2018.08.03 - SiriusXM's Trunk Nation: L.A. Invasion - Interview with Slash

I'm transcribing the highlights and I'll post them later.

Transcribed excerpts:

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Trunk: This other thing that you’ve been doing the last couple of years that we should probably mention...

Slash: It has been a couple of years now, right?

Trunk: It’s been a little bit. We should probably work that in...

Slash: It started out with... it started out like 5 shows, initially that’s what it was gonna be; 2 shows at Coachella and...

Trunk: That’s all that it was gonna be?

Slash: Yeah that was... we didn’t have a big long term thing going, we just... Axl and I got together and we talked, you know, we talked for a while, so... and we thought it would be cool to do these Coachella dates, because we got offered to do Coachella, to get back together and do Coachella, every year for years; and we obviously didn’t do it. So now that we were on good terms, it was like, it seemed like a good idea... so that was basically... that was the basic focus, was just to do those two shows, and a couple of warm-up shows, so we did the Troubadour, and a couple of shows, one show in Vegas, Mexico... and the Coachella gigs. And that went so well and everything just fell back (?)

Trunk: Before you noticed, 3 years (?)

Slash: ... So we said we will do this US run that they were offering us and then everything just snowballed from there.

[...]

Trunk: Was it always your intention to continue doing this band (SMKC) even while the Guns thing was happening?

Slash: Yeah, it’s, you know, like when the Guns thing happened it was right at the end of the last Conspirators tour. And at that point we had already started gearing up to go into the next cycle. So, you know, as the Guns thing started rolling, and looking like it didn’t have any (?), it was always my intention to come back and we’d already written some of the songs, you know, some of the riffs and stuff were already written at that point. And so we just put everything on ice until there was a sizeable enough break which we had in -when was that- December, early January, to make, so that’s when we put the record together.

Trunk: So... it so came together in kind of two pieces, you did some, then you went back with Guns and you came back to it?

Slash: We did some more.

Trunk: Did that help, that you kind of got away from it and came back a little bit?

Slash: Umm... Well, I mean, I had to write some stuff in earnest, around Christmas time. So I was sitting on the couch with the guitar coming up with new riffs and stuff. So there’s... there’s some new songs on there that might not have happened if we had done the whole record back in, you know, 2015-2016...

Trunk: Hmm-hmm.

Slash. But, who knows.

[...]

Trunk: Now you’ve got... when I’ve seen the band in the past, with the Conspirators, you’ve got now a bunch of records with this band, you’ve got the solo record, you’ve got Snakepit records... you’ve got a big catalogue of music on your own outside Guns N’ Roses. And initially, all the time you were doing the Conspirators, you were putting an amount of Guns N’ Roses material in the set, with that band. Now of course you’re back in Guns N' Roses, how you’re gonna work the live set with this band (SMKC)?

Slash: It’s, well, I mean, I certainly got the Guns N’ Roses thing out of my chest now, because I’ve been, you know, I got it out of my system, because I was missing playing a lot of those songs. And when I first hooked up with Myles the intent was that we were gonna play some of the songs off the solo record, and then we would do some Velvet Revolver and some Guns N’ Roses and some Snakepit and do like all my catalog. And then, you know, some of the songs came off really good, the Guns N’ Roses songs, so we kept doing them, and so on. But at this point I just want to focus like probably 90% of the set just on Conspirators stuff and then have your odd cover and then maybe 1-2 Guns songs, maybe one Velvet song.

[...]

Trunk: But then again, if you think about it, you guys started, in Guns, didn’t you start doing... was it Slither?

Slash: Yeah, finally, yeah. (laughs)

Trunk So now it’s starting getting (?) a little bit, isn’t it (laughs)?

Slash: Yeah, right.

Trunk: Everything is (?)

Slash: Yeah, well, I mean Slither came up as far as Guns is concerned like really, really early on, but we just really never did it. And then this last leg it came into the set and everything. So now I’m going well, you know, that’s really a song I may or may not do with the Conspirators. So we’ll see.

Trunk: Yeah. Fourth biggest tour ever, the Guns N’ Roses reunion tour. I was (?)

Slash: That’s what I’m told. I mean, I don’t pay much attention to those statistics but you hear stuff in passing, people talking shit like that (laughs).

Trunk: For you, I mean, did it even stun you how big it was?

Slash: Umm... yeah, that’s a good question. I mean, when, you know, like when that was in 19... – I guess the last shows we did was ’94, in South America, right? So we were at that place where we were playing stadiums. So when this came back around, the first offers were to do, you know, stadium type gigs. So, I was like “OK, that’s great”. I think more than anything I was just excited about the enthusiasm, you know, considering for me personally being out of it for so long. Coming back into it and seeing this insane crowd, it was ... it was, in my opinion, better received this time around than it was in the last years of the 90s that I was in that...

Trunk: Really?

Slash: It was really, really cool. And it’s one of those times you can appreciate playing into a stadium, because you’re playing for anywhere 30.000 to 80.000 people that are so dialed into your shit that it’s like playing in a club. You know, it’s got this kind of personal kind of toe-to-toe feel to it. So it was really, really a blast.

Trunk: And just reconnecting with... Of course you did stuff with Duff, but reconnecting with Axl when just doing that...

Slash: It was huge...

Trunk: (?)

Slash: That was like then (?)

Trunk: Of course it was, but for you personally I mean, how did it feel, did you just take a second to look around, I mean like, this is like surreal.

Slash: Yeah, the... the most surreal moment was sound check at the Troubadour.

Trunk: That was the first time (?)

Slash: That was a very surreal moment. We had, you know, way before we played the show and everything, and just being together with everybody, being in that particular environment, of course stuffing 10 times more gear in there than we had back in the day.

Trunk: Right.

Slash: And then just, you know, looking over and seeing Axl, and seeing Duff and... that was a very surreal moment. The rest of it seemed very, very new. Like, you know, I’m with a guy who was a partner in crime with me for many years before we had this sort of like, you know, falling out thing. And then obviously, Duff. And we were up there playing these gigs, and I know these guys, I know these songs, but something, something about it, wasn’t really reminiscent of, say, the Use Your Illusion tour. So it felt really sort of fresh and new, and... it’s weird, it’s an interesting thing. It didn’t make me like... it didn’t hit those tiny moments of like “Oh my god, I remember hitting this chord and he was there back in 1991” or anything like that.

Trunk: And what about gelling with the other guys that you hadn’t played with, like Frank and Richard...

Slash: They’re great. Frank’s great, Richard is great...

Trunk: Of course Dizzy you played with...

Slash: They’re all... yeah, Dizzy’s great. So all in all it was just a great bunch of people, getting really excited about doing what we’re doing and going out there and playing in front of a bunch of people who were glad we were doing it. So...

Trunk: Where in the word was the craziest scene you saw in the Guns N' Roses reunion? What was the most...like what city, what country, what place, is there one that you just like say it was just (?) madness?

Slash: I mean, it is... in the heat of the moment right now it’s hard for me to pick one, but there was one place that we played, I think it was Italy, just recently... in Florence, where the crowd was so intense that it seemed like... like they were gonna implode.

Trunk: (laughs)

Slash: ... Like if you go any farther, any louder and any more high pitch your eyes are gonna ignite. It was really intense.

Trunk: And you know what I think is amazing looking back on where this is now, is... man, it’s remarkable what Axl was able to do, night in and night out. You guys were playing like 3 hours sets.

Slash: 3 ½ hours sets and he was... amazing, in like, every single show. So he was, he was...

Trunk: Yeah.

Slash: It was really cool to watch him do it.

[...]

Trunk: We’re here of course at the Rainbow on the Sunset Strip where there’s so much history with Slash and Guns N’ Roses where he grew up. And of course the record that started the whole Guns N’ Roses thing, Appetite For Destruction. A mega deluxe box set reissue in many formats has come out. The record back on the charts, an old song that didn’t make the record becomes a radio hit again, I mean, take us to that, what do you think of all that?

Slash: Umm, well, I mean the box set, you know, I guess it’s... it’s finally got the chance to release a lot of stuff that we had in the vault, that we’ve never released before. So, that was, that was really... just fine to do; fine to put together, and cathartic, as well. And then, to do Shadow Of Your Love. That particular recording was what we... that was when we went in to try out Mike Clink before Appetite, when we were going through trying to figure out who was gonna be the right guy to produce us. That was the song that we did, that’s the version of it that we did. And so, it’s just cool, I mean, you know, it’s like one of those things that we never thought it would see the light of the day, just put it out there as one of these songs on this record, with all these, you know, different versions, and live versions, and this and that and the other. And actually we got up and start playing it. I haven’t played that song since 1985.

Trunk: Oh, were you guys doing it in the recent shows?

Slash: Yeah, yeah.

Trunk: Oh, you are.

Slash: Yeah.

Trunk: Wow, That must have been wild.

Slash: It is wild, yeah.

Trunk: And... why didn’t a song like that make Appetite to begin with?

Slash: I mean... Shadow was one of those things we were doing in 1985. There is a few songs that we were doing back then that we sort of just, I think, evolved out of. We started writing, you know, music that was gonna be on Appetite, and so, some of those songs sort of fell by the wayside, and we sort of grew out of them. But I... you know. So that’s what happened. We used it to the demo with Mike and then that was the last we ever played it.

Trunk: Oh it’s amazing, it’s...

Slash: That was 1986.

Trunk: Yeah, yeah. And, you know, talking about what you did, we talked about what you gonna do with the Conspirators, which is going to be, as you said, probably at 90% of your own music at this point, but that led me look to what you just did with Guns, you worked on Velvet Revolver songs, something from your world into Guns N’ Roses, and of course you were playing songs from Chinese Democracy...

Slash: Yeah.

Trunk: ... for most of the tour. Well, how did that feel, how was that for you?

Slash: It was cool, you know, it was like, there were songs, there is great songs on that record, right? So, I just sort of adapted my own way of playing them and just made them, you know, more my own, as I felt them comfortable, and they just kick ass. So, it’s a pretty cool set. It’s got a lot of hits and of a lot of points of interest in the band’s career, you know.

[...] 

Trunk: Obviously you’re shifting into the Conspirators more, the record is out on September 21^st, tour dates announced, you’re playing festivals, headline shows... So everybody, I mean, needless to say, everybody has heard me, since Slash has been doing this knows how much I love with Myles Kennedy...

Slash: .(?) this record, it’s really cool.

Trunk: Can’t we hear the whole record? Elvis did it again, right?

Slash: Yeah.

Trunk: Elvis Baskette, a great producer, so judging from Driving Rain you know it’s killer, you can pre-order right now and it’s out September 21^st. But, what’s the future for Guns N’ Roses?

Slash: Well, we’re touring Southeast Asia, Dubai and South Africa in November, all of November. And so that’s the last leg of the NITL tour that I’m aware of at this point. So, I’m with the Conspirators September-October, and then looks like I’m gonna be doing some stuff, we’re gonna be doing some international stuff in January-February. And then March, I think he’s gonna be doing some Alter Bridge stuff, and then April we’re gonna go into South America. And then we’re gonna probably do some stuff in the summertime, probably... I’m not gonna say right now, but...

Trunk: Alright, we don’t want to get you in trouble (laughs). And the last thing before we let you go: Has there been or is there being any dialogue about doing new music with Guns N’ Roses at any point?

Slash: We’re... it’s been talked about, I think everybody wants to do it and we’ll just see what happens.

Trunk: But nothing’s been recorded.

Slash: We’ve been busy doing this running around the planet.

Trunk: Right.

That's great. Thanks. Slash opened up and talked more about Guns than I thought he would.

Cool. Finally a decent interview. Cool new insights. Makes me a bit more positive about GNR not only being a nostalgia act in the future.