Slash (musician)

Saul Hudson (born July 23, 1965), better known to the world as Slash, was the lead guitarist of the hard rock band Guns N' Roses. He is currently the lead guitarist of rock band Velvet Revolver. He is noted for his long curly black hair, his signature oversized top hat, his love for Jack Daniel's, and, usually, a cigarette dangling from his mouth. He currently resides in Beverly Hills with his wife Perla, and his two sons, London Emilio and Cash Anthony.

Biography

Early life

Slash was born in Hampstead, England to a Jewish English father and an African-American mother, both of whom were involved with show business (his mother designed David Bowie's costumes from "The Man Who Fell To Earth").

In the mid-1970s, his parents split up and he moved in with his grandmother. He was raised in Stoke-on-Trent until the age of 11 when he and his mother moved to Los Angeles, California in the United States. His father remained in England. In the U.S., Slash attended Beverly Hills High School along with other future stars including Lenny Kravitz and Nicolas Cage.

At about age 15, Slash was given a one string acoustic guitar with which he was able to learn to play. Slash's early influences include Led Zeppelin, Rory Gallagher, Eric Clapton, the Rolling Stones, Queen, Aerosmith, Jimi Hendrix, AC/DC and Jeff Beck. The first song he learned to play was "Smoke on the Water" by Deep Purple. He went to lessons but he wanted to learn things himself. Slash began to devote up to 12 hours a day to playing guitar, which appeared to negatively affect his school work. Eventually, Slash gave up on school, dropping out in eleventh grade. While a part of the Los Angeles band scene he auditioned for the glam metal band Poison and was a finalist until ultimately losing out to the unique looks of C.C. DeVille. He then met drummer Steven Adler and the two formed the "band" Road Crew (which generally had trouble retaining any members besides themselves). Eventually, Slash ended up in a band called Black Sheep, which had the same agent as another band called Hollywood Rose.

Guns N' Roses

Black Sheep and Hollywood Rose both opened for another band called Stryper one evening in late 1984, and Slash was introduced backstage to Axl Rose by their mutual agent, Vicky Hamilton. Several months later, when Hollywood Rose lead guitarist Chris Weber moved to New York City, and Tracii Guns did not express enough interest in remaining in Axl's band, Axl called Slash and invited him to join the band. Duff McKagan and Steven Adler had already joined by the time Slash stepped in. Since most of the original lineup (everyone but Axl and Izzy Stradlin') of Hollywood Rose was now gone, the band decided to change its name to Guns N' Roses.

The nascent band toured bars and opened for others throughout 1985 and 1986. They wrote some early songs like "Reckless Life", "Move to the City", and "Anything Goes", but were unable to do any major recording until 1987, when the band released its debut album, "Appetite for Destruction". The album was not initially well-known, but included songs such as "Welcome to the Jungle", "Sweet Child O' Mine", and "Paradise City", which (thanks in large part to Slash's guitar riffs and solos) became the band's most famous songs. By 1988, two GN'R songs had hit number one on the Billboard Top 100, and fans were clamoring for a new release.

In 1988, the band released G N' R Lies, which, upon Rose's insistence and despite Slash's objections, included the controversial song "One in a Million" (whose lyrics include the word "niggers"), Slash began early on to be alienated by Rose. After Guns N' Roses' Use Your Illusion Tour, Slash became an American citizen.

Slash is notoriously known for his alcohol induced acceptance speech at the 1989 American Music Awards. Upon receipt of GNR's second award at the 1989 American Music Awards, he and Duff McKagan stumbled to the stage appearing very drunk, holding drinks and smoking cigarettes. Within a span of 20 seconds, Slash managed to curse twice in his slurred speech before being interrupted by a music overdub and positioning of a camera on a curtain with the AMA logo. After the first f-word, an audible gasp was heard from the crowd, prompting Slash to cover his mouth, cigarette in hand, and laughingly utter "oops".[[1]]

In 1991, Guns N' Roses embarked on the 28-month long Use Your Illusion Tour, coinciding with the release of their new albums, Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II. The albums indicated a change in musical direction for Guns N' Roses, including more artistic and dramatic songs like "November Rain" and "Estranged". Songs in this vein, along with ballads like "Don't Cry", contributed to tensions that tore the band apart just a few years later, because of Axl's desire to pursue ballad- and industrial-type music as opposed to the rest of the band's desire to continue playing hard rock n' roll. Slash would later cite this issue as a key component to his inability to work with Axl Rose.

He is also known to be a fan of the Godfather films, and played the Godfather theme as part of his extended guitar solo during every live show.

At the end of the tour, after the release of The Spaghetti Incident?, GN'R's final studio album to feature Slash, he began to drift in and out of the band. In 1994 and 1995, he started a side project called Slash's Snakepit (which included GN'R guitarist Gilby Clarke and drummer Matt Sorum) that released its debut album, It's Five O'Clock Somewhere.

In addition, Slash performed alongside Michael Jackson at the 1995 MTV Video Music Awards. Slash played guitar in the Black Or White segment of the performance, which included a seemingly unplanned 90 second solo, during which Jackson had undergone a costume change for the next song, Billie Jean. Slash would later perform alongside Michael Jackson again on September 10, 2001, at Jackson's 30th Anniversary Celebration at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

After Guns N' Roses

Slash officially quit GN'R in 1996 after he declared that he could not work with Rose. Allegedly, he and Axl had several disagreements regarding the band's musical direction, and Slash was infuriated when Axl replaced Gilby Clarke's guitar track with Paul Tobias's on the song "Sympathy for the Devil". He then focused on Slash's Snakepit, playing a few tour dates before disbanding the group later that year. He re-formed Snakepit in 1998, only to disband it again in July 2001 after releasing a second album, Ain't Life Grand, the year before.

In 1996, he collabrated with the Spanish singer, Marta Sanchez to record Obsession-Confession for the soundtrack of Curdled. The track was received well by the Smooth Jazz radio stations.

In 2003, he participated in the Yardbirds' comeback record "Birdland" (which consisted mostly of re-recordings of some of their greatest hits, with guest appearances by former member Jeff Beck, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Brian May, Steve Lukather, Jeff "Skunk" Baxter, Johnny Rzeznik, Martin Ditchum and Simon McCarty), released on the Favored Nations label. He played lead guitar in the track "Over, Under, Sideways, Down".

From the mid-90s into the early 2000s, Slash spent his time playing with many different bands, often as a guest on many different albums and tours including all different kinds of music. However, he was not truly in a band again until 2002, when he reunited with Duff McKagan and Matt Sorum for a benefit/tribute concert for Randy Castillo which starred Gunn Atkinson aside him. Realizing they still had a lot of chemistry, they decided to form a new band together.

Velvet Revolver and beyond

Velvet Revolver began as "The Project", a venture by Slash, Duff McKagan, and Matt Sorum to find a new lead singer. To play rhythm guitar, they initially sought out Izzy Stradlin, but it did not work out for either party due to his aversion to touring and working with a lead singer. They eventually settled on Dave Kushner, from a band Duff McKagan had been in before reuniting with Slash. For many months, the four of them listened to demo tapes of potential lead singers, a monotonous process documented by VH1. After many months, Slash and the others were almost ready to give up. However, Stone Temple Pilots had recently imploded and lead singer Scott Weiland, was encouraged to try out for "The Project". Scott had tried to join before but Duff was reluctant to allow him to split Stone Temple Pilots, the natural demise of that band afforded him the opportunity to join with Slash, Duff, and Matt, which worked well with him immediately, and so Velvet Revolver was formed.

The band played several concerts in the summer of 2003 and released their first single, "Set Me Free" as part of the soundtrack for The Hulk. In June 2004, they released their first studio album, Contraband. A 19-month long tour ensued, as the album went platinum and re-established Slash among the masses who had forgotten him over the years. The tour finally ended in January 2006, and Slash and his bandmates took a well-deserved break before beginning work on their second album. The band recorded a new song for Steven Spielberg's latest film Monster House in May 2006.

Controversy

In March 2006 Axl Rose's lawyer released the following statement: "In October of 2005 Slash made an unannounced 5:30 AM visit to Axl Rose's house. Not appearing to be under the influence, Slash came to inform Axl that: 'Duff was spineless,' 'Scott Weiland was a fraud,' that he 'hates Matt Sorum' and that in this ongoing war, contest or whatever anyone wants to call it that Slash has waged against Axl for the better part of 20 years, that Axl has proven himself 'the stronger.' Based on his conduct in showing up at Rose's home, Axl was hopeful that Slash would live up to his pronouncements that he wanted to end the war and move on with life. Unfortunately that did not prove to be the case."

Slash didn't comment on Axl's press release - but a Velvet Revolver spokeswoman did promise we would hear from Slash "within days" - Slash's press release never came however Scott Weiland (of Velvet Revolver) posted this on their website.

It was removed two days later.

On April 25, 2006, Duff McKagan appeared on Opie & Anthony on XM radio. He shot down all rumors of Slash leaving Velvet Revolver saying that they were just "Bullshit". Two days later, Slash and his wife Perla were rumored to have filed for divorce in Los Angeles but this was later disproven by Slash himself. It was believed that Perla, who was also rumored to be the manager of Velvet Revolver, may have been the source of the false rumors regarding Velvet Revolver's supposed breakup as well as those regarding Slash rejoining Axl Rose. This however was false (both the divorce allegation and the accusations against Perla, Slash said this on Camp Freddy on May 13 2006 and said that he was still in Velvet Revolver and hadn't spoken to Axl since 1996.)

On May 13, 2006, Slash appeared on the Camp Freddy Show on Indie 1031 FM and denied having visited Axl's house or saying anything that Axl claimed. Slash said: "I'm not gonna go into the whole long thing. It was just something that he [Axl] decided he was going to… It was a lot of this stuff was built to promote the next Guns record and the tour and all that kind of stuff, 'cause there was this blatantly fabricated thing in there that I'd gone to his house and that he and I had a conversation in which I said all this stuff about my bandmates. And it's just blatantly untrue. For one, I have not talked to the guy in any way, shape or form since 1996, so it's going on 11 years. [Laughs] So that's basically it. There's just no truth to it. And all things considered, it put lot of whatever in people's minds that I was that kind of a guy, so it's… there you have it. So it's not true."

On May 31, 2006, Slash was joined by Rob Zombie on vocals, another former GNR axeman Gilby Clarke on rhythm guitar, Scott Ian of Anthrax on bass, Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee on drums, and surprise guest Ace Frehley of KISS for a rendition of God of Thunder. The occasion was a one-time supergroup tribute to KISS for the VH1 Rock Honors Award Show.

Guitar equipment

Guitars

Slash owns over 80 guitars. Among them are the following:

• Gibson
  • 1958 Les Paul Replica Built By: Chris Derrig (Slash's Main Guitar On Most Recordings)
  • Standard and Custom Les Pauls
    • A Squier
    • A Cheap Les Paul
    • 1959 Standard (Copy)
    • 1969 Custom
    • 1996 Signature (Slash's Snakepit)
    • 2004 Signature (Velvet Revolver)
  • 1963 & 1965 Melody Makers
  • 1960s SG
  • EDS-1275
  • 1959 Flying V
  • 1958 Explorer
  • ES-335
  • Firebird VII
  • J-100
• Fender
  • 1952 Telecaster
  • 1956 Stratocaster
  • 1965 Stratocaster
• Ernie Ball/Musicman
  • Silhouette
• Guild
  • 1999 Crossroads Doubleneck ("Godzilla")
  • 12-string Acoustic Guitar
• B.C. Rich
  • Mockingbird (at least three signature models with active pick-up systems)
  • 10-string Bich
• Martin
  • D-28 Acoustic Guitar
• Ramirez
  • An Acoustic guitar from Argos
• Travis Bean
  • Travis Bean Electric (Used for slide guitar)

Amplifiers

Slash is the first musician to own a signature amplifier created by Marshall for him.

• Marshall
  • JCM-800 Head
  • JCM 900 Head
  • JCM Silver Jubilee (original 2555 JS, white/silver marshall head)
  • 2555SL Signature Head
  • 1960BV 4x12 Cabinet
    • 70 Watt Celestion "Vintage 30" Speakers

Effects

Slash recently collaborated with Dunlop on his first signature pedal: The Slash Wah. It's a hybrid wah/distortion, it's a Crybaby and it has a red shell.

• Dunlop DCR-1SR Cry Baby Rackmount Wah Wah
• Rocktron Hush II CX
• DBX 166 Compressor
• Yamaha SPX 900 Multieffect
• Boss DD-3 Delay
• MXR 10-band graphic EQ
• Heil Talkbox

Other

• Strings
  • Ernie Ball Slinky R.P.S gauge 0.11, 0.14, 0.18, 0.28, 0.38, 0.48
• Pickups
  • Seymour Duncan Alnico II Pro
• Picks
  • Dunlop Purple Tortex (1.14 mm)
• Miscellaneous
  • Shure Wireless Guitar Kit
  • CAE custom switcher/router
  • Peterson Strobe tuner (used by Adam Day)
  • Nady 950-gt Wireless Guitar System (used in Guns N' Roses)

Trivia

• Slash was voted in number 12 on Chez 106's list of the 40 Most Influential Guitarists of all time.

• Slash was voted number 4 in Total Guitar magazine's list of the 100 greatest guitarists ever.

• Slash is referenced in the video game Chrono Trigger as the bumbling, "tone deaf" member of a musician-based trio of villains (also included are Flea and Ozzy).

• Two leather-clad thugs, one named Axl and the other Slash, appear in the classic Capcom video game Final Fight. In a further tribute to Slash, one of the Mavericks in the American version of Mega Man X5 is named Grizzly Slash (many characters in the US version of MMX5 were given new names, inspired by former members of Slash's old band Guns N' Roses).

• He is the only long-term member of Guns N' Roses who was not born in the United States (original bassist Ole Beich was born in Denmark, but was in the band for a very short period of time).

• The villain Death in the film Six String Samurai bears more than a passing resemblance to Slash, including the signature top hat, electric guitar and the mane of curly hair which shrouds his face.

• Things associated with him:
  • Marlboro Red Cigarettes
  • Gitanes Cigarettes
  • Jack Daniels Tennessee Whiskey
  • Top Hat

• On the popular Homestar Runner Flash series, the character Homsar dresses up as Slash in a Halloween special.

See also

• Velvet Revolver
• Guns N' Roses
• Slash's Snakepit
• Gibson Guitars
• Marshall Amplifiers

External links

• Official Velvet Revolver Website
• Slash Online
• Slash's Official Fan Site
• Information on Slash's musical equipment
• Information on Slash's musical equipment