Slash: 'I Needed To Do Something Where I Was A Captain Of My Own Ship'

[FunkyMonkey]

Slash: 'I Needed To Do Something Where I Was A Captain Of My Own Ship'

03/20/2010

Everybody in the world knows Slash as the guitarist from Guns ?N Roses and Velvet Revolver. The guy in the top hat with the cascading black curls standing in front of Marshall and shouldering Les Paul. But not a whole lot of people know him as a prolific songwriter and guitarist in a variety of different styles including metal, Americana, and Zeppelin-influenced rock. For the last two years, he has been working on a solo album, writing songs that wouldn?t fit into the Velvet Revolver repertoire and finding singers to sing them. He has brought together everyone from Ozzy and M. Shadows to Lemmy in a project that showcases the guitarist as an instrumentalist capable of burning through speed metal licks as well as laying down quasi-Stones country blues licks. This is one of the very first conversations Slash has had about the new record [untitled as of this writing, the interview was conducted in December 2009].

Ultimate Guitar: We spoke back in September of 2009 and you were already talking about a solo record then. This project must have been a long time in the making.

Slash: What happened was I wrote this book [Slash] and one of the passages in the book, I said something about, ?The next record I?d like to do would be a record where I could get a lot of people that I?ve worked with to come and sing on my record as opposed to me always going and jamming and doing sessions for other people.? And I was starting to think outside of the box at that point because the Velvet thing I knew wasn?t gonna last much longer than that tour. At least the lineup that we had.

That?s when you started giving thought to a solo album?

So I was starting to think of other things and I needed the outlet. I needed to do something where I was just captain of my own ship for a minute. I?m not saying that I want to do this permanently but I just needed to, after all the stuff with Guns ?N Roses and then Velvet Revolver, I just needed to do something to sort of get my own ya yas out.

It's a really long interview so I'll just post the link (photos etc. at the end of the interview):

http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/interviews/interviews/slash_i_needed_to_do_something_where_i_was_a_captain_of_my_own_ship.html

[Naupis]

These session note photos are really cool. They show all the gear and settings he used for a particular song. I am sure we will ultimately get these for every song, so some of the people who play on the board will probably like having the info if they want to fuss around with trying to capture the sound.


"Watch This"





"Beautiful Dangerous"





"Nothing to Say"

[Bodhi]

looking at the tunings, I see he played the song in drop D that Shadows sang on.  The majority of Avenged Sevenfolds songs are on drop D, I wonder if he did this with most of the artists? If so that is really impressive.

[metallex78]

That's funny, they think this photo of Josh Freese is Matt Sorum...

[metallex78]

Another interesting tidbit about the album:

Foo Fighters? Taylor Hawkins does high harmonies on "Crucify the Dead"

[WTTJ_91]

Hmmmmm who else has that shirt?  hahah just thought that was funny!

[FunkyMonkey]

22 March 2010 04:44:21 PM

Slash - Slash Too Shy To Approach Singers

Slash was scared to call up singers such as Iggy Pop and Ozzy Osbourne to ask them to guest on his solo record.

Slash was scared to call up stars and ask them to guest on his solo record.

The former Guns 'N' Roses guitarist is set to release his debut solo album - which features a range of singers including Iggy Pop, Ozzy Osbourne and Fergie from the Black Eyed Peas - but said he was uncomfortable when it came to calling up people to ask if they'd appear.

He said: "The motivation was there but also it took all these years to collect enough credibility to call up a guy like drummer Steve Ferrone and say, 'Hey, would you come down and play on a track?' It was nerve wracking just to make the phone calls and see whether they would do it or not."

Slash also told how he knew the time was right to make a solo record after the singer from his band, Velvet Revolver, Scott Weiland, was fired because of disputes with other members.

He added: "It was a perfect time to do it because Velvet, at least with Scott, had run its course. I couldn't go through that process of auditioning singers and get that all back together to do another Velvet record. I really needed a break from the band vibe."

He also said this leant him a freedom to experiment musically, and try out styles he hasn't been able to at other points in his career.

Slash said: "I had this one idea that was this fast metal riff, and that's something I've always wanted to do. I'm a huge Megadeth and Metallica fan and I can't do it in Velvet and it definitely wasn't gonna happen in Guns 'N' Roses. I was like, 'Let's give it a shot and see what happens'."

'Slash' is released worldwide from April.

http://www.contactmusic.com/news.nsf/story/slash-too-shy-to-approach-singers_1136341

[Jdog0830]

Again we have heard Slash say the same thing like 50 times.

About being Captain of his own ship kinda thing.






Joe

[makane]

looking at the tunings, I see he played the song in drop D that Shadows sang on.  The majority of Avenged Sevenfolds songs are on drop D, I wonder if he did this with most of the artists? If so that is really impressive.

What is? That he tuned down to D?

[CheapJon]

Hmmmmm who else has that shirt?  hahah just thought that was funny!

kinda funny actually

[Smoking Guns]

Hmmmmm who else has that shirt?  hahah just thought that was funny!

kinda funny actually

Who else has that shirt?

[CheapJon]

Hmmmmm who else has that shirt?  hahah just thought that was funny!

kinda funny actually

Who else has that shirt?

that dude who sings in that band that this guy used to play guitar in

[GypsySoul]

Hmmmmm who else has that shirt?  hahah just thought that was funny!

kinda funny actually

Who else has that shirt?

NOT the person they think.   They INCORRECTLY think this is the "just another fucker in a band" tee.   

[CheapJon]

Hmmmmm who else has that shirt?  hahah just thought that was funny!

kinda funny actually

Who else has that shirt?

NOT the person they think.   They INCORRECTLY think this is the "just another fucker in a band" tee.   

it looks similar to this http://www.heretodaygonetohell.com/board/index.php?topic=58255.msg1227750#msg1227750

if they are not the same, they are pretty close, under the guitar neck on the shirt there's some black boxes with words in 'em, the fonts on the words looks the same and they both have the words "just" "fucker" "in a"

[D]

Same shirt IMO but not a big deal.

its not like only one of those were made

[CheapJon]

Same shirt IMO but not a big deal.

its not like only one of those were made

exactly, it was just a small thing, not really even a thing really but someone overreacted and made a big deal over it and I fell for it

sorry

[Smoking Guns]

I am with D and Cheapjon, same shirt....  Same person probably got them for them, and didn't tell each other.

[GypsySoul]

Same shirt IMO but not a big deal.

its not like only one of those were made

exactly, it was just a small thing, not really even a thing really but someone overreacted and made a big deal over it and I fell for it

sorry

My mistake.  It may very well be another version of the "just another fucker" tee.  Not exact but similar.

Like D said ... not a big deal.  Guess it's normal that a lot of fans like Slash likes to dress the same as their idols.   

[jacdaniel]

its a hidden message that there will be a reunion in 2011.   

[Butch Français]

Hmmmmm who else has that shirt?  hahah just thought that was funny!

kinda funny actually

Who else has that shirt?

NOT the person they think.   They INCORRECTLY think this is the "just another fucker in a band" tee.   

it looks similar to this http://www.heretodaygonetohell.com/board/index.php?topic=58255.msg1227750#msg1227750

if they are not the same, they are pretty close, under the guitar neck on the shirt there's some black boxes with words in 'em, the fonts on the words looks the same and they both have the words "just" "fucker" "in a"

bet they went out shopping together...