1995.06.05 - Dutch TV - Interview with Slash at Pinkpop festival

Transcript:
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Interviewer: Hi Slash. Welcome to Pinkpop.

Slash: Hi. We’re on, I guess.

Interviewer: We’re on. What were you saying about the little Pinkpop doll?

Slash: Oh, she’s adorable, except for they should have her hiked up a little bit, with little pink panties and one eye winked, and a cigar.

Interviewer: You’re a naughty boy! (laughs) That would look a little cooler.

Slash: Yeah.

Interviewer: This is little square, this doll, right?

Slash: She’s a little bit square. She actually looks satanic, to tell you the truth (laughs).

Interviewer: Can I ask you a couple of questions about your youth, and about growing up, and when you started becoming a musician?

Slash: Yeah, you can.

Interviewer: As I understand, your parents, they were partly involved in music and showbiz, right?

Slash: Right. Well, like, my mom – this is actually old news. My mom was a clothes designer for a lot of rock bands in the 70s. My dad did album covers. As far as the bands he did, Bowie, Lennon, Ringo, The Pointer Sisters – fuck, there’s a whole bunch of them – and then... So I was always around that kind of environment.

Interviewer: Those people actually came to your house or out of there?

Slash: No, no. Either we’d hang out at their house – There was a whole street that we lived on, which is called Wonderland Avenue - everybody knows that street – and it was, like, us, David Geffen, Joni Mitchell, somebody who probably nobody remembers, David Blue.

Interviewer: David Blue, huh?

Slash: Yeah. My dad used to do his album covers. So we all lived in the same neighborhood. But that was, like, very late 60s/early 70s kind of vibe. It’s not really existent anymore, but that’s where I come from.

Interviewer: Was that in Hollywood? That was in Hollywood.

Slash: I’m an offshoot of the baby boomers, I suppose, you know? Almost.

Interviewer: This was in Hollywood?

Slash: Mmm-mmm. When I was in England, when I was born, I was raised around my uncles and stuff, who all listened to the Moody Blues and the Stones and... So it’s always been sort of a music thing that happened.

Interviewer: So was there a particular event that happened at some point that made you decide you wanted to be a guitar player yourself?

Slash: Well, okay, always having liked music and having been able to differentiate which music I liked to which music I didn’t like at a very young age, I didn’t have any expectations being a musician, but I was very familiar with music. So when I got turned on to guitar, it was just around the time that I was about 13-14 years old when I discovered it, and I actually started to play when I was 15. Steven Adler, the old Guns N’ Roses drummer turned me on to guitar playing.

Interviewer: Is that so?

Slash: Yeah. He couldn’t play guitar, but there was something about it, that he had one at home. When his grandmother would go to work in the morning, we’d ditch school and hang out at this grandmother’s house, and he had a little amp and a guitar, and he’d put, like, a Kiss record on or an Aerosmith record on or something. And then he’d just bang away on it. He couldn’t play it, he just banged on it. I got a fucking hard-on from it, so –

Interviewer: I know you did, yeah (laughs).

Slash: And I started playing guitar.

Interviewer: Do you remember any of those people in particular that came to your house? Was there a meeting that you remember?

Slash: Well, David went out with my mom for a year.

Interviewer: David who?

Slash: Bowie. He went out with my mom for – pretty close to a year. So he was always around. And, of course, Angie was always around; I don’t know how that works (laughs).

Interviewer: Yeah (laughs).

Slash: And then there was Minnie Riperton, Carly Simon...

Interviewer: But like David Bowie, that wasn’t the kind of music that you’re into. Or was it?

Slash: No, I like everything. I mean, as long as it’s genuine, I like a huge span of music. The kind of music that I actually do happens to just be my particular kind of – my own personal trip. But there’s a lot of stuff that I listen to. I don’t necessarily sound like it, but there’s a lot of things I listen to that people wouldn’t expect me to listen to.

Interviewer: And now you have become a rock guitar player. Is this like a dream come true in a way? Is it like what you had imagined or -?

Slash: I didn’t imagine anything. See, I never had any convoluted fantasy thing going on; I just liked playing. So for me it’s a lot of fun, it’s really exciting, it’s a lot of hard work and so on. I don’t look at it from, sort of like, the average fan’s point of view where it looks so glamorous, because I know it isn’t. I just to get it together, get up and play, and, you know, do it as much as possible.

Interviewer: Why is it that you don’t let us see your eyes, by the way?

Slash: Because I didn’t sleep last night.

Interviewer: What did you do then instead of sleeping?

Slash (laughs): I’m kidding. I slept on the bus.

Interviewer: So then have another answer to my question?

Slash: No, well, I always keep my hair in my face, you know.

Interviewer: Why is that? People want to see your eyes.

Slash (uncovers his eyes) It’s no big deal (laughs).

Interviewer: Beautiful jewelry by the way, I must say.

Slash: Well, you have to give all the credit to the kids at the shows that give this stuff. I don’t go out and buy it.

Interviewer: Is that so?

Slash: Yeah. I don’t have anything on right now that I bought (laughs).

Interviewer: Oh, are you kidding? So people just come up to you and give you this beautiful...

Slash: We hang out a lot, and sometimes, you know, we exchange t-shirts; like I got this from one of the Ugly Kid Joe guys yesterday, so it provided me with a shirt to wear today (laughs). And, you know, sometimes when we’re hanging out in the crowd or whatever, I’ll run into somebody and I’ll go, “Oh, that’s cool” and they’ll give it to me, and I’ll give them something.

Interviewer: But you can still go into a crowd and not be, like, bothered.

Slash: I can’t go around in there. I mean, you know, on the side of the stage and stuff, some of the people that have passes that are hanging out, or by the bus, whatever.

Interviewer: Mmm-mmm.

Slash: Does that sound strange to you? (laughs)

Interviewer: No. But I could see you buy this, but you didn’t.

Slash: Okay. That’s okay. I hate shopping.

Interviewer (laughs): Really? You just sit home and play guitar, right? That’s what you like to do best.

Slash: More or less, something to that extent. I usually spend most of my time at home figuring out a way how to get the fuck out of there, so that I can be on the road; which is how I ended up here, yeah.

Interviewer: So just a question that everybody wants to know the answer about, is when did you last talk to Axl Rose.

Slash: Probably six months ago.

Interviewer: Is that so?

Slash: Uh-hah. We go through these periods where I do my thing and he does his, and then eventually we come together, and that’s when another Guns N’ Roses record gets done. When this tour ends - which is a six-month tour – in August, I’ll go home and basically we’ll regroup, so to speak. Then Guns will probably spend a little bit of time in the studio and they’ll be on the road for a while, and it will be like family for a long time. And then when the tour ends, I’m probably just gonna go back and make another Snakepit record, and do another small club tour. We’ll just sort of play it that way. Of course, nothing is ever that predictable, but that’s the basic plan.

Interviewer: Yeah... You didn’t feel the need to call him and say, “How are you doing, man” and “How is it going”?

Slash: At this point I’m touring, so – like, I have a hard time calling my wife.

Interviewer: Oh. Is that so? Where is she then?

Slash: She’s home in L.A.

Interviewer: But do you call her every now and then?

Slash: Well, I call her when I get to a phone. We’re on the bus most of the time.

Interviewer: Yeah, okay. So how is it going with your new band?

Slash: It’s awesome!

Interviewer: Yeah?

Slash: Well, you know, I have a certain passion for, like, the very spontaneous go-for-what-you-know rock ‘n’ roll approach, which is what this whole band is based on. I mean, we haven’t been together that long or anything like that, but we all get on very well. And so we throw a set together - like we just threw one together for tonight – and we just go out there and try our best. And it’s something about that, that immediacy, that is where I come from, that I sort of... You know, Guns is already established. If we go on stage with Guns N’ Roses, they’re gonna expect to hear certain songs, and this and that. Nobody knows any of the Snakepit stuff – maybe “Beggars And Hangers On,” a couple of songs, but basically we’re just going out there on our own merit. That’s all we have to go on. I sort of like the challenge, I guess. I don’t know, maybe I’m crazy.

Interviewer: Well, thanks a lot, and good luck with your show.

Slash: Oh, thank you.