The Slash autobiography thread

[Ali]

slash is not alone in suffering from amnesia. apparently his fans are too.
how many times jarmo and ali had to explain the same already cleared things to the same people?


@ali http://www.heretodaygonetohell.com/articles/showarticle.php?articleid=71

ppbebe,

Sorry, but I'm not getting your reference there.  Which part of that article are you trying to direct my attention to?

Ali

[Freya]

It would be nice to read this thread with comments about the actual book, maybe some tidbits for those of us who haven't been able to buy it yet.  But the pages and pages of bitching back and forth, Slash vs. Axl, it's just tired already. 

Can anyone point out something really negative that Slash says about Axl in the book that isn't based on truth?  His comment about the girls in Chicago, was hardly surprising.  A) it's not the first time, the story has been told, Adler also told it, but was more graphic actually, and b) Axl's been accused of violent behavior many times.

I'm just saying talk about the book, not he said/he said between Slash and Axl.

[don_vercetti]

I for one found it quite interesting to read what went on between the Gnr years and the formation of VR.  Aside from the snakepit stuff, I didn't know much about it. 

[chineseblues]

While I may not have proof about the contract he forced members to sign.....

Of course you don't, because it never happened. There is a news article right here that proves it never happened.


January 30th, 1997
Axl Rose Buys "Guns N' Roses" Name
http://www.heretodaygonetohell.com/news/shownews.php?newsid=7

[Alan]

We were an unreal band with an unreal singer, axl was just amazing. despite all the tension goin on behind the scenes, I still had some onstage chemistry with jim that was incredible: we did amazing things every single night that were godlike.

 thats probably one of my favourite sentances of the book.

-----------

and another which points out what alot of people have said it's only one persons point of view.

That's my side of the story; there's Axl's of course. I'm sure he'd say we drank too much and did too many drugs. That's true of course' I can only vouch for myself when I say, yes, I did , but all things considered, never once in the history of the band was a show ever cancelled or started late because of the guys in the band... ... Of course that's my point of view; i'm quite sure that Axl and the other guys have theirs that might tremendously differ from what i have to say.

--------

and then the reason's slash quit

1. the constant disrespect for all involved by going on late for no good reason night after night.

2. the legal manipulation that Axl forced on us, from demanding the ownership of the name to downgrading us, contractually, to hired hands.

3. losing izzy and steven.

it has nothing to do with artistic differences.

[Jim Bob]

1. the constant disrespect for all involved by going on late for no good reason night after night.

pretty lame slash.  do VR go on stage 'on time' every night?   not from the reviews I've read.. so obviously it wasn't only Axl.

[jarmo]

and then the reason's slash quit

1. the constant disrespect for all involved by going on late for no good reason night after night.

2. the legal manipulation that Axl forced on us, from demanding the ownership of the name to downgrading us, contractually, to hired hands.

3. losing izzy and steven.

it has nothing to do with artistic differences.

Did he say that in the book?





While Slash grew tighter with his new crew, the chasm between himself and Rose widened. "Nothing was happening with Guns still, and me and Axl were getting further and further away from the primary fucking focus or goal, as far as Guns was concerned. I just wanted to get better at doing what we already did pretty good, and he wanted to do something else completely different. After we found a singer, I said, 'Well, shit, we can go on the road.' So we did 80 some odd shows, on four continents, in four months."

Upon returning from the first Snakebite tour, Slash found things had worsened still. "Me and Axl had grown so fucking far apart as far as what we thought we should be doing, that I inevitably ended up quitting. At that point, I quit my band and got divorced, one big clean sweep. So I started doing a lot of sessions and trying to reevaluate what it was I wanted to do."

Slash Exclusive: Appetite For Reconstruction
KNAC.com October 2000


What's your opinion of Axl Rose?

I haven't talked to him since I quit. That puts that concept to rest.

There has to be more to the story than that.

No, its pretty simple. He was heading in one direction and I was heading in another.It was actually a slow progression from the days when we first made a record all the way up to the final record. When our last tour ended, he made it clear which way he wanted to go musically. I tried to hang on and stay with the band as long as I could, but there was definatly limitations. It just got to the point where we couldnt work together anymore.

Slash Interview
Steppin' Out Magazine, May 16th, 2001


?It took a lot for me to quit,? he says, lighting up yet another cigarette. ?It probably started with the depletion of band members. It was a very hard band to put together. First, we lost Steven, then Izzy quit. We kept going, did the whole two and a half year tour. Videos started to go awry, money was being spent ? management was bad. I mean, a lot of fucking shit that I would never have expected I would have been stupid enough to go through, you know?

?A rock?n?roll band is such a simple concept, but it just got to be so complex in the end,? he continues, refilling his glass. ?And at the end of the day, I had nobody to go home to except Axl. And we literally didn?t see eye to eye on anything at that time.?

What was the final straw?

?Well, I wasn?t really aware of where it was going, but it didn?t look good, let?s put it that way, man,? he confesses. ?It?s a two guitars, drums, bass and vocals band ? always had been. Guns N? Roses just started going in a direction that I couldn?t really understand. There was no emotional content for me whatsoever. So, as long as I hung in there, there was a certain point where I was basically suicidal.?

Really?

?Yeah,? he replies immediately, sucking the last dregs out of another cigarette and stubbing it out in the overflowing ashtray in front of him. ?I came home from rehearsals at 5 or 6 am one day. I went to bed, woke up and thought I was gonna have t kill myself ? somehow. Luckily enough, I went back to sleep, and then I woke back up in my regular headspace and made some phone calls. Now, if I had the shit that I had around a few years ago, I?d be dead,? Slash avers, making direct eye contact for the first time in out two hours together.


Appetite For Self Destruction
Record Collector - Issue 294 - February 2004




Conceivably, if Guns had stayed together and kept that original feeling from the early days, do you think this an album they could have made?
SLASH: "I got so disillusioned with Guns that I even stopped being able to write for the band. That was in '95 when I started doing Snakepit. I remember Axl threatening to sue me because he thought that material should have been for GN'R. I just didn't see Guns doing it so I slapped it all together for a solo record. But, the stuff we're doing now, I've asked myself, 'I wonder if Axl thinks this should have been his?' But when this comes out it's gonna be a lot better and sound more together than he was probably hoping it would be."

Velvet Revolver
Total Guitar #121 April 2004



A lot of talk about not having the same vision......



/jarmo

[hartman]

A guy posted this at mygnr. His review sums it up very well :

I haven't read it all, but I've read a good portion, mainly skimming through the interesting parts.

I think it's really good. I was wondering how much would have actually been written by Slash versus his co-author, but I definitely think he was left pretty much to his own vices for the most part. It has his voice. I expected a polished, non-Slash presentation - no, there are typos, there are words used like "retarded" to describe people he dislikes, etc., etc., etc. Not a great piece of literature in typical terms, but as a look into a rock star's life, it's great; and for any fan of GN'R, it's essential.

All types of interesting tidbits. For example:

- Find out more about the process behind Sympathy for the Devil and the exact details of how "everyone in the band" hated Paul Tobias ("he had no personality at all" and "was Axl's boy") and exactly how Slash found out about the Tobias overdubs

- THE INTRODUCTION OF DEL JAMES!! ("he got tight with Axl and started writing with him and, I think, still does")

- Axl's early badmouthing of Steven Adler and refusal to allow Steven 20% songwriting credits (Axl got 25, everyone else 20, and Steven 15%)

- Matt Sorum was fired for defending Slash in 1998 during a rehearsal session when Axl began 'slagging him off' to the other guys

- His hit and run accident that was never reported by either party (the guy he hit was drunk and didn't want police intervention)

- Drug overdose stories

- Axl's odd behavior detailed since the start

- etc. etc. etc.

What's most interesting to me is that Slash doesn't dig dirt on Axl at all. He's really fair to him. He praises him numerous times. He gives him full credit for what was his.

But he also disproves a lot of urban legends. Axl wasn't the one who forced Slash to repeat the SCOM riff - it was Izzy. Axl was upstairs and heard them playing and wrote lyrics - but Izzy was the one who told him to keep repeating the riffs and he developed chords. Then Duff came over and did the bassline. "Axl never left his room the whole night" - the story about Axl developing the song is, in this regard, false.

So, he's open about a lot and kind of adds details to a lot of legends about the band. Over the years due to no info from bandmembers we've kind of run on loose tidbits of information about what happened in the final days (e.g. Paul Tobias being brought in) but now we get a nice, clear, full story.

Axl is NOT bitched about BUT Slash doesn't hold back detailing Axl's faults when certain things happened, either. He doesn't blame him, for example, for the riots, or shit on him about a lot of stuff the press usually does, but he definitely starts to reveal his frustration towards Axl in the final days of the band.

He said Axl forced the guys to do the Sympathy cover because he loved Interview with the Vampire (Slash hated it - they were both shown pre-screenings to decide whether they wanted to do the song for the film). Slash decided to do it for Axl, and everyone showed up to the studio -EXCEPT for Axl! Axl showed up two weeks later to lay down vocals. Slash heard he was at the studio, went to meet him, waited a while (Axl was late by three hours), then finally went over and talked to Axl when he came in. He said Axl was reading a magazine and didn't make eye contact with him for 15 minutes, until he finally left and that's basically when he left the band.


- Buckcherry's "Crazy Bitch"? That was a Velvet Revolver song. It was something they wrote with Josh Todd before they decided he wasn't musical enough (vocally) for the band. They wanted something a bit more melodic.

- Slash showed up with a friend to Axl's New Year's show well in advance, they even got a hotel room, were told they'd have access to the show. Slash had no ill intentions, was just curious to see what the band was like now, and he knew guys who were in it apart from Axl. Suddenly a guy knocks on his hotel room door, says they have been told he is NOT to be permitted to the show. He asks why and they claim people spotted him walking around in a tophat with a guitar in the lobby inspiring rumors that he was rejoining on stage that night. Slash said this was a lie - he didn't even have his guitar with him - and was just an excuse by GN'R camp to keep him out.

- Slash declined to comment on Axl's press release because he was afraid it would prolong it; he was too busy trying to prove to his bandmembers that it hadn't happened. Perla drove him to Axl's house one night, he gave a note for Axl to Beta (she obviously wouldn't let him see Axl), and Axl responded by putting out the PR.

- Slash's reasons for ultimately leaving the group in 1996:


QUOTE
1) the constant direspect for all involved by going on late for no good reason night after night after night, 2)) the legal manipulation that Axl forced on us, from demanding ownership ... to downgrading us, contractually, to hired hands, and 3) losing Izzy and Steven, who were such an integral part of the band's sound and personality...without them, the band no longer had its original chemistry.

My departure had nothing to do with artistic differences, as many people claim to know. It was not as simple as "Axl wanted synths and Slash was old-school." It had nothing to do with Axl wanting to do gitial and Slash staying analog. To think that dissolving th ekind of band and the kind of musical chemistry we had over something so trivial is just asinine. It's true, I am old-school, and I do like keeping it simple - but I've never been close-minded. If anything, I was more than flexible and willing to try and kind of technique or explore any new sound, so long as I was doing so on an equal playing field w/ musicians who worked together toward a common goal. I would have hung in there with Axl through an industrial record or whatever else he wanted to try if the creative vibe between us was positive. My flexibility is the only thing that kept me in the band as long as it did-- and that's how a team works. Unfortunately, we stopped being a team somewhere along the way.

As for the rest of how it played out, I learned looking back on it all, that the people Axl hired to "represent his interests" [my note: Del? Beta?] through all of the band's undoing could have been smarter than they were. Maybe intelligence has nothing to do with it: had they cared enough about him and about GN'R as a band to have advised him to pursue any other path than the one hd dit his story may have had a different ending. Anyone could have foreseen the lack of positive outcome that lay ahead on the road Axl chose to go down. But then again, maybe that is how he wanted it.


Definitely an interesting book. DO NOT pass on this if you are interested in the band at all, regardless of whether you do or do not agree with Slash.

http://www.mygnrforum.com/index.php?showtopic=104196

[jarmo]

- Slash declined to comment on Axl's press release because he was afraid it would prolong it; he was too busy trying to prove to his bandmembers that it hadn't happened.

Prove?

I think the word is lie. He was too busy lying to everybody.

My departure had nothing to do with artistic differences, as many people claim to know.

Maybe because Slash himself kept repeating it for years.....

Oh my...




/jarmo

[hartman]

- Slash declined to comment on Axl's press release because he was afraid it would prolong it; he was too busy trying to prove to his bandmembers that it hadn't happened.

Prove?

I think the word is lie. He was too busy lying to everybody.

Come on Jarmo... Slash would never ask Axl to let him be part of GNR if Duff and Izzy aren't in the band.

[Alan]

and then the reason's slash quit

1. the constant disrespect for all involved by going on late for no good reason night after night.

2. the legal manipulation that Axl forced on us, from demanding the ownership of the name to downgrading us, contractually, to hired hands.

3. losing izzy and steven.

it has nothing to do with artistic differences.

A lot of talk about not having the same vision......

/jarmo

yeah, but slash's vision was of a band, if you read the book you'd understand that in his eyes, guns n' roses wasn't a band when he quit, it was axl's own project.

at no point in any of the interviews you posted did slash say he left because axl wanted a different music direction, thats just how you've interpreted it. which is a pretty fucked up way of doing so because i don't think having a different music vision would make someone feel suicidal.

Axl's vision of GnR was his band his way where everyone worked for him, Slash's vision of gnr was a band where everyone was equal.

even though you seem to hate slash jarmo i still think you should give the book a read, you'd probably enjoy it.
--------

i think the person slash was referring to in the bit about looking after axl's intrests was doug goldstien and/or that yoda person

---------

one thing that did bug me with the book was his account of the st louis incident, it seems a little off.

[Jim Bob]

one thing that did bug me with the book was his account of the st louis incident, it seems a little off.

i wonder if he remembers flipping off the crowd. 

[ppbebe]

slash is not alone in suffering from amnesia. apparently his fans are too.
how many times jarmo and ali had to explain the same already cleared things to the same people?


@ali http://www.heretodaygonetohell.com/articles/showarticle.php?articleid=71

ppbebe,

Sorry, but I'm not getting your reference there.  Which part of that article are you trying to direct my attention to?

Ali

It's just the source of the rumour. there's TOM ZUTAUT comments about "Get in the Ring Tour" in LIVE AND LET DIE: 1990-1999  part.

Expecting that the Use Your Illusion albums would be ready for release by summer, Guns N' Roses begin their "Get in the Ring Tour" (with Skid Row as an opening act) in late May, 1991. At Rose's "homecoming" show in Indianapolis, he compares young people there to "prisoners in Auschwitz" and is fined for performing past curfew. On July 2, Rose starts a riot at the Riverport Amphitheatre near St. Louis by leaping into the crowd to take a fan's camera; more than 50 people are injured and $200,000 worth of damage is done to the venue. As a result, the band's next two shows are canceled.
TOM ZUTAUT: On the eve of the tour, Axl told the rest of the band that the only way he would play was if they'd give ownership of the name to him. They were looking at canceling the tour and losing millions and millions of dollars,

This story has been referred to the name issue by multiple articles ever since. Apart from these few lines from the spin magazine article there is no other report. And the transfer of the rights was in 1997 as chineseblues posted. I suspect the alleged incident mr zutaut brought up in the article was nothing more than one of many trivial episodes of the tour and no major issue in their selling the rights several years later but for some reason it was magnified and misused.

[Ali]

- Slash declined to comment on Axl's press release because he was afraid it would prolong it; he was too busy trying to prove to his bandmembers that it hadn't happened.

Prove?

I think the word is lie. He was too busy lying to everybody.

My departure had nothing to do with artistic differences, as many people claim to know.

Maybe because Slash himself kept repeating it for years.....

Oh my...




/jarmo

Wow, Jarmo has hit the nail on the head and given proof to back it up.  Slash has said time and again that he had a beef with Axl wanting the band's sound to evolve.  Matt Sorum has said it, and others have said it.

I don't know what to think now.

Ali

[Ali]

slash is not alone in suffering from amnesia. apparently his fans are too.
how many times jarmo and ali had to explain the same already cleared things to the same people?


@ali http://www.heretodaygonetohell.com/articles/showarticle.php?articleid=71

ppbebe,

Sorry, but I'm not getting your reference there.? Which part of that article are you trying to direct my attention to?

Ali

It's just the source of the rumour. there's TOM ZUTAUT comments about "Get in the Ring Tour" in LIVE AND LET DIE: 1990-1999? part.

Expecting that the Use Your Illusion albums would be ready for release by summer, Guns N' Roses begin their "Get in the Ring Tour" (with Skid Row as an opening act) in late May, 1991. At Rose's "homecoming" show in Indianapolis, he compares young people there to "prisoners in Auschwitz" and is fined for performing past curfew. On July 2, Rose starts a riot at the Riverport Amphitheatre near St. Louis by leaping into the crowd to take a fan's camera; more than 50 people are injured and $200,000 worth of damage is done to the venue. As a result, the band's next two shows are canceled.
TOM ZUTAUT: On the eve of the tour, Axl told the rest of the band that the only way he would play was if they'd give ownership of the name to him. They were looking at canceling the tour and losing millions and millions of dollars,

This story has been referred to the name issue by multiple articles ever since. Apart from these few lines from the spin magazine article there is no other report. And the transfer of the rights was in 1997 as chineseblues posted. I suspect the alleged incident mr zutaut brought up in the article was nothing more than one of many trivial episodes of the tour and no major issue in their selling the rights several years later but for some reason it was magnified and misused.

O.k.  Thanks.  Ppebe, I get your point.

Ali

[Alan]

Wow, Jarmo has hit the nail on the head and given proof to back it up.? Slash has said time and again that he had a beef with Axl wanting the band's sound to evolve.? Matt Sorum has said it, and others have said it.

I don't know what to think now.

Ali

jarmo posted articles to back it up.

how ever with what jarmo was saying it also makes it seem like slash wanted to commit suicide over music differences, slash didn't like the direction the band was heading an out and out dictatorship, with the additional info you get from the book you can put those small articles into place and see the overall picture, without reading the book you're left creating your own interpretation of what is said.

[ppbebe]

Slash 2007

3) losing Izzy and Steven, who were such an integral part of the band's sound and personality...without them, the band no longer had its original chemistry.


Slash in November, 1993

" During Appetite..., Lies and Use Your... I had to put up with Izzy the whole time. I never liked playing with him. It was wonderful to escape him on this record. It sounds tighter and so much cooler than anything we've done before. I always got irritated over Izzy's way of playing. It didn't sound right. Before "Spaghetti", we erased his guitar and Gilby put on a new one. It sounded perfect!"

 

[Ali]

Wow, Jarmo has hit the nail on the head and given proof to back it up.? Slash has said time and again that he had a beef with Axl wanting the band's sound to evolve.? Matt Sorum has said it, and others have said it.

I don't know what to think now.

Ali

jarmo posted articles to back it up.

how ever with what jarmo was saying it also makes it seem like slash wanted to commit suicide over music differences, slash didn't like the direction the band was heading an out and out dictatorship, with the additional info you get from the book you can put those small articles into place and see the overall picture, without reading the book you're left creating your own interpretation of what is said.

Alan, the problem I see is that Slash has said time and again he didn't agree with Axl's desire to evolve musically. ?Now he's saying that it had nothing to do with musical differences and that he would have hung in with an industrial record.

Also I distinctly remembering reading Slash say in a little excerpt from Entertainment Weekly saying that if it weren't for Axl that "Sweet Child O' Mine" would never have gotten done. ?Maybe Axl pushed Slash to develop it further beyond this initial work with the song. ?Maybe not. ?

It just seems contradictory and I find it confusing considering what has been said in the past.

Ali

[Butch Français]

and then the reason's slash quit

1. the constant disrespect for all involved by going on late for no good reason night after night.

2. the legal manipulation that Axl forced on us, from demanding the ownership of the name to downgrading us, contractually, to hired hands.

3. losing izzy and steven.

it has nothing to do with artistic differences.

A lot of talk about not having the same vision......

/jarmo

yeah, but slash's vision was of a band, if you read the book you'd understand that in his eyes, guns n' roses wasn't a band when he quit, it was axl's own project.

at no point in any of the interviews you posted did slash say he left because axl wanted a different music direction, thats just how you've interpreted it. which is a pretty fucked up way of doing so because i don't think having a different music vision would make someone feel suicidal.

Axl's vision of GnR was his band his way where everyone worked for him, Slash's vision of gnr was a band where everyone was equal.

yep, that sounds about right

[ppbebe]

I guess in velvet revolver everyone is very equal.