
lot of guest players,

Eddie Van halen, Steve
vai, Michael landow

on the other side of things.

And I shook it up
with different guests,

Edgar winter, I got
old-school guys,

I got new-school.

I like to mix it all up
and see what happens,

and I wrote a song specifically,

actually with him in
mind to play on it.

What I wish I wrote
with Stan lynch

the drummer in Tom petty and
the heartbreakers, right?

It was called broken
heart for Christmas.

And he just can't, I said,

"would you come and play
on this song for me?"

And he's like, he showed
up and he was great.

He just did one take,
and I let it go.

I mean, you know, when
you take a guy like slash,

you don't try to get
all microscopic on it.

He goes, "what do
you want me to do?"

I go, "be you."

And that's what he did.

I was not a jammer, but
slash would always get up

and play with other people,

and one of the very first times

that we ever did do that,

I remember we played at
some teeny little club

down by Santa Monica,

and it was half his
band, half my band,

and we did a sex pistols song.

The phone rang, and
my mom comes in the room,

she says, "there's someone
on the phone named slush.”

I was really up
against the wall,

and we needed to find somebody.

I started thinking about
who's the best drummer

that I'd seen in a band ever.

You know?

I said, "what's going on?"

And he says to me, "we're
looking for someone

"to play on the record.

"Stevie adler's in treatment,

"and we're trying
to get him together

"enough to do a tour at least.”

Because at that time,
appetite for destruction,

they'd spent about four
years trying to figure out

how to spend all their
money doing drugs.

No, I'm just kidding.

He came down, and we
started working together

and just became
really good friends,

and obviously we went on
to tour together for years

and went on to do
velvet revolver,

and we're still
really good friends.

Me and slash wrote this record

which became the
first snakepit album.

It was actually me
and him together.

And we were really
close, you know?

And I would be
able to talk to him

and be brave enough
to show him something

that I had an idea
on the guitar,

and he'd be like,
"oh, okay, man."

You know and I'd be
like, "okay."

And slash says, "I want
to do a fuckin' record

"with this material.”

And I'm like, "yeah,
fuckin' let's do it!"

You know, it's like, "come on!"

And I go, "what are
we going to call it?"

And he's like, "we're
going to call it snakepit."”

it was snakepit.

Good name.

I had ended working with guns

where I had done a
thing called snakepit

where I got to sort of go back

and just sort of
simplify everything

and just play in these
raw little places.

And it was just, it was
really, it was a lot of fun.

It was a huge shot
in the arm for me,

but it was also giving
a perspective on things.

You know, we would
record all this material

before we ever had a singer,

so we had an idea of how

to sort of do sections of riffs,

and, "okay, we're going
to do that 16 times,"

and we would say, "here's
a chorus, blah blah blah.”

So we did those records
use your illusion I and ii

all instrumentally, and
the first snakepit album

all instrumentally,
and then we set out

in search of a singer,

and I was actually
in New York when

he picked the singer
that he put on the album,

which we had a little
bit of a squabble about.

I didn't really
care for it much.

And I remember I got very drunk

and drove over to his house
and climbed over his fence.

He wouldn't let me in.

I was like, "fuckin I'm
coming in there, man!"

He was like, "no, you're not.”

And I'm like, "fuck yes I am."

So I climbed over his fence,

and it had like, you know,
these little spikes on the top,

and I remember I slipped,

and my fuckin' jacket, I
had this leather jacket,

got caught, and I was like
hanging off his fence.

And he came out and said,

"oh, fuck, man,
come on," you know,

he's, slash is very low-key.

"Come in here, man,
have a drink," you know.

At the end of velvet revolver,

when we saw it going
south with Scott,

there was a band,
we were, you know,

slash got himself out
of a pretty dark spot

right in between
those two records,

and he was just ready to play,

and when it started
going south with Scott,

I could see like if
slash had to stop playing

and us go on another
year-and-a-half long

search for a singer.

After the sort of
rock and roll turmoil,

if you will, of velvet revolver,

because we got into ourselves

into another situation
with another singer,

I was like, "what are we,

"guys that like to
marry strippers?

"What is this?"

You know, it's like you know

what you're going to get when
you get into it, you know?

What the fuck?

I mean, we knew the guy
was a piece of work,

but those kind of crazy
fuckers make great front men,

vou know what I mean?

And when we signed
up for the deal,

it was like this is going
to be fuckin' crazy.

Okay, here we go.

And you know, it lasted
a good amount of time

before it imploded.

Myles was a guy that we found

for velvet revolver, but
it was an altar bridge,

and Myles, just the
nicest guy in the world,

he's like, "man, I would
love to be in your band,

"but I'm in a full-time
band, and I would feel

"like I'd be kind of chopping
them below the knees."

Velvet revolver, I think
it was the summer of 2002,

that was the first time
we spoke on the phone.

And I think I was just
a name that had come up,

and I know they'd sent
out quite a few demos

to a few people, and
they sent me one.

And I worked on it
for about two weeks.

They were like four songs,

and so it's kind
of a long story,

but I basically pulled
out, never sent it back.

I just felt like
at that point I was

the wrong guy for the job.

I'd spent five years with
my band the Mayfield four,

and I think I just, I was
a bit crestfallen,

and I was a bit disillusioned
with the music industry,

and something of that magnitude,

especially, you know,
with those guys,

I was like, "eh, I don't
think this is the right thing

"for me at this point in my,
at this juncture," as they say.

One of our most favorite tours,

let's put it that way, was
touring with velvet revolver,

you know, and when we
were kind of coming out

with black gives way to blue,

so, we spent a lot of
time together on that.

He crashed a
pathfinder on sunset,

rolled it over about ten times.

Like that.

And you know, typical slash
back in the day, you know?

If you recognize him like that.

He'd drive home drunk.

One night he got pulled
over by the cops.

Cops got him out of the car.

He's fuckin' barely standing up.

"Hey, slash, can we take
our picture with you?"

Fuckin' cops like
this with slash.

"Now just get home now."

You put that guy back
in the fucking car?

Are you kidding me?

You know, fringe
benefits of the hat,

vou know what I mean?

I think one of the best things

that's happened to him
is his heart problem.

He wears a pacemaker.

And that has obviously
changed his playing field.

Slash and I both struggled
with outside things,

drugs and alcohol and
both lived through it,

which is kind of
incredible in itself.

And we've had a lot of friends
of ours fall by the wayside

on the way here.

I believe if he would've
tried to stick around

in guns n' roses when
axl was in charge of it

back in 1996, I truly
think he'd be dead.

Guy said, "back in 1985,
they caught slash out here

"totally naked running
through the golf course.

"He was staying right
there in that room,

"and he was on acid,

"and he didn't know where
he was and all that."

That slash was not
going to survive

to play what he's playing now.

Well, he's just at a
different answer than me.

You know, he never
even bought me dinner.

And he's got a
pacemaker, you know.

So he came over to sympathize

and point out what
you shouldn't do,

like, I shouldn't
fibrillate, apparently,

or it goes "vroom!"

He wouldn't go to the hospital.

I don't know if you
know the story or not,

but it was a tour
manager that punched him,

knocked him out,
and dropped him off

at the hospital in Pittsburgh
after he spoke to me.

And I showed up,
and we were there,

and the doctor looked at me,

and we weren't married
yet at the time,

and he said, "I'm sorry, but
he's got either six days,

"six weeks, or six months.

"And there's not
much we can do."

So, we did everything
that they possibly could.

This was in Pittsburgh.

We were there for a few weeks,

and then we flew back to L.A.,

went to another hospital.

They wanted to give
him a heart transplant.

I'm not one to follow direction

or listen to even doctors that
much, to tell you the truth,

and we left that hospital,
went to another hospital

where they gave him
the defibrillator,

and he was playing
with Michael Jackson,

and the pyrotechnics went off,

and he thought he
was getting blasted

or shocked from all
the pyrotechnics.

He didn't realize that it was

the defibrillator going off,

because the doctors
didn't set it properly.

They didn't realize how fast
his heart rate would go.

So the thing's firing on him.

He's like, "whoa, 1
thought, you know,

"those pyrotechnics,
were they that hard?

"Because I felt like
they were blasting me."

When we got back to L.A.,

we went to have it read,

the doctor says that
it was going off.

Coming back from all
that's pretty impressive.

And he's still there, you know,

he's a very well-read guy.

He's reading war novels when
he's not playing guitar.

And then in 2008,
I started realizing

I needed to get sober.

Ti don't know who to call.

Slash had quite a few
years being sober,

and he's always been
here to help me,

and actually Dr. drew
called slash for me,

and we met, and I got
to apologize to him

for all the things
that happened,

he apologized to me, and
he's helped me, you know,

get through some hard times.

I remember when

like I asked him to go
out with me one night,

I remember when I called him,

and he just had his first kid.

I said, "come on, slash,
meet me at crazy girls."

He goes, "I'm
babysitting tonight."

And right then I was
like, "it's over."

First of all, I never imagined

that I'd be a father
living in Los Angeles,

but I sure as shit
never imagined

that I'd be playing a
school fundraiser with slash

in front of the
principals and the parents

of a kindergarten.

Just when I thought life
couldn't get any fuckin' weirder,

I'm fucking jamming
a stones song

with a bunch of mothers
from the preschool

dancing barefoot in front of me.

That's one thing that I think

that guys like slash
have it in their favor.

They've seen a lot of people
in the business, you know,

that have turned
it into a career

and may have been able
to live through it,

and see that there
is a possibility

if you play your cards right,

you can actually have a career.

You can actually raise
a family around it.

You can actually
have a real life

and still be that
crazy, rebellious,

very close to being
madman on stage

that you have to be, to
be what rock and roll is.

I think now,
family is important.

You know, people say that
when the kids are small,

it's the harder time,
but we both tend

to disagree with that.

Now that they're getting older,

the demands are
higher with them.

So I think the future holds,

or well at least hopefully
my future holds

for papa to be around
a little bit more,

as we call him, the curly daddy.

I think he's really,

he's got one of the best bands
I've ever heard behind him,

he can't go wrong.

And he's got that guy
singing for him, you know,

what's his frickin'?

Myles, he's a frickin'
great singer, man.

Unworldly, really.

This is a cohesive unit
at this point, you know.

I think Myles is
a killer singer,

and they write great
songs together,

there's a great chemistry.

And he seems to be, I think
he's going to eclipse his past.

I think he found the great
lineup finally, you know,

I've seen him go through
different itinerations, you know?

And this time, I think
he's really nailed it.

He's got a great singer,

and they've got between
them, I think they've got

a long way to go, they've got
a lot of music inside them

that, you know, when
they start writing more,

I think they're going to,
I hope they stay together,

because they're really good.

And I think the guys
that he has playing with him

are a really good
band, and I think

it's a very comfortable
thing for him,

and that's really probably
what's most important, you know?

And he's making music
that he likes to play.

It's still what gets him
up out of bed every day.

He loves the guitar.

He loves rock and roll.

And to me that's very pure,

and I think that that's,
and I think people see that.

I think that's what they feel,

and that's why
he's where he's at,

that's why he's slash.

You're not going to take
that guitar out of his hand.

You're not going to
pry it out of his hand.

Nothing's going to
make him stop playing.

So whether it's guns n'
roses if that happens,

or what he's doing now,

or some other version of it,

he's always going to do that,

and that is a gift to the fans,

and that is honesty,
and we don't get a lot

of honesty in this
business, you know?

A lot of people doing
it for the money,

a lot of people doing it for
this reason and that reason.

He is only doing
it because he loves

that goddamn les Paul
to death, you know?

Probably doesn't love anything

as much as he loves
that les Paul.

You know, music is his mistress.

It's number one.

I had this '59 les Paul,

and I sold it for
Christmas money,

and then I just kind of
counted it gone, you know?

And then after the
band got back together,

I got a call from a Johnson,

he said, "I heard that this
guitar might possibly be yours."

He described it
to me, and I said,

"yeah, that sounds
like the one."

And he asked if I
wanted to buy it back.

I didn't have the
bread at that point.

I guess he went on to sell it,

and I lost track
of it for years.

I started making enough money

where I was able to kind of
fill in my collection again,

and I was thinking maybe
I could find that guitar.

So we searched around,
and I spread the word,

and one day at
rehearsal, Brad said,

"oh, I know where
that guitar is."

And he showed me a copy
of guitar player magazine

I think it was, and
the center spread

was slash"s guitar collection,

and right in the middle
of it was that guitar.

So I got on the phone with him,

and he said, "oh, man,
I knew I was going

"to get the phone call.”

And, "oh, shit,
don't ask me that.

"Let me think about it."

And, you know, of course I
never got a phone call back,

and then I called him again,

and it got to the point where

our conversations got
farther and farther apart,

and I said, "this is getting
in the way of our friendship."

I'm not going to ask
you ever again for it.

If you ever feel like
selling it back to me,

you know, fine, but at
least I know where it is,

and I'm happy about
that, you know?

More years went on, and
then I had my 50th birthday,

my guitar tech walks
up with the les Paul.

And he said, "slash
wants you to have this."

And I was speechless,
you know, for a while,

and then I picked it up,
and it was like, "wow.

"It feels just like
I remember it."

And that was it, you know?

And I called slash
up and thanked him,

and it was like I
was still blown away,

I'm still blown away
by it, you know?

But it really shows, you know,

he's just got such a huge heart.

J I think it's time to
set this world on fire.

J I think it's time to
push it to the edge.

I've always been an analog guy.

The sound of drums and guitars

just sound better on
tape than digital.

But I also like having to go
in there and actually perform

this song from one
end to the other

without any interruptions,
which a lot of producers

and a lot of bands
nowadays don't do.

And with tape you find
yourself, you're listening,

like you were actually
sitting between the speakers.

I can't see where
the kick drum is,

I don't know if
he's pushed behind

like within a frame or two.

Does it feel good?

Does it sound good?

That's all you have to go by.

With guys that we have
some like-minded energy,

vou know what I mean?

It's all sort of got to be,

everybody's got to be into
that sort of same concept.

And once I have that foundation,

that's what I can expand on.

So I don't like to be like,

"okay, here.

"Here's all the parts.

"Learn this, learn that."

"Or you can record it
over there at your house.

"I'll send you, you know,
the tracks or whatever."

I love what happens, the
sort of combustible energy

that happens when you
get the right type

of players together.

The first step to
putting the record together

is to go and jam those songs out

for an extensive amount of time,

just to get
comfortable with them.

So before we even started
to officially record,

which was in the
last couple weeks,

it was basically October,

which was about four months ago,

where we started to just get

in the studio and
work on those songs,

so, not a lot of bands
do that anymore,

is actually to go and flesh
those songs out for a while

before you actually
press record.

You know, you hope that when you

press that red button,

that you're bouncing
off of each other

making this amazing
racket together

that it's being captured,

and it's not about, "now
we have to kind of sand off

"all the edgy points on that

"and make it kind of palatable
for just the general public.”

It's supposed to be
a specialized thing.

What we do is specialized for
people who dig what we do.

I feel like, you know,
now it's the sophomore record

of the conspirators,
you can definitely feel

the band vibe, you know,

everybody's gelling together,

and that's just, you
know, it's apparent.

You can definitely
hear it on this record.

A lot less here and more here.

Which for me sometimes
is kind of a challenge,

because sometimes you
tend to get a little,

you want to get a
little too cerebral,

and you got to remember

this is a rock and roll band,

and I think a lot of what
slash does is from the hip,

and I, to keep it,
congruent, I need to remember

that as a lyricist as well.

You know, when 1
make a studio record,

it's great, but it's all
sort of a means to an end

which is to go out and perform,

so I'm really more of a live
artist than a recording artist.

Sometimes, as you get a
little bit more successful,

you start playing at
these bigger places,

and that's great, but I like
to be able to break it up

and still be able to play

in these really sort of
small, loud, sweaty venues,

and for the release of this
new record world on fire,

I thought it'd be great to do

like, three of them
in a row, you know,

the main ones that
I got my start in.

J last night in paradise

j I can feel it down in my bones

j left the good lord behind

j now I die on the vine

j waiting for my redemption song

j I am never safe

j just a walking bomb

j in a midnight rage

j and I'm gone

j; I'm getting off
this wicked stone

for some reason I always loved

being able to go back and play

at any one of these
clubs, you know?

I like being in a
sort of that intimate,

you know, toe-to-toe
environment.

When I was a kid,
I remember making

the pilgrimage down here.

It was summer 1988, and
I was reading all about

everything that was
happening down here,

and I convinced my cousin

to try and get me into
some of these places.

And I remember going
to the troubadour first

and just peeking in
and being like, "wow,"

and there was hardly anybody,

it was like a Tuesday
night or something,

and there was almost
no one in the venue,

and we went up to the roxy,

and I mean it was
really cool for me,

just because I'd heard
so much for so long.

And then, of course, the
whisky a go go was happening,

and then we'd all kind of
saunter up sunset late night,

about 2 in the morning, head into

the rainbow parking lot.

You were at the roxy
or you were at the whisky

or the rainbow.

I remember when Van
halen first came out,

and there was bands
like exciter playing

at the starwood, you know,
Nikki sixx's old band London.

There was this whole
scene, but there was also

sort of burgeoning
punk scene developing

as well at the same time.

But I love the whole
dirty underbelly scene

that was happening
in Los Angeles.

T had a band called London

and kind of started to make

a little bit of a stink around.

We were kind of
like the only band

that kind of had
a little bit of a

New York dolls, hoople vibe

but played this kind of
little bit poppier stuff.

It wasn't like, you know,

some of these television shows

where you see all these guys

they're rolling up on
harleys and, you know

they've got like the
kaiser helmets on

and shit like that, but this
was just a whole different

kind of a scene.

That was when I
really got my first taste

of what a real rock
star looks like.

I saw Roger Taylor pull up
in a rolls Royce, from queen.

He got out with two girls,

and he was wearing
like a savile row suit,

you know, holding a
glass of champagne.

And I was like, "man, that,
looks like he's having

"a pretty good life."

J kill the ghost

j that hides in your soul

j rock 'n' roll

he's a very quiet person.

He's not somebody
that's very outgoing,

and there's a certain veil

that he kind of has
on all the time.

And then when you hear him play,

it all comes pouring out.

He doesn't like to talk,

and he doesn't like to talk
about himself in all things,

and you realize, well,
he's a great talker,

and there's a lot of things

that you could learn about
him talking about himself,

but it all comes out in
guitar playing instead.

His voice is guitar.

He doesn't like to sing it.

He wants to play it.

And I think that's cool too.

That's something that
obviously was inside him

long before he
picked up a guitar.

The guitar was just sort of

an extension of him in a sense.

He had great parents that had

good record collections.

Unfortunately, my
folks had liberace.

We would play the
troubadour once in a while,

like really low
on a Monday night,

the opening band
on a Monday night,

and started moving up there.

Putting out the flyers and that,

so they have to go out.

What's the best place you
can get your flyers out,

the rainbow, isn't it?

You know?

I mean it's still the
best club in Hollywood,

as far as I know.

He's still, if you see
him sitting around somewhere

or anywhere where he's
not actually on a camera

or doing something
that he has to do,

he's got a guitar in his hands,

and he's constantly
rolling, you know?

And it's really impressive.

That's his bliss.

He's following his bliss.

When he plays guitar,
it seems to me

like that's when he's happiest.

The thing that is
still true to this day

about slash is you
very rarely see him

and he doesn't have
a guitar in his hand.

Any time I see him, I've
even told him that as a joke,

I'm like, you know, if
he's going to come over,

I'm like, you know, "are you
going to drive and play guitar

"at the same time?"

You know?

And it's true.

He loves playing guitar so much.

And that's why he's continued
throughout the years

to get better and
better and better,

because that's what he does.

That is who he is.

He's a guitar player.

I mean, I've known
him how long now?

30 years.

And nine out of ten times
when we're together,

he has a guitar in his hand.

He's always playing, always
working on something.

So he's probably the, I mean
he's the hardest-working

guitar player that I know,

as far as like what
work he does at home

or backstage before a show

or in his hotel
room or on the bus,

he's always playing.

And I look at slash,
and slash has that,

like he's got
rhythm, and he's got,

he'll go off, and you can tell

it's just coming from
right there, you know?

And it's all in the hands.

It's not in like some
pedals on the floor.

It's like all right there.

When you see someone
really doing that,

like, "wow!

"That's why he is
the guy that he is.”

You know?

It's not the hat and the glasses

and the smoke or whatever.

It's like all right
there in his hands.

You couldn't ask for
a better guitar player.

I mean, he's played on a couple
of our albums, you know?

And he's been every
time, you know?

We're going to do another
song off the brand new record.

This is called meant to fly.

J mama, don't you cry

j don't you worry

j I cannot stay here any longer

I wouldn't be being honest

if I didn't say sometimes
when I see him playing,

I'm like, "for fuck's
sake, we should be playing

"together, somehow, again.”

But this is his path right now,

and I appreciate that, and
support him in every way,

without resentment or jealousy
or anything like that.

I check in with him, you know,

make sure he's doing okay.

And he's busy.

I just went and jammed with him

outside of Seattle
a couple weeks ago.

They opened for aerosmith.

You know, I played
drums on one song

on his last solo record,

and he asked if I'd
come in and sing a song,

I said, "oh, man, you don't
want me singing a song.

"Can I play drums?

"I'll come in and play drums.”

He said, "okay.

"There's an instrumental track.”

So I come to the studio,

Eric Valentine's
producing, duff was there,

slash was there.

We sat down, listened
to a demo of it,

said okay, walked
out of the room,

the instruments were set up,

ran through it one time, hit
record, did it one more time,

and that was the take.

But to watch duff and
slash sit and talk about

the song together as we were
getting ready to record,

"no, you do this part.

"Okay if you do that,
then I'm going to,

"in this part I'll
lay back and then

"we got to build that thing up,

"and make sure that
part goes four times,"

and I'm sitting there behind
the drum set thinking,

"am I watching like a guns n'
roses documentary right now?"

Like I felt like I was watching

something like history happening
in front of me, you know?

I mean I look at
musicians and music

as important as any politician
or any pope, you know?

The music and the songs that
these people make together

go on to influence
people or inspire them

to change the world.

Generations of people
are changed by two people

sitting together
and writing a song.

And as I sat there and watched

the two of them do that,

I thought, "I get to witness
something really special."

This is like history being made.

Regardless if gene Simmons says

rock and roll is dead.

If you listened to him,
we'd all be fucked.

You know, so it's
like no, rock and roll

is not dead, gene, let
me explain it to you.

First of all, rock and roll
was never about making money

and, you know, fuckin'
building golf courses

or whatever the
fuck else you do.

Rock and roll was always about

that celebration of rebellion,

the celebration of life,
the celebration of being

an individual,
freedom, freedom to be

exactly who you are
whenever you want.

You don't listen to the man.

That's rock and roll.

Rock and roll is
a sense of being.

It's who you are, you know?

And you look at guys like slash,

and you look at lemmy,

and you go, "those guys,
those are those guys."

I was driving down sunset
boulevard the other day,

and I have these
moments where, you know,

I just am like, "wait a minute.

"I came here on
a greyhound bus."

I was driving down
sunset, and, you know,

I've had an amazing career,

and I'm in my Ferrari,
and the top was off,

and the street's
the same, you know?

Everything's the same, just
the years have ticked by,

and I drove by guitar center,

and there was a picture of slash

on the side of guitar center,

and I thought to
myself, you know,

"he's going to be doing this

"like the way b.B.
King is doing this,

"he's going to be doing this
into his 60s and 70s and 80s.

It's what he's gonna do.

Okay, the most
important question,

when did you get the haircut?

And action!

I love you slash.

Yeah, anything
you want to tell him?

I love you!

I miss you!

When are we going
to go to lunch?

You work too much!

Stay home for a little bit.

You're loved.

You know, but uh,

now I don't remember
what the question was.

What was the question?

I don't know!

The story of my fuckin' life.