2000.12.09 - Z Direkt - Interview with Slash

Transcript:
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Host: (Talks in Swedish)

Slash: The only reason it was called Snakepit in the first place is because I have a huge, like, walk-in snake cage, and so we called that the Snakepit. And then the studio next door to it is called Snakepit studios and that’s where the name of the band came from. And, basically, we just went in there and just wrote songs together, hung out, played a lot of pool, and this and that and the other, and just wrote the record.

[Video clip]

Slash: Pretty much all rock ‘n’ roll music has got the same singer kind of vibe to it. It all stems from the same root, so to speak. And so, yeah, you know, I was more or less raised by my parents on Muddy Waters, and BB King, and Charlie Christian, and this and that. And the Stones and... you know. And so there always be that blues element, because that’s – I know exactly what I like and what I like to hear, so being that as it may, it will always have sort of a part in whatever playing I’m doing or whatever band I’m in, or whatever.  

[Video clip]

Slash: Rock ‘n’ roll is... Rock ‘n’ roll is – for one, it’s an attitude, which you don’t have to be a musician to be rock ‘n’ roll, but it’s basically just doing what it is that you want to do and doing it the way that you wanna do it, and going out there and pushing everybody’s faces, and just pulling it off, you know? It’s just sort of a spirit. Then we go out there and it’s just raw, it’s sweaty, it’s, you know, very in-your-face, really loud and, basically, at the end of every show it’s the culmination of the band and an audience, and we all come together. You know, it’s very just like... it’s sort of like going to a soccer game, let’s put it that way.

[Clip from November Rain video]

Interviewer: Will you ever play with Guns N’ Roses again?

Slash: Oh God, how many times I have to be asked that...

Interviewer: Yeah, I know.

Slash: Um, not in the foreseeable future. I don’t think anybody in the band is really interested, except if Axl’s doing it, you know? But I just saw Izzy, and I just saw Duff, and I just saw Steven. And it was like, we all had to, like, just move on. It wasn’t a matter of, “Oh, come on man, let’s get the Guns N’ Roses thing back together.” It’s not even really an issue. When I quit, which is hard for me to quit anything - when I quit I wasn’t kidding, so it was five years ago and it’s like... anyhow. I hate being reminded about it, because (?) I don’t know what to tell you, I left.