Slash - How Aerosmith?s Rocks Changed My Life

[FunkyMonkey]

How Aerosmith?s Rocks Changed My Life
By Slash

Artist: Aerosmith
Album Date/Title: 1976, Rocks
Standouts: ?Back in the Saddle,? ?Nobody?s Fault,? ?Rats in the Cellar,? ?Sick As a Dog?
Fun Fact: According to RIAA stats, the fourth Aerosmith LP was one of the first albums to ship platinum.

Alright, it was Aerosmith?s Rocks, and I first heard it when I was about 14 years old. I used to race BMX bikes and the older guys put it on, and it just grabbed me?Fuck, this is bad. I only got to hear it for like a second the first time. The second time I heard it was?there was this girl that used to hang around a certain group of friends, and she was probably the best-looking girl in school and in the neighborhood, and she?d just broken up with her boyfriend. I tried desperately to pick this girl up for the longest time, and finally she invited me up to her house.

I was aspiring to get in this girl?s pants, more or less, so I go up to her room, and she?s got tapestries on the wall and incense and pot, her stereo?a typical teenage-girl?s room at the time. She put on some records; we listened to Zeppelin; we listened to Yes; and then finally she put this record on that I recognized immediately from like the first fuckin? note.

It was Rocks. I must?ve listened to this record in that girl?s?her name was Lori?bedroom probably a half-dozen times, from front to back, over and over again, and I completely ignored her. The whole purpose of my being there completely went out the window. Finally I think she said, ?I think it?s time for you to go.? And I was like, ?Okay, see ya.? I got on my bike and I took off and she never spoke to me again.

But that record spoke to me in such a way?it was like it embodied everything that I was about, and I had just never heard it put to music. It was raw, it was nasty, it was really rhythmic, it was very sort of drugged out, fuckin? all over the place and [there was] this sort of angst in Steve Tyler?s voice. It was the perfect fuckin? hard rock teenage record? like what punk rock was for everybody else at the time. It was the most aggressive, sleazy, guitar-driven, you know? not angry record, but like pissed-off party music.

I was sold. And not too long after that, I picked up the guitar and off I went.

Interview by Randy Harward

First printed in Sep/Oct 2007

http://www.harpmagazine.com/articles/detail.cfm?article_id=6172

[kaasupoltin]

Thank you! Slash is such a cool guy, putting sex aside just to listen to Aerosmith

[Robman?]

I swear i read this in an issue of Guitar world back i late 2005, it was for the cover story "The album that changed my life" and it had Slash and Billie Joe Armstrong on the cover.

There are some different things in this story though, so either they got it from there, or Slash was asked the same thing.

[Smoking Guns]

I remember that same article.  That is Aerosmith's appetite for sure.  its a damn fine album.  that was the hardest Aerosmith ever got.

[don_vercetti]

The first six tracks of that album are probably six of the best opening tracks EVER in an album.  This, alongside Appetite, inspired me to pick up my guitar and start playing along.  The perfect amalgamation of blues and rock. 

[isa]

in some place I heard that story, but I didn't pay attention to it, 'cause you don't have to believe in anything, til any of them just come out n tell in their own words. But was cool n funny Slash's story, as always. 

[AdZ]

I hope he's written his biography like this.

[Robman?]

The first six tracks of that album are probably six of the best opening tracks EVER in an album.  This, alongside Appetite, inspired me to pick up my guitar and start playing along.  The perfect amalgamation of blues and rock. 

dont forget track 7, get the lead out is awesome 

I hope he's written his biography like this.

i would hope so, if Slash wrote it, or at least partnered in its writing, I can't imagine the other writer not trying to capture Slash's voice within the writing.

[Genesis]

Damn, I have to dust off my Rocks CD and give it a listen now...

[kaasupoltin]

I hope he's written his biography like this.

Me too, Slash has his own style and it has to be brought up in his biography on every single page.

[stolat]

What has to be brought up in his biography on every single page?

[kaasupoltin]

What has to be brought up in his biography on every single page?

His style. You know, the way he talks about things and stuff.. like in this case.

[stolat]

Yes.......it certainly sounds like Slash's style of talking.

[Ines_rocks!]

Yes.......it certainly sounds like Slash's style of talking.

lol was that sarcastic?

[stolat]

Not at all.

[Ines_rocks!]

Not at all.

lol alright