1988.MM.DD - Hot Metal Magazine - A Rose By Any Other Name...Would Rock As Hard (Slash)

Thanks to @Euchre for providing us with this interview!

Transcript:

"What the fuck are you doing up at 8:30 in the morning?", Guns & Roses guitarist asks Slash Hot Metal's Scott Howlett, as they launch into our exclusive interview. "Interviewing you of course," replies Howlett. "It's cool, I didn't have a late one last night". Slash says, "I did...as usual. It's sort of customary for us to be out late. We like taking chances in Guns & Roses."

Guns & Roses were lifted into the world musical consciousness with their debut album, "Appetite for Destruction", a dangerous cross-section of hard rock, blues and punck.

Recorded in July 1987. the album has been lauded, applauded and copied by critics, fans and other hard rock bands the world over.

It's raw. It's energy and passion. It's rock 'n' roll music. A lot of bands these days look like bank accountants. Guns & Roses look like guys your parents warn you about. It is a real band in that sense.

Guns & Roses are a real band in that sense. Is this true?

"We're not really in sync with what goes on in the 80s nigh' now and that is why I think, we stick out so much,' says Slash. 'We're basically rough around the edges, a rock 'n' roll band without any bullshit. There's no concepts or anything. We're pretty much down to basics and we just play guitar, there's no keyboards. We just want to blow people out, whereas a lot of other bands are more interested in fixing this and fixing that. We just play.

Do you feel as though you don't fit into the 80s.

"Were not part of the pop mainstream in this decade," says the Californian. "People like it more than critics, who often say its worthless music, they prefer Prince, You get that in New York and London. In all the bigger cities you get all that pompous bullshit. But hard rock has been the most consistently popular form of music for the last 20 years. So long as the elements are all there, as long as the rock 'n' roll is there, it'll always be around. It has the same high standard as it did 20 years ago and even If the music is a little different, the chord changes are different. So long as the attitude is there it will always be around. People get off work and want to experience a certain sense of escapism, they do this through rock roll. As long as there is a band around that has got an attitude like we have then hard rock will be around. People can say what they want to; it's not gonna lead to anything. It's gonna last a hell of a lot longer than half the bullshit they go on about. Hard rock is the attitude and the attack."

It's that very attitude and attack which attracts Guns & Roses a lot of bad publicity. Parents hate Guns & Roses. Preachers and religious freaks despise the band and claim it leads to worshipping the devil. The religious nuts say hard rock leads to bad health. Not just mentally but physically as well. They say hard rocks leads young people to be intoxicated by the rhythm which, in turn, makes them weaker. AC/DC get it. So does Judas Priest, Iron Maiden and countless other hard rock and heavy metal bands. Guns & Roses is the latest to attract this type of left-handed publicity.

Slash is laughing about it. All the way to the bank it would seem. He thinks It's just one big joke.

"Yeah we get that religious bullshit, but we're not fuckin' affected by that," he says sternly. "Nobody really cares and the more they talk about It the more records we sell. They are cutting off their noses to spite their face. Anyway it's just stupid because the more they do it the mor publicity we get. It's a Catch 22 situation.

The band are often accused of sexism towards women. Do you think this is warranted?

"Well if the average person had to deal with the same kind of members of the fuckin' opposite sex that we have to deal with all the time, they'd probably think the same. Well, 75 per cent of the girls that hang out at the gigs, you can't tell me that most of them aren't sluts."

"They are very, very cheap. We're around it 24 hours a day. What the fuck do they want?

"Its very true. We never said anything bad against women in general and I mean everybody in the band has had girlfriends and shit that they cared about. Its nothing against women its just those occasional fuckin' tramps that hang out at every gig. They're the people were exposed to and so we write songs about that. And if the other people don't understand that then tell them not to buy the fuckin' record."

Was Led Zeppelin one of your influences? Others, perhaps were Deep Purple and Aerosmith?

"Deep Purple, no. Aerosmith maybe and also Led Zeppelin or AC/DC and a lot of 70s bands." says Slash. "I don't think anyone in the band was influenced by Deep Purple, we were just influenced by 70s music. That's what we were brought up with. I'm 23 and Axl Rose (the band's lead singer) is 26. The 70s was the time we grew up in and that's the one era that stuck and that s the most obvious."

Do you feel blown out by your success? I mean, you're pretty young and you've sold six million records in the US, gone gold In the UK, triple platinum in Canada and gold in Norway.

"We've all been fuckin' affected by it We were all surprised. I thought we were going to be a fuckin' underground cult band, like Motorhead or something like that. I don't know how we did it. Its just us and we made this fuckin' record. I don't exactly know how. I was never involved in the business for the formula anyway.

"But I know it must have had something to do with timing," he continues. "We're filling gap right at the moment. There aren't any bands out there that are really like us. We fit a little niche in the mustic market at this point in time. I just don't like to think about it. I just like to go out and do the gig."

Slash says he and the rest of the band are really looking forward to getting down to Australia, with The Angels and Kings Of The Sun also on the bill, it's gonna be one hell of a show.

"I love being on the road, I like hanging out," he says. "We're all sort of bums and all over the place in Guns & Roses. We're all pretty close though and a pretty tight little family. Just so long as people don't fuck with me I'm okay. I'm here to play and do all the other stuff to help the band out but fucking just don't piss me off because that's not fair to put somebody through that. I'm not saying this personally. That's basically it. We just keep plodding along and that's why everybody's so shocked by us because we don't play fuckin' kiss ass to the media. We just go out and be us. And if anybody fucks with us then we'll just fuck them right back."

Slash has to go now. In his band's Los Angeles offices, he has just been joined by two very pretty girls who want his gun. In leaving, he tolls the readers of Hot Metal: "We're recording a new album next summer - I wanna do it and then get back on the road before I lose my mind. I hate being off the road man."

Btw, it annoys me when magazines don't put the issue date on the front cover. I assume this interview was done when the band was visiting Australia in 1988, so the month should at least be December. @Euchre, do you have the issue date?

Likely not in December, after all, since the interview takes place in Los Angeles.

From some googling I did, it seems that the article was released in 1989. The magazine was monthly and this was its first issue. Issue #20 was released in October 1990:
https://tinyurl.com/y98l58fp
so issue #1 must have been out in March 1989.

Well that was an interesting read, particularly Slash’s thoughts about being accused of sexism

Misfit79 wrote:Well that was an interesting read, particularly Slash’s thoughts  about being accused of sexism

Yes He has some interesting thoughts on the subject here too:

https://www.a-4-d.com/t3211-1989-04-01-new-musical-express

https://www.a-4-d.com/t3177-1991-08-03-melody-maker-white-riot

Blackstar wrote:From some googling I did, it seems that the article was released in 1989. The magazine was monthly and this was its first issue. Issue #20 was released in October 1990:
https://tinyurl.com/y98l58fp
so issue #1 must have been out in March 1989.

According to their website (http://www.hotmetalonline.com/about-us/) the magazine started in 1988. Of course, the first issue could have been in 1989, but it sounds unlikely to me to list the start of a magazine before its actual first release. But I am not sure...

The exact same interview was published by Juke on December 17, 1988. I suppose the interviewer may have sold the interview non-exclusively to both magazines in Australia. Or, Juke was first and then Hot Metal copied it at some later date.