1990.02.DD - Metal Hammer - No Bed of Roses (Slash)

Thanks to @Euchre for sending us this interview!

Trancript:

THE WIT AND WISDOM OF SLASH
Undoubtedly the current reigning kings of bad boy rock, Guns 'N' Roses have taken the music scene by storm, and are bent on spreading the disease to all four corners of the globe. Backed by the multi-platinum success of 'Appetite for Destruction'. which has been rocking the charts since shortly after its July '87 re-lease. Guns 'N' Roses had the honour of having 'Lies' scream into the top ten next to 'Appetite', searing into everyone's mind that Guns 'N' Roses was here, and that they weren't going away. Plastered over thousands of T-shirts. captured on celluloid and hanging on the walls of every rock and roll rebel, G'N'R have even conquered MTV, once a tough nut to crack for a band that would make Tipper Gore and her cronies crawl back into their respective holes. Out of the whole band, one of the most notable figures, with his top hat and Cousin It locks, is Slash, who's replaced virtually every-body as PMRC Public Enemy 1, while being young America's well deserved rebel without a cause. We talked to the man in the top hat about some key subjects, and here's what he had to say....

HIS NAME: "When I first started playing guitar, a friend of mine had this eccentric, cool, druggy father named Seymour, who just started calling me Slash. Whenever I would come over, he would say. 'hey, Slash!: I don't know where he came up with it, or if it was something he thought about, but it just stuck and became my nickname. Now everybody calls me Slash, even my mother" As for Slash's real name? "It's not important. Whenever i tell anyone my real name, that's what they start calling me, it's just a reflex." he says.

LIFE ON THE ROAD: (commenting on the time Axl was unable to get into their opening gig with Alice Cooper in Santa Barbara). "What happened was he, Axl, showed up later than everyone else and didn't get a backstage pass, and they wouldn't let him in. Meanwhile, we were onstage already, playing. We played the whole set without Axl, and I ended up getting really drunk and insulting the crowd. They were wondering what the hell was going on. They probably thought we were just some circus act or some-thing..." Who did the vocals that evening? Slash explains: "Me, lzzy and Duff. We just kind of made up the words... but you gotta understand. for Guns 'N' Roses, life just wouldn't be interesting without these sort of things."

NICE BOYS DON'T PLAY ROCK 'N' ROLL: "We don't take anything seriously. I don't take myself seriously We do whatever the fuck we want. We amuse ourselves at the expense of others. Plus, we do like to do things that other people find offensive and we do have some bad habits"

WHAT'S YOUR FAVOURITE DRINK? "I hate to answer that one only because it's so generic. I just drink straight Jack Daniels. I think every alcoholic guitar player likes to have his bottle of Jack Daniels, but I do drink it diligently and I could probably put away more than anyone I know"

HIS 'RELATIONSHIP' WITH POISON: ('Rumour' has it that Slash once said that if you put him and Poison in the same room, he'd be the only one to walk out, or so it came out in print) "I don't know if that was the actual remark. something like that, but, I've been advised by the powers that be not talk about that. There's already a maga-zine out right now with my feelings on it in big bold letters... I mean, I'd enjoy doing it, if I had it my way I say all kinds of stuff, but I'm supposed to act like an adult "

THE 'LAWSUITS': "We've got lots of lawsuits pending, but I don't think it would be wise of me to state any names, or someone will hold it against me somehow. They're richer and more influential than we are, on the average."

I DID IT MY WAY.... 'We get a lot of advise from different people in different directions, not telling us what to do, but suggesting certain adjustments in our life-style, trying to keep us out of trouble. I never took this whole thing that seriously. I mean, it's very nice that Geffen signed us, it gave us a new lease on life, rather, it extended our lives a little longer. But still going to do things my way, and when we signed our contract, we did it on those terms, that no one was going to tell us what to do or how to do it. I think we make all our best judgements on our own, as far as that goes. "

L.A. STREET SCENE INCIDENT: "After a long day of other bands playing, we got on stage and started playing, and kids took that as the signal to just lose it. It was cool, we had all these skinheads throwing oil barrels and playing catch with them, tossing them across the crowd. They were tearing the stage down from underneath and all kinds of stuff. After the fourth song, we had so many people on stage we didn't know who was the band or what. Well, the fire marshal shut us down, that was it. The fans, or whoever they were, were really cool. I go in for that shit. That's my big kick, the more hard-core, the more i get off on it."

BREAKING THE LAW: "The cops were after us for some incidents, and we were hated by them, so anytime there was a gig with our name on it, they were there, but it's no big deal. (As for the charges involving some young ladies...) Slash comments, "Well, there were these girls who wanted to get laid, that were very severely frustrated because they weren't getting any. We gave one of them to a bunch of friends of ours, the other I took up to the bungalow to meet Axl one night, but I said, 'I'm drunk, I'll let Axl f"k you and I'll watch; then her boy-friend walked in, and they claimed it was rape. Me and Axl had to hide out from the cops for weeks and shit, and then we had to go to all these lawyers and go 'what the fuck do we do?' But it was a big mistake, because in reality it wasn't true, so when it came down to the wire and were down at the police station' getting questioned and I was getting my arms fucking checked for tracks and getting completely humiliated by the cops, when it came down to the end of it, when they had to testify and make something up, they didn't have the balls for it."

THE NAME 'GUNS 'N' ROSES: "There was Hollywood Rose, right? A band that lzzy and Axl had, and I was in for a while. Then there was LA Guns, who you know, then there was a period that I stopped playing with Axl and Izzy got together, then I came back, and it was Guns'N' Roses"

THE GUNS'N'ROSES ATTITUDE: "If we're around five years from now, that's great. If we're not. that's fine too. Live life day by day. Things like drinking too much dying from AIDS, I can't ad-just my attitude to worrying about that kind of shit. I have no big things about being here 20 years from now. Right now is what's cool. If it costs me down the road, well at least I had a good time"

Another weird one. The issue is from February 1990 yet all the questions pertain to events pre-1989. If the interview was actually done in late 1989 or early 1990, sure the interviewer would have asked about the new record or more recent events.

All the questions from Faces, June 1989, are found in this article, too. The Faces article also isn't very old, so it too is likely based on lifting sections from older magazines.

Soulmonster wrote:Another weird one. The issue is from February 1990 yet all the questions pertain to events pre-1989. If the interview was actually done in late 1989 or early 1990, sure the interviewer would have asked about the new record or more recent events.

Yes, it's strange. The events discussed were even before 1988. It's very likely that both Faces and MH got the quotes from an interview as early as 1987.

Yes, the interview is likely pre-Appetite.