2012.05.26 - Artisan News - Interview with Slash

Voice-over: Guns N' Roses was the biggest drama going into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony, but, when all was said and done, Slash was in and Axl was out. With Slash joining Steven Adler, Matt Sorum and bassist Duff McKagan, they avoided an embarrassment on the scale of Van Halen's induction, in which none of the current members came to the ceremony but only departed members Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony. To save the day on vocals, Myles Kennedy did the duties that Axl Rose is famous for playing several classic Guns songs including the beloved Sweet Child O’ Mine. Slash said that Myles Kennedy initially didn't want to take the place of Axl and that he wanted Duff to sing.

Slash: It was literally 48 hours before that event that we decided we were going to go up and actually play. Initially I thought, “Well, Duff should just go up and sing we'll do It’s So Easy and one other song that he's sung before, and do it like that.” And Duff suggested to me having Myles do it, and I was a little apprehensive about even asking Myles. but I finally did approach him about it and at first he didn't want to do it, because he didn't want to be stuck in that position, which I could appreciate, so I was like, “No big deal.” And then he came back, you know, like literally in 11th hour and said, “You know what, I'll do it just because of the overall point of the whole thing, and the cause of the whole thing, and the spirit of the whole thing, and go up.” So we did and it was cool.

Voice-over: Slash said that he was honestly ambivalent about the Rock Hall before deciding to actually go.

Slash: I was on the fence for a while, but I'm really glad that I did do it. And the entire ceremony, you know, the whole evening was really, really cool, and I thought that the artists that were chosen to be inducted were perfect, and it sort of changed my sort of concept of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame a little bit, and it turned out to be just a really positive evening.

Voice-over: He said his biggest issue with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was that he didn't know much about the criteria and that they are missing some of his favorite bands and most influential rock bands of all time.

Slash: Well, I mean, probably the biggest thing about the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame that I had issue with – really the only thing – was the fact that there's so many bands that deserve to be inducted that haven't been and I couldn't understand what that was all about. It's like, what is the criteria that a band needs, you know, to be able to be inducted, and that was always an issue with me and I sort of had this feeling that it was, like, some rich boys club where they just picked at random whoever they felt they wanted to have inducted or whoever was popular, or whatnot. But I didn't know a lot of the history of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame – I hadn’t kept up with it. I never really paid much attention to it and that night they really inducted some very, very cool people that that were totally deserving, and some of them a little bit obscure – you know, somebody that you wouldn't have thought of off the top of your head unless you were a really particular fan of that artist – and it seemed like they had a much broader sense of who should be inducted than maybe [what] I was initially thinking.

Voice-over: Guns N’ Roses was inducted along with The Faces/The Small Faces, The Beastie Boys and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, among others.