Here Today... Gone To Hell!

SLASH, VINCE NEIL, NICKO MCBRAIN To Take Part In ROCK 'N' ROLL FANTASY CAMP Celebration - Sep. 13, 2007

Slash (VELVET REVOLVER, ex-GUNS N' ROSES), Vince Neil (M?TLEY CR?E) and Nicko McBrain (IRON MAIDEN) are among the musicians that will take part in the upcoming Rock 'n' Roll Fantasy Camp's 10th anniversary celebration, which will take place November 7-11 at the Mandalay Bay Hotel and House of Blues in las Vegas, Nevada. The camp will run from Wednesday at 5:00 p.m. to Sunday at midnight over Veteran's Day weekend. Enrollment has already started off with a bang with campers from all over the world, including the U.S., Ireland, U.K., and South America, having already signed up.

For more information, go to this location: http://www.rockandrollfantasycamp.com/website_/index.html

Slash n Vince Neil? ???

Daltrey joins fantasy rock camp

Rock stars including Roger Daltrey of The Who and The Eagles' Joe Walsh will headline the 10th Rock'n'Roll Fantasy Camp in Las Vegas in November.

The camps give music fans the chance to jam and record with their rock heroes.

"Rock'n'Roll Fantasy Camp reminds me of what it used to be like when we first started, when we were rough and ready... it's fantastic," said Daltrey.

The five-day event culminates in a live concert where music lovers join the rock stars on stage.

Other musicians taking part include Slash, formerly of Guns N'Roses and now of Velvet Revolver, Motley Crue's Vince Neil, Jack Bruce from Cream and Nicko McBrain from Iron Maiden.

Simpsons show

It costs $9,499 (?4,731) to attend the five-day event, titled the Ultimate Rock Star Experience Veteran's Day Weekend.

Fans will be able to download original songs recorded at the camp via iTunes.

The camp once featured in a Simpsons episode where the character Homer jammed with Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Tom Petty and Elvis Costello.

The event was started by David Fishof, who used to produce rock tours including Ringo's All-Starr Band and The Monkees' 20th Anniversary tour.

Camps also take place in Hollywood and at the Abbey Road Studios in London.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7004526.stm

I've always thought that would be so cool to be able to do!    Can't afford that, though! 

DUDE Teddy Zig Zag is gonna be there!!!!!!!!!!1111  :drool:

listed as Teddy Andreadis of Guns N' Roses.  Proof that Zig Zag IS GnR!

For those who did not have the $9,500 to attend:

Day One at Rock 'n' Roll Fantasy Camp

In which our hero contemplates how to play ZZ Top's "Tush" without stealing the thunder from his drumming partner, a man dying of cancer.

Liam Gowing, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

Well, here I am in Las Vegas, attending the tenth annual Rock 'n' Roll Fantasy Camp. I'm writing it up for a forthcoming Action Man column. It's been a tough first day?

Things really couldn't have worked out more bizarrely: I told the Rock Camp folks that I was a fan of the classics (the Beatles, the Who, the Kinks, Stevie Wonder, etc.) and that I was raised on the new wave/alternative/indie rock continuum (connect the dots between Split Enz and Of Montreal and you've got most of the picture), but even with Alan White, the Yes alumnus who played drums on "Instant Karma!" in the mix, they assigned '90s glam-metal man Mark Slaughter as my camp counselor. A little curveball, but no biggie.

Moreover, I told Rock Camp that I could sing and play guitar, bass and keyboards pretty well and that I could, in a pinch, keep an OK (i.e., kinda crummy) beat on drums. So yep, you guessed it? they assigned me drums.

Now I knew all this coming here and was even excited about the prospect (Wow, drumming for Mark Slaughter? that's sure to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience), even when I was told to come ready to play ZZ Top's "Tush" ?a shuffle beat no less! But I was still a little taken aback to find out the context in which I would be performing this function.

I found out today that I would be one of two drummers playing simultaneously. Yikes. As hard as it is to keep a steady rhythm going, it's much harder to do so in perfect sync with another human being! But that doesn't even begin to explain the challenge inherent in my situation. That challenge comes with the fact that the other drummer?Chris, a total sweetheart?is dying of cancer. He's actually here by the good graces of the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Playing drums for Mark Slaughter at RnR Fantasy Camp may be a fun goof and an interesting writing assignment for me but it's this man's dying wish!

Which brings me to an oddly unsettling realization: If I really give it on the drums (and show him up), I'll ruin his last hurrah on planet earth. And if I really screw up on the drums (the far more likely outcome), I'll ruin his last hurrah on planet Earth.

Umm, OK? more on this tomorrow. And now, back to you in the studio.

Day Two at Rock 'n' Roll Fantasy Camp

If you can believe it, Motley Crue's Vince Neil is actually a sweet and rather shy guy.

Liam Gowing, Times Staff Writer

I'm starting to finally settle into Rock 'n' Roll Fantasy Camp.

Released from the horrible coil of Frank Beard's shuffle beat, I actually had a nice day behind the kit and banged out several decent beats in spite of myself. As for yesterday's concerns about the double-drummer scenario, I've decided to leave all that baggage behind. If cancer-stricken Chris can handle to stress of our polyrhythmic racket ? on top of chemotherapy and who knows what else ? so can I.

Anyway, under the efficient if autocratic rule of Counselor Slaughter, our little ad hoc band actually wrote, arranged and rehearsed an original composition and then performed it for Motley Crue singer Vince Neil and the bevy of cameras, publicists and assorted hanger-ons that followed him from rehearsal room to rehearsal room like the train of a wedding gown. It was a trip to meet him. He actually seemed nervous to meet us, which was totally bizarre. Perhaps someone tipped him off to the fact that Chris was terminally ill but regardless, Neil seemed sweet and rather shy, as if he were embarrassed by all the hubbub he was causing. Not so motley.

After that mid-afternoon meet-and-greet, it was back to work. Going through the other big names who'd be swinging through for a potential cameo with the band ? Joe Walsh, Slash, Jack Bruce, Roger Daltrey ? we focused our brown noses on Daltrey and Slash and decided to learn one Who and one Guns N' Roses song. The GN'R selection was easy; everyone wanted to do "Sweet Child O' Mine." But picking out a Who song was a knock-down drag-out. We listened to ? or discussed ? "My Generation," "I Can't Explain," "Substitute," "Behind Blue Eyes," "The Real Me," "Pinball Wizard," and even "Baba O'Reilly." I was vehemently against the last choice. Sacrilege! We haven't earned the right to play ? much less butcher ? that classic rock colossus in front of the larynx that made it famous.

I kept pushing "My Generation" and "I Can't Explain." Easy hit-it-and-quit-it numbers that would keep things light. But after much ado, we settled on "Pinball Wizard," simply because I knew the guitar part. In fact, I knew it so well Slaughter and company suggested I just play guitar at the show ? a much easier prospect than trying to follow in Keith Moon's footsteps ? so I agreed. I'll be swapping roles with our foremost guitarist Yayo, who was itching to play drums anyway.

Word is Daltrey's coming by tomorrow, which, as the little orphan sang, is only a day away.

haha yup he is here in vegas.. one of my collegaues is doing some filming for them and called me and he was standing 2 feet away from slash..   I heard him go 'what up' in the background. lol.   he's getting me a signed copy of his book :)   so i'll get the book sooner than I thought after all.  :hihi:

Day Three at Rock 'n' Roll Fantasy Camp

Is it mind-blowing to play "Pinball Wizard" with Roger Daltrey and "Sweet Child O' Mine" with Slash? Just a little bit.

At the end of Day Three, I was simply not in the right frame of mind to objectively contextualize the major events of the day. So I took a day to mull over the the astounding fact that my band had played "Pinball Wizard" with Roger Daltrey on lead vocals and "Sweet Child O' Mine" with Slash on lead guitar.

I will attempt to speak truthfully about these experiences without communicating what might appear to be ludicrous hyperbole.

The morning of Day Two, I sat down to breakfast with camp counselor Mark Hudson (producer-songwriter for Aerosmith, Ozzy Osbourne and Ringo Starr) and David Fishof, founder and CEO of the Rock Camp organization. They were both going on effusively about the wondrous effects of the camp, telling me about campers who'd written them to say that Rock 'N' Roll Fantasy Camp had transformed their lives, saved their marriages or otherwise wrought something wondrous. "That's the real payoff," Fishof concluded.

"Yeah, that and the money," I said, thinking of the $9500 entry fee.

Nonplussed by my comment, Fishof and Hudson stuck to their guns, stressing that Rock Camp was a labor of love with costs mostly funneled towards logistics (renting out a giant chunk of the MGM Grand, for one) and profits largely vested in smiles, hugs and Hallmark cards.

Well, Day Three was the first day I began to truly believe them. Call it predictable, but performing with Roger Daltrey and Slash were moments I will likely recall in my final moments on planet earth.

It was an excellent day from the get-go. Under the exacting but good-natured eye of Bruce Kulick (guitarist of Kiss during the makeup-free years of the '80s and '90s), who was pinch-hitting for Mark Slaughter (taking a leave of absence to attend a meeting on the East Coast), my band managed to inject some semblance of order into GN'R's "Sweet Child o' Mine" and put a nice sheen on our arrangement of The Who's "Pinball Wizard."

We couldn't help but bond in the deep mystical ways known only to musicians, army buddies and other disaster survivors. And our non-mystical sweat really paid off.

When Daltrey finally arrived, after a torturous 15-minute countdown, we were ready. As I kicked off "Pinball" with Pete Townshend's gorgeous intro of cascading minor and augmented chords, Daltrey looked over at me with something approaching shock. "Kid, you're nailing it," was the message behind his blue eyes. And when lead guitarist Sheldon hit the opening electric chord with a Townshend-trademarked "windmill" strum, followed by some very John Entwistle-esque bass work from our own Stephen, it was obvious that this volcano of a vocalist -- the man responsible for the greatest scream in rock 'n' roll history -- was feeling a little piece of the magic he and his own mates had conjured in stadiums around the world.

With a friendly arm around our own lead singer, Amanda, Daltrey then gave us a fully committed vocal performance of "Pinball," the signature track from the Who's 1969 "Tommy" album, widely regarded as the world's first major rock opera. The energy was tremendous the whole way through: Our most worrisome moment, the dramatic "da-da-dum" ending went off just right with no static between dual drummers Chris and Yayo.

"That was really good, guys!" the infamously perfectionist Daltrey told us as the last chord faded. "And that's not an easy song to play!"

Now, no one fell to the floor, writhing in ecstasy. No one got hired to join the next Who tour or invited over to Rog's place for tea. But the camaraderie at the photo session afterward was real, as was Daltrey's sympathy for Chris' condition. "We're all in the same boat, mate," he replied, a little affected after getting the dreadful unexpurgated explanation of Chris' journey from diagnosis of liver cancer to hospice. "'There but for the grace of God go I.'"

After performing and bonding with Roger Daltrey, I, for one, was actually a little blas? about meeting Slash. This was probably as much a coping mechanism as a case of acute anxiety wouldn't have helped me get through "Sweet Child o' Mine." But if I was fairly relaxed in the moments leading up to our little summit, I was even more so once he arrived.

Slash, as it turns out, hadn't played the song since leaving Guns N' Roses and had to confer with our trio of guitarists, Yayo, Sheldon and Rich, to map out the exact constellation of arpeggiated notes that inaugurates the song. After an aborted first effort that left all of us--Slash included--in stitches, he got it together.

There I was, a novice drummer watching Mr. Saul "Slash" Hudson begin to recreate a hefty patch of my junior high tapestry with one of the biggest power ballads ever recorded.

And his solo was everything one could hope for.

Was the experience perfect? Not even close. One of Rock Camp's video folks decided to park himself directly in front of my kit for a better view, and I had to expend a couple empty beats poking him in the kidneys with my drumstick so I could reestablish eye contact (or in this case, Aviator-sunglasses-contact) with Slash. This was no mere stargazing. He was no longer Slash the icon. He was the guitarist in my band. As one of the drummers, I needed to see him in order to pick up on the visual cues. For the guitarists in particular it was something like ecstasy. And apparently Slash enjoyed it as well because he stuck around for a little instrumental blues jam, which presented an amazing opportunity for Slash and our teenage Slash-in-training, Yayo, to trade solos.

Posing for photographs afterwards, I have to admit there was precious little of the warm fuzziness I'd experienced with Daltrey. Clearly, Slash is a man of few words so I was content to let the music be our only point of real contact. Things changed subtly when one of the Rock Camp corporals yelled out, "He's a journalist, Slash! He writes for the LA Times!"

"The enemy, Slash! He's the enemy!" another yelled.

Deaf to the lampoons, Slash turned to me, a grin spreading across his face and said, "Really? You write for the L.A. Times? Which section?"

"The Guide," I replied.

That's cool, man," he said. "I get your paper every day."

Photo with story: http://www.calendarlive.com/music/cl-et-actionthree12nov12,0,3481512.story?coll=cl-music-top-right

Well, that is not the first time he played Sweet Child since he left.  I bet he nailed the damn thing!

From MTV...

SLASH PLAYS "SWEET CHILD OF MINE" FOR THE FIRST TIME IN A DECADE.  Last week, Velvet Revolver and Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash stopped by the Rock and Roll Fantasy Camp where he performed alongside the campers.  While the campers will no doubt remember the experience for the rest of their lives, Slash was having some trouble remembering at the event.  He explained when he got nervous at the camp.  "Only once tonight so far which was trying to remember the solo to 'Sweet Child of Mine' cause I haven't played it since probably the last Guns and Roses show and that was in 1996.  You just don't go back and play your songs unless you're doing them in concert or for some particular reason like just now.  Then watching the other guys playing it and they actually learned it from a record and all the sudden it got very surreal there for a second."

http://www.mtv.ca/news/article.jhtml?id=5262

His last GNR show was 1993... What the hell Slash.  Come on!  1996 you were in recording sessions and quit the band.  There was no tour then.

He wanted to do a club tour for "The Spaghetti Incident?" which was released in 1993, but that didn't happen. So assuming he remembers that, you'd think he would remember that the actual touring ended BEFORE "TSI?" was released......

Or maybe he thought the SnakepitI tour was actually still the GN'R tour.....




/jarmo

Was the last uyi tour in July of or August of 1993...

And I know he played sweetchild since then because I remember a radio interview where he said he did the whole song on acoustic and it sounded really cool.  That was back around 2000.

SLASH Interviewed At ROCK 'N ROLL FANTASY CAMP; Audio Available - Nov. 17, 2007

The Rock 'n Roll Fantasy Camp Podcast sat down last week with VELVET REVOLVER/ex-GUNS N' ROSES guitarist Slash, who talked about his experience at camp, how it's just as cool for him as it is for the campers, his memoir called (obviously enough) "Slash", the Guitar Hero games, and how long it's been since he played the GUNS N' ROSES classic "Sweet Child O' Mine".

To listen to the 12-minute chat, download the MP3 audio file from this location (12 MB):

http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=85074

Watch video footage of Slash being interviewed by Elizabeth Vargas (I get little audio from Slash?):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9iPOBLJWgA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9iPOBLJWgA

That's the same link?  I can't really hear what he says? :no:

He says they're doing Europe in January.

But no shows have been announced yet...

Does anybody expect them to announce a tour of Europe with only six weeks until the month of January?

Maybe they'll play only a few dates in smaller venues..... Or the plans changed (he mentions going to Japan at the end of the month and that has changed since).




/jarmo

Really depends on what time in Jan the shows are taking place.

I couldn't hear a fucking thing, either.  I could hear the interviewer just fine...not him, so I gave up. 

I hear my friend in the background, he was the guy behind the camera with the deep voice telling her what to do around 1:30.

Jim Bob, do can you get us a clip of the fantasy band playing Sweet Child O'Mine?

^^^  Hey, yeah, Jim Bob!   

I'll ask if he filmed it and if he's allowed to give it to me.   he called me on his cell while slash was playing SCOM, all stoked n shit.

Did he say slash did good on the solo?  could you hear it?  Can you share any words from you friend?  Is your friend on the forum? 

Thanks Jim Bob in advance for getting us some footage!   : ok:

This from the LA Times Reporter that was at the camp...hard to say if he was filming or just getting a better view?


And his solo was everything one could hope for.

Was the experience perfect? Not even close. One of Rock Camp's video folks decided to park himself directly in front of my kit for a better view, and I had to expend a couple empty beats poking him in the kidneys with my drumstick so I could reestablish eye contact (or in this case, Aviator-sunglasses-contact) with Slash. This was no mere stargazing. He was no longer Slash the icon. He was the guitarist in my band. As one of the drummers, I needed to see him in order to pick up on the visual cues. For the guitarists in particular it was something like ecstasy. And apparently Slash enjoyed it as well because he stuck around for a little instrumental blues jam, which presented an amazing opportunity for Slash and our teenage Slash-in-training, Yayo, to trade solos.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Kd7InWfvxM&feature=related

this version seemed better.

no my friend isn't on the board, he works in the same biz as me but he also gets freelance work in mainstream and he worked this event.   yes i was able to hear it on the phone.   he was loving it but he's not a huge GNR fan, but he knows I am.   His stupid roommate ended up taking the signed book tho.  >:(

hold the thanks until i actually get something.  I will see him Thrusday for thanksgiving so I'll know then if he even has it and can let me have a clip.  i'd say chances are i wont have anything I'm able to share. 

Jim Bob, please ask him how Slash played and how he handled the solo that he hasn't played in so long!

Ok heres the dealio.   Yes he recorded Slash playing SCOM probably 3 times with various "bands" from this fantasy camp.   No he doesn't have the footage, he had to turn it all in.  The good news to those of you who are hoping to see it, the footage is getting released either in the form of a R&R fantasy camp 10 year anniversary DVD or a reality show.  Some way or another you will see it eventually.

Fucking Saweet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   :peace:

Nothing up yet at Velvetrevolver.com

However, they do list the dates in Japan as "TO BE RESCHEDULED".

January must be out?

Rock this way! You, too, can be a music star at fantasy camp    

By Marco R. della Cava, USA TODAY

Life was nagging at Hyun-Joo Park. Too many 14-hour days staring at a computer screen. Not enough time getting her 28-year-old ya-yas out.

So she did what any sensible Wall Street banker would do.

Hopped a flight to Las Vegas. Joined a rock 'n' roll band. And for four days screamed herself hoarse while perfecting ? with the help of guitar hero Slash ? a respectable rendition of Guns N' Roses' Paradise City, the climax of which found her leaping off a stack of amplifiers with Axl Rose-like gusto.

"The rock 'n' roll life is the polar opposite of mine," says Park, who morphed from banker to headbanger courtesy of the Rock 'n' Roll Fantasy Camp, which for a decade has granted musical mortals access to their strutting gods. "Rock stars are expected to misbehave, have sex, be crazy. Pretending to be a rock star is an escape from the mundane nature of everyday life."

As fantasies go, "rock star" continues to hog the woulda-coulda-been spotlight. Nickelback's hit Rockstar breaks it down simply: "We all just wanna be big rock stars/ And live in hilltop houses driving 15 cars."

President of the United States? Forget the gig's daily pressure ? most of us couldn't survive the first wave of photos unearthed from our funky-haired pasts.

Wealthiest American? Bill Gates is a shrewd genius and admirable altruist, but no amount of hot tech talk will get 80,000 people to scream your name.

Oscar-lauded actor? Please. Even Johnny Depp would rather be his iconic and death-defying buddy, Keith Richards.

With a new year that promises more bad economic news, continued tragedies in Iraq and a cutthroat election, folks are going to be leaning harder than ever on an escapist dream.

Cultural evidence points to rock as a salve. The Fantasy Camp plans to meet the needs of its expanding market by supplementing its $8,000 four-day sessions with $2,000 one-day camps. And with Hollywood's writers locked in a strike, don't be surprised to see more you-could-be-a-star reality shows such as Fox's just-ended The Next Great American Band.

Then there's the sizzling video game Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, which has racked up$300 million in sales. Running hot on its heels is Rock Band, projected to hit $200 million in sales.

And if you need to feel the real thing, outfits such as Rock Star Karaoke NYC stand ready to transform white-collar warriors "into screaming, stage-diving singers," says company founder Kelly Cooper. She says the bar-based venture ? which provides live backing musicians for would-be crooners ? has never been hotter than in the past few months. "Something about rock just transforms people."

So just what is it about punching out power chords before adoring crowds that rivets the imagination? Or is that like asking why being lavished with compliments while getting a massage on a bed of cold cash might sound appealing?

"George Thorogood once said to me, 'If anyone born after 1950 tells you they don't dream of being a rock star, they're lying,' " says David Fishof, the unlikely founder of Rock 'n' Roll Fantasy Camp, whose father was a Jewish cantor who frowned on rock. "Deep inside, everyone has this desire in them."

Fishof, calling from a noisy New York coffee shop, hands his cellphone to a friend who knows a thing or two about that exalted life.

"People look at us and say, 'They have fun. They have freedom.' And music is the last great freedom we have left," says The Who's Roger Daltrey, who has taught at the camp.

He's quick to add that his own pursuit of the rock-star dream was fueled by a drive born of his pre-Who days as a factory worker. "Believe me, this (musician's) life takes a lot of dedication," Daltrey says.

So there was never any other fantasy job looming on his career horizon? "No, I was the same as the obsessed man in Close Encounters of the Third Kind, building that mountain out of mashed potatoes," Daltrey says. "I wanted a life in music. There was no Plan B."

Most of us did take that non-rock fork in the road. But the passion for it dies hard.

"I was a singer in a band as a kid, but the conservative side took over and I got an education," says Doyle Letson, 50, of Detroit, the chief designer of the Ford Edge and Lincoln MKX. A few weeks ago, he mounted his comeback with a band called Homebrewed. "One woman I know said, 'I can't look at you the same way anymore.' It's wild."

For Gwen Frederick, a "fortysomething" IT specialist from Ashburn, Va., who is the drummer of an all-girl band called Wicked Jezabel, playing rock is all about "forgetting what happened at work that week. ? Your day job leaves you drained of energy, but you go on stage, and that instantly changes."

If there's one common misperception about the rock 'n' roll life, it's about the notion of work, says Howard Kramer, curatorial director of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland.

"What lures us to the rock fantasy is the powerful human desire to be loved and admired," Kramer says. "But the public never sees what it takes to master an instrument, to write songs, to perform in the studio and live. Just know that between 1960 and 1964, The Beatles barely had a day off."

But one life coach is counting on the fact that people have a healthy regard for the effort that goes into creating that rock star persona.

"Rock stars epitomize the notion of walking your own path toward a dream," says John Battaglia, a former image consultant to the likes of Usher and Beyonc? who now runs therockstarinyou.com. "I don't use rock as a metaphor. At their core, rock stars strive to live a life in which they don't settle."

Rock stars also enjoy a rush that comes with getting instant, aural feedback. "There is just nothing like you being you, and having people respond to that," says Ryan Lesser, who toured with a band before becoming an art director at video game company Harmonix. He helped design Guitar Hero II and, more recently, Rock Band.

"As an art form, rock really lets you express yourself physically, emotionally and musically," he says. "The fantasy stays with people because (we're) introduced to it at an impressionable age."

Carter Oosterhouse remembers the first rock tune that made an impression on him. "It was a Quiet Riot song," says the hot-enough-to-be-a-rock-star host of HGTV's Carter Can. Ads for the show feature Oosterhouse saying that as a kid he wanted to be a rock star, then grabbed a hammer instead of a guitar. "The lyric said, 'Love's a bitch,' but I thought it was 'Love's a fish.' Whatever. I was hooked."

But the guitar never became his companion. "Wasn't any good," he says with a sigh. Today, he contents himself with "playing Guitar Hero III with my girlfriend until 2 a.m."

And what if the Rock Fairy offered up a trade, TV show for stage chops? Oosterhouse laughs. "I would take it in a heartbeat."

Such talk makes Slash smile.

"I suppose what they're responding to is the rebelliousness, the free-form creativity, and, well, yeah, the lifestyle," says the man whose eponymous autobiography reads like a rock star decadence how-to manual. "But not everyone really wants to live our lives. They just want a chance to touch it."

Slash's appearance at November's Las Vegas rock camp was his first. He enjoyed convening with people whose passion for rock reminded him of his own once-innocent love of the genre. And he also appreciated the chance "to kill the myth of the inaccessible, idiosyncratic rock star."

If you're wondering who was there benefiting from Slash's Les Paul tutelage, consider that those seeking out the rock 'n' roll fantasy can't really be pigeonholed.

There was 15-year-old Michelle Blanchard, guitarist in a recently disbanded Las Vegas band called Restore the Innocence. Her parents enrolled her "to see if she has what it really takes, and for her to see if she wants to work as hard as it takes to make it," says Blanchard's rock-loving mother, Rhonda, 49.

Says Michelle: "I'd like to make rock music my career, because it's something I love. It's better than taking a job that's crap."

At the other end of the age spectrum is Ed Oates, 60, who didn't exactly have a cruddy career. He was a co-founder of a little software company called Oracle. But he still has wistful memories of a youth filled with rock revelry.

"So many guys my age grew up with rock, grew up even playing rock, but wound up taking different avenues in life, always wondering 'What would it have been like?' " says Oates, who has convened a group of college-era friends into a garage band called Choc'd.

Oates says the camps provide those with a rock jones with both an adrenaline rush and a targeted mission: form a band with fellow campers. If you think that sounds like a corporate retreat, so does Oates: He has invested in the camp company with an aim toward pushing it into that market.

If Hyon-Joo Park gets wind of that news, she is likely to deem it a major bummer.

Sure, Park came to Vegas to blow her lungs out on rock anthems, which her YouTube-posted performance reveals she did admirably.

But what she really wanted was for her hero, Slash, that wicked cross between Cousin Itt and the Mad Hatter, to be, well, Slash.

"He was so down-to-earth. So nice. So ordinary," Park says.

"I was, like, 'Stop it already, dude. Break a bottle or something.' "

Photo/article: http://www.usatoday.com/life/lifestyle/2008-01-01-rock-star-fantasies_N.htm

It was awesome. So awesome, in fact, that when Slash appeared a couple of hours later, I was relaxed enough to laugh when he forgot the intro to the song we'd prepared, "Sweet Child o' Mine." He said he hadn't performed it since leaving Guns N' Roses in 1996. But he got it together with some help from our guitarists and played his heart out.

A very short video clip at 1:20 here:

http://www.calendarlive.com/music/cl-gd-action3jan03,0,6398140.story?coll=cl-home-more-channels

Slash playing Sympathy For The Devil at camp has been added at YouTube...

Slash Rock & Roll Fantasy Camp Las Vegas

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W98EYYQeWs4