2009.10.21 - Japanese TV - Interview with Slash

Transcription:
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[Introduction in Japanese]

[Question in Japanese]

Slash: Well, fuck… You know, the Velver Revolver thing was a great idea, you know. And Duff and Matt and myself, when we first started it was all fun. We couldn’t find a singer for ten months – we looked for singers. Then when Scott came into it - you know, we sort of sought him out and dragged him down to the studio, and we worked on a song together, and that worked. And, you know, at the time he seemed like he really wanted to clean up his act. And obviously Duff and I knew a lot about that, so we sort of helped him through that. And it seemed like a good idea. But Scott was really, really difficult, you know? So yeah, the reason Scott got fired was because of Japan and because following after that was Australia, and I was just like, “That’s it, it’s not worth it.” You know, bad management – Scott’s manager is really bad. And just dealing with Scott was just too much to deal with. So yeah, it was very stressful. I have to say that the five years that we did Velvet Revolver, it wasn’t really that much fun, you know… We had success and I never really enjoyed the success at all.

[Question in Japanese]

Slash: How difficult is Scott? Well, now that I’m not in a band with him, he’s easy (laughs). You know, I like Scott. Scott’s a good guy – in his own way. But I like him - since I’m not in a band with him, I like him a lot more. But in a band with him, he’s just one of those guys that’s not a team player. And that’s just the way he is, so… A lot like another guy I worked with. [They] were just very inconsiderate to the people around that helped make everything happen. And really that’s not how a rock band should work. And actually, you know, a lot of people are difficult but you work things out and whatever. These guys, you know, Scott and… they take it to an extreme that I’ve never seen before where they’re just so self-involved that they just don’t realize what they’re putting everybody else through. And that’s just the way it goes.

[Comment in Japanese]

Slash: It’s very self-destructive (laughs).

Slash: Yeah, difficult singers, difficult women… (laughs). No, I mean, all things considered, you’re talking about two guys who are amazingly talented and, you know, really originally unique, important contributors to music. Just along with that come these other difficult issues that make it really hard to be able to pursue the things that one as a group wants to pursue, and we call it self-sabotaging (laughs).

[Question in Japanese about Chinese Democracy]

Slash: Everybody asks me that. I listened to it before it came out and I thought it was the perfect record for him, you know? It’s exactly what I would imagine it would be. And that’s basically it. So, I mean, as far as making a personal statement which sums up why everything else happened, it’s the perfect album (laughs). And it’s got some good stuff on it. I mean, you know, I think it’s almost a cliché now, we always say it, but it’s just great, he’s got a great voice and it’s great to hear his voice. The rest of it is… it is what it is. But it’s one of those things where you hear his voice and just go, “That’s fucking great,” you know? (chuckles)

[Question in Japanese]

Slash: No, it’s still… When we got rid of Scott and came home – and that second record that we did, which I thought was a good record, but it wasn’t the record that the band necessarily wanted to make. I think we envisioned doing something heavier from the get-go, and it just seemed to get sort of more and more watered down, as we sort of went along with Scott in whichever direction he was going on. And so after that whole disastrous tour that we did, I just needed to come back and do something where I could write some music the way that I wanted to write it, and just work not so much in a band situation for that, and so I took some time off. And we’re looking for a lead singer anyway, and the band is looking for the kind of singer that would make the band sound like what we wanted it to sound like. And it’s not an easy thing to do, so that’s still going on. But in the meantime, I’ve just preoccupied myself with making this record that I’m doing right now, and it’s been a lot of fun, so I’m enjoying it (laughs). It’s been really sort of hassle free, and all the people I’ve been working with have been fantastic, and all that. So I sort of really needed to have that to sort of remind me why it is that I do what I do. Back in, what was it, ’95 I guess it was, Snakepit was sort of the same thing. It was like, I needed to put a simple little band together to sort of reestablish why I love what it is that I do, because with Guns N’ Roses it had become so difficult. There was nothing about it to enjoy about it, you know, at that point. So Snakepit was sort of an escape for me. And I think that my solo record, doing, like, a proper solo record without even involving a band, so to speak. It has been a real sort of important release for me to keep me from losing my fucking mind (laughs). And then, at some point soon we’ll find the right singer and Velvet Revolver will continue on its thing.

[Question in Japanese]

Slash: Oh yeah. We’ve been… shit, we listened to a lot of singers and we auditioned a lot of singers. We just haven’t seemed to have settled on one person, you know, and so we’re still looking.