Slash 'Being In A Group Is Sort Of Confining' LiveDaily Interview

LiveDaily Interview: Slash

Published March 2, 2010

After producing a series of albums accompanying Guns N' Roses, Slash's Snakepit and Velvet Revolver, guitarist Slash is preparing for the April release of his first true solo album, "Slash."

The collection features an all-star roster of guest musicians including Ian Astbury, Chris Cornell, Rocco DeLuca, Fergie, Dave Grohl, Myles Kennedy, Kid Rock, Lemmy Kilmeister, Adam Levine of Maroon 5, Duff McKagan, M. Shadows of Avenged Sevenfold, Ozzy Osbourne, Iggy Pop and Andrew Stockdale of Wolfmother.

Never one to work alone, Slash enlisted the services of producing partner Eric Valentine (Queens of Stone Age, The All-American Rejects) and compiled a rhythm section of bassist Chris Chaney (Jane?s Addiction) and drummer Josh Freese (Nine Inch Nails). Slash handled the majority of arranging and songwriting duties and hand-picked each guest artist.

Now that the album production is behind him, Slash is looking for the next big thing. The legendary guitarist has teamed up with Guitar Center for Guitar Center Presents Your Next Record with Slash , an unsigned band competition that provides emerging artists the chance to win the ultimate career-altering opportunity: record a 3-song EP with legendary producer, Mike Clink (Guns N? Roses, Motley Cr?e, Megadeth) and have Slash write, record and perform on the winning artist's single. Through April 30, bands across the United States are invited to submit their music at YourNextRecord.com for a chance to win.

Slash spoke to LiveDaily about the album "Slash," his forthcoming tour and the contest.

How are things going?

Great. Everything's sort of ramping up for the release of this record and getting the ensuing tour together and all that. I love this period, this set-up time.

You mentioned your tour. Who's going to be on vocals for this tour?

Myles Kennedy [of Alter Bridge]. He's great. He sang on the record and he and I didn't really know each other and hadn't met. I sent him a demo of one of the songs. He put a vocal on it that was just phenomenal. So we sort of built up a relationship from there. I asked him if he would want to do the tour; he's on a break from Alter Bridge. So he said, 'Yeah,' and I thought it was great. We went over the set list yesterday and the possibilities for the set list are endless.

Who else are you going to have in your band?

Well, I have musicians; I'm not going to start quoting those yet. I haven't started rehearsing yet. That's coming up next month [March].

What is the concept of the tour?

The concept is to cover a handful of songs off the record and then some Guns N' Roses stuff, some Snakepit stuff, a couple Velvet Revolver songs. Also, Myles has a new solo album coming out. There's a track on there that I played on so we'll probably do that. There's a couple instrumentals we can mess around with. Maybe an Alter Bridge song or two. Should be an interesting set.

How did you decide who you wanted to sing on your album?

I'd write a piece of music and then think who would sound good on that song. That was basically it. A very simple process. What singer did that music invoke in my mind.

It worked out for most of them, huh?

Yeah. It worked out for pretty much all of them. It would have been a whole different process if I was writing with the singer in mind. I think it would have been a little bit more of an intimidating and slow-moving process.

Did you write most of these songs while you were on break from Velvet Revolver or had you been writing these tunes for years?

Yeah, the majority of it. There were two songs in particular, though, that were written for Velvet Revolver before Scott [Weiland, ex-lead singer] came into the picture and that never got used. There were a couple pieces of music that I wrote during the last Velvet Revolver tour. But the majority of it was written in between the end of the last tour and that year from 2007 to 2008.

You have quite a variety of singers on this album, too, ranging from Fergie to Ozzy Osbourne.

Yeah, for sure. That was the thing. I wanted doing my first real solo record, I wanted to be able to do a body of work that encompasses different styles that I like. Being in a group is sort of confining. This gave me a chance to do material that I wouldn't be able to do in Velvet Revolver or whatever--or even Guns N' Roses for that matter. It gave me some freedom to just do whatever I felt like.

I'm originally from Detroit so I have to ask what it was like to work with Kid Rock.

Kid Rock was great. We worked on that song in Michigan at his house. He was great. He was one of the guys that really had his way of doing things. Very, very professional and really, really a hard worker. Great ear. Really knows what he wants. It was a real pleasure working with him. Very ,very cool.

Which singer did you learn the most from?

Each different person was their own experience. Working with Ozzy, working with Iggy and Lemmy were sort of highlights because these are guys that have been heroes of mine since I was a kid. There was that element. Some of the young guys that I didn't really know were great experiences as well. Guys like Kid Rock and Fergie, who are sort of contemporaries--at least in age. Just the whole record was more of a learning experience than one difficult recording.

What was the most important thing you learned?

The most important thing you learn when you work with various artists--something I've been learning ever since I started doing session work--is you learn to adapt to other people's styles, other people's work ethics. You learn to expect the unexpected. And just learn how to go by the seat of your pants and adapt to anything. It's really important. For somebody like me, rather than being pigeonholed into one dimension, a bubble, I like to be able to do a lot of different things.

How was it to work with Jamie Foxx on the Grammys? You performed "Blame It On the Alcohol" with him.

That was a very quick thing. [Laughs] I went to one rehearsal. He had this whole entourage and a pretty sizeable group. They wanted me to put some guitar in there. He wanted me to do it. I was sort of reluctant at first. I just didn't know how that was going to work. That particular song doesn't have hardly any guitars in it. They actually wrote in a piece at the end for me to put the guitars on, which was basically "November Rain." It was fun experience. Doug E. Fresh was amazing. He's such an icon from the hip-hop/old school days. And T-Pain and the whole thing.

Of all the work you've done, what do you think you're most proud of?

I think, you know, even though it's not really apparent on record, per se, but I think working with Ray Charles over a period of a couple years was the most engaging sort of musical situation I've ever been in.

When do you expect to start announcing the tour dates for your run?

We'll start announcing the Japanese and Australia dates soon and right after that will be all the Europoean dates over the summer and then South American and then the US tour in the fall.

You must be very happy with how the album turned out.

I'm very happy with the album and excited about going out and touring. I haven't been out since 2007, so I'm ready to go. I've been playing all over the place and playing a lot, but haven't been on a proper tour since the last Velvet tour.

Tell me about the contest you're sponsoring for up and coming bands.

Basically we're encouraging artists to send in submissions, songs or, if it's a solo artist, a couple songs, whatever the situation is. We're going to start looking for a great unsigned new talent and go in and produce a three-song demo with Mike Clink and sort of discover the next really great rock 'n' roll group.

That must be interesting. You never know who you're going to be performing with.

Exactly. [Laughs] We haven't really started going through the music yet because this contest just got started. I have no idea how it's going to pan out. I don't have any set expectations. It's really sort of a crap shoot.

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