1995.07.DD - Kerrang! - In Bed with Slash

WHEN WERE you first aware of the birds and the bees?
I was one of those kids who was fortunate enough to be born into an environment where sex and nudity and all that was very acceptable, free and open. It goes all the way to when I was living in Los Angeles. You know who Norman Sieff was? The photographer? He and my dad were best friends, and his wife at the time was best friends with my mum, and they had a daughter named Desiree. And without even knowing what I was doing, I got my first hard-on! I remember jumping up and down on the bed with her — that was really really young. At first it was an instinctive thing, and everything after that was animalistic. I remember my dad sitting me down one day over a bowl of Spaghetti-O’s and tried to explain the difference and blah blah and I already knew all about it.
When did you first lose your virginity and what was it like?
The first time I got laid I was 13 years old. The girl was 26 — one of those mysterious women who moved in next door kind of things? She used to have a white picket fence, the whole thing, and she would sit out on her porch . She was gorgeous. Steven Adler and myself uesd to walk down the same street every day and one day she called us over. She cooked for us and she took us into her bedroom. And she fucked Steven and then she fucked me! And then she moved two weeks later! It was sort of like The Summer Of 42, remember that movie?. I was very quiet but very horny, so I was willing to get over the intimidation to get on with getting on! Steven got busted! He was doing her and her gay roommate and this guy walked in the room and she threw him off the bed and he landed hardon-down on the floor! And then I was next!
Do you practice safe sex?
From my background, safe sex was never an issue until recently. I’m glad I got to have an uninhibited lifestyle up to the point when I got married, when this thing really did become such an issue. Rockstars like us would refuse to realise that this was a reality. We spend all our time dodging reality! So I’m glad I’ve experienced as much as I have. But I’ve done a lot of things where I probably should have. I’d hate to be 13 now when you can’t do that.
Do you get off on pornography?
I buy tons of it — magazines, videos. I buy weird stuff, especially in Europe. We went to one place in Germany recently and they had a porn shop at the fucking airport! Very convenient! Renee’s like, ‘What do we need this for?’ But I have a fascination with just collecting it. I’ve got bags of it on the bus.
You must meet a lot of female porn stars — L.A's full of them, dying to hang out with rock musicians.
There’s a certain crowd that hangs out at the Rainbow in L.A — that’s where most of the porno chicks that I used to do, that’s where I met Savannah — that’s a scene. The thing about porno chicks — how do you explain it? It’s something that my better half would never understand — is that that whole boyish playful kind of thing, if that’s something that you happen to be and, like me, you’re just infatuated with women, and you’re surrounded by these girls at the ready and it’s all going on — Obviously porno chicks are a treat. And I always lived with strippers in the old days before Guns started. They would strip all night and I would go pick up their tips, go to the market, buy the booze and go back and party all night long. And that goes back to when I was a kid, when all my mum’s friends were always naked — so I’m just used to it. For me the whole sex act is a lot of fun. I love watching Renee when she gets a massage at home and the girl comes over and they talk while they’re doing the whole thing, front and back.
Are you a whips and chains kind of guy?
Not at all. I was asked to tie someone up before, but for the most part I’ve not been even into any pseudo-sadistic stuff. I’m not even into lingerie for the most part.
What's your favourite prop?
Obviously dildos have always been great. My favourite prop is a girl with a dildo and another girl. But I think props aren’t really an issue so much as how spontaneous it is wherever you are, as far as bathrooms, backyards, public places.
Like Hugh Grant?
He’s my hero! On our laminates we have the mugshot of him! I thought Pee Wee Herman was a hero as well! As pissed off as I was when I got busted for being seen with my pants down in New York, after the initial shock of having my mother call me up to tell me about it and it was on the front page of People, I thought it was funny! I get a boyish kick out of that stuff!
Are you a considerate bed partner?
I would like to think so. I always put the girl first and I get off on that probably more than I get off on me.
Do you know where the woman's G-spot is?
I think I’m pretty good on honing in on it but it’s always different. Sometimes it’s three things at once. Sometimes it’s just a matter of how far you can get it in there! Sometimes you have to just fumble around until you find it!
What's the most expensive thing you've ever bought?
Buying a Porsche when I was stoned out of my mind one afternoon on a whim, and I drove there to buy it in a limo! That was when I used to live with Arlett and I was all fucked up. That’s about as Spinal Tap as I’ve gotten to date! I’ve still got the car though, and it’s been in storage ever since.Probably the most stupid expensive thing was just recently I bought two albino boa constrictors, a male and a female, for an impressive amount of money. Everyone’s like, you spent what on what? But then they do breed, and I can sell the babies to different breeders I know. The most extravagant I’ve been is probably some of the outrageously expensive hotel bills and parties.
How was your solo show at Donington?
Me and Lars hung out in Paris and he saw the band a couple of times when we played there and he liked it and wanted us to be on the bill. I thought Donington a second time would be great, especially not doing the whole Guns N’Roses type headlining thing. I said yeah, but I’ve extended this tour a lot longer than I was supposed to be because it’s been so much fun, and Gilby and Eric both have records they have to do. And it means three days to go to Donington — a day of flying, a day to play, a day to fly back.
Is it cool with Axl because you’re meant to go straight back and work on a GNR album?
I will, I’m going to go back and the first thing I’ll do is call Axl and start working with Guns, then I’ll take off for three days — if I said I was going to spend three days at the beach they wouldn’t care! And for me a day at the beach is Donington.
How is the new Guns album developing?
I don’t think they’ve done anything yet. I don’t know what everybody’s thinking at this point but I know what the rumours are. All I know is I left and said I’d be back at a certain time. There was a little bit of controversy over the fact that the material I wrote I used for my own thing as opposed to GNR, but that’s because it was turned down flat originally, and by the time Axl was into it the record was already done. So as far as I was concerned Axl wasn’t really that uptight about it, and Duff’s fine, we played with Duff in LA and Seattle, played with Izzy in Chicago, played with Matt obviously. So everything seems fine. I’ve checked in on a daily basis to make sure everything is fine. I haven’t talked to Axl directly because he’s been in court — the Erin thing.
There have been rumours that Guns have four guitar players — you, Zakk — since fired — Izzy’s back., and there’s good old Paul Huge
Paul is in my mind completely useless. I hate that guy. I’m sorry, I’m sure he’s very nice but in a rock n roll context he’s pathetic, and as far as his relationship with Izzy, they’re Indiana kids, I can understand he feels comfortable, but I refuse to ever play with him again. I have to go home and deal with that, but as far as I know he’s out. As far as Zakk goes, I think Axl wanted to write with him, but me and Zakk playing together in the band would sound like Ozzy N Roses. I love Zakk, but not in the context of the band. As far as Gilby goes, if we were going to do a tour I’d talk to Gilby about it. He said he might consider it but there’s a lot gone under the bridge on that one between Axl and him. As far as Izzy goes, I’d love to have Izzy back, but Izzy’s attitudeis the same as it always was, he’d love to write some songs, but he doesn’t want to go through the big over-produced, big-production bullshit that we went through on the last tour when he did quit, and I totally agree with him. Right now as far as I’m concerned it’s a big open hole. I’m concerned with it in the back of my mind, which is where it will stay until later in August when I concentrate all my attention on Guns and try to see where Axl and I can meet eye to eye on something.
And what about Trent Reznor?
I don’t know. There was a point there when Axl was going to do a solo record, and he wanted to do it with Trent, Dave Navarro, the drummer from Nirvana and then he changed his mind and thought why do a solo record if he could do it with Guns N’Roses, which is the last thing I heard.
Are you having fun with Snakepit?
I couldn’t tell yo how much fun! It’s so nice to reestablish what was so much fun in this business in the first place when we started out and it was all stripped-down and raw and no matter what the circumstances or the obstacles were, just to do the gig, then everybody pile into the bus, like all living in the same flat together, and just being a band. And playing in clubs where you sweat it out with the people who go see you, and you’re not on some fucking pedestal, and you’re just fucking out there! I just wanted to go back to something I was familiar with. It’s been fucking great!
Has Renee been along?
She pops in and out — which is cool! She’s turned into one of the guys! The only thing is we go into a bunk, we do our thing, and then she kicks me out and she sleeps on the bunk and I sleep on the couch at the back! I get to stay in the bed at home — unless she’s pissed off at me!
I hear you're living in friend’s house while your LA home is being rebuilt. When finished it will be sold
We’re talking about moving to the outskirts of London or Ireland. If I wasn’t married I’d be back at a hotel. I love hotels!

Do we know when Slash lived at Arlett Vereecke's home in Los Angeles? He mentions he was living with her when he bought a Porsche, so I assume it must have been at the earliest in 1988, when they started to actually get money from the sales of Appetite.

In this article it is claimed Slash lived with Arlett for 18 months between tours: http://www.heretodaygonetohell.com/articles/showarticle.php?articleid=92

In this article it is claimed Slash lived there when it was revealed he was using heroin and that this was before the release of Appetite.

If so I think it makes sense to conclude he lived there from sometime in 1987 until sometime in 1988?

In his book, Slash says he moved with Arlett around the time after the Appetite tour was over and they shot the Patience video, while his new house was prepared:

AFTER RENTING FOR A WHILE, I DID what anyone with new money should do: I bought a house like my business manager told me to do. I still had no clue as to my future or how to handle finances; I had no material aspirations at all. I didn’t spend much on anything at that point; money was still an abstract concept to me. Possessions had never mattered to me, though suddenly everyone around me began to be very concerned with them. I found a house off Laurel Canyon, which was the area of L.A. that set my mind at ease: it reminded me of the best memories I have of my youth. I bought my first house on Walnut Drive, just off Kirkwood, which is just off Laurel Canyon, and it was forever known as the Walnut Walnut House. Incidentally, Walnut Drive was just off the street where Steven fucked the thirty-year-old at Alexis’s party so many years before. The Walnut House was a two-bedroom, funky little tucked-away pad in need of interior design, so it seemed natural to me to hire the team that had styled the “Patience” video to transform my new house into a similarly gypsylike environment. They found all of the furniture at thrift stores and antique furniture shops, and while they got it all together, I moved in with our international publicist, Arlette. She had been hired on back when we played those first three English dates at the Marquee. She’d taken a maternal shine to me, probably because I was such a stray puppy at the time. She let me bring my snake Clyde over, who’d been living with Del James for a while, as well as Pandora and Adrianna. [...] Arlette was very concerned for my welfare when I lived with her and she pointed out the obvious: I had transformed myself from a happy-go-lucky alcoholic into a fiendish monster junkie who bore no resemblance to the guy she’d known all those years. I knew she was right; I knew I didn’t look all that healthy and I didn’t feel all that healthy. I stayed with her for three or four months but I did little to change. [Slash's autobiography, 2007]

Ah, great. That means a lot of the other info I found was wrong.

Soulmonster wrote:Ah, great. That means a lot of the other info I found was wrong.

In the 2004 article by Paul Elliot that you linked above
http://www.heretodaygonetohell.com/articles/showarticle.php?articleid=92

Slash's stay in Arlett's house is also placed after the release of Appetite, although it makes it seem like Slash moved there for the first time sometime in early 1988.