2019.01.17 - Le Parisien - Slash: A Guns N' Roses album "is the next step"

by **Blackstar** Sat Jan 19, 2019 4:45 pm

Original article in French:

https://www.leparisien.fr/culture-loisirs/musique/slash-un-album-de-guns-n-roses-c-est-la-prochaine-etape-17-01-2019-7990668.php

Translation from French:
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Slash: A Guns N’ Roses album is the next step

The guitarist of the legendary group celebrates the 30th anniversary of the release of their historic album; and gets ready for the future after the band’s reunion.

Slash is much more than the guitarist of Guns N’ Roses. At 53-years-old, the long-haired, top hatted raven is a god of the rock mythology, with a look as identifiable as his blazing playing, which allowed him to accompany Bob Dylan, Michael Jackson, Iggy Pop, Rihanna...

30 years after the release of the album “Appetite For Destruction” that made Guns N’ Roses legendary, Slash is still popular, whether playing with his seminal band or with Myles Kennedy And The Conspirators, whose excellent second album was released in September. In a rare interview he gave us while in Paris, the shy Slash evokes the future of Guns N’ Roses that regrouped in its original form two years ago and everybody has been hoping for a new album from.

You never sing, either with a band or solo. Why?

Slash: I’m far too shy and introverted.

Where did your famous top hat come from?

Slash: I always liked hats. It’s comfortable and it allows me to hide under it (smiles).

With or without Guns, France always welcomes you with open arms.

Slash: That’s because I was conceived in France! I think it was in Paris, actually.

Why did you go back to Guns N’ Roses after 20 years of quarreling?

Slash: That ended when Axl (Rose, the singer of the band – Ed.) and I talked again. We talked about everything, the reasons I left in 1996, the people who had put us against each other. It was good to realise that there weren’t problems anymore as complicated and huge as what the press was saying.

And in 2016, the Coachella festival made you an offer to reform...

Slash: Coachella had been offering us every year since it started in 1999. We tested the waters with two concerts and then three club shows. We had a great time, Axl was perfect, so continuing was the obvious thing to do.

“Appetite For Destruction” was reissued last summer in a box set for its 30th anniversary. What are your memories of it?

Slash: The album was recorded in 1987. And we had played together since 1985. We had the songs well at hand. We recorded them in three takes. It was very simple, very effective.

What was your goal?

Slash: We saw the studio as a new experience, as a step. We slept in there, among our instruments. That changed us from [being on] the street.

You have often been accused of being just a copy of the Stones and Aerosmith.

Slash: We had influences, obviously. But not so that we were fashionable in Los Angeles. We were an authentic young rock ‘n’ roll band, we were singing about our lives. And people sensed that authenticity in our album.

You’ve sold 30 million [copies]!

We didn’t care about that. Of course there was the drugs, the alcohol and the sex. But none of us had the ambition to become rich and famous, to have power or special treatment. We weren’t working for that. We were never posers.

And what about you personally? How did you experience the success?

Slash: The pace of the endless touring suited me, because when it stopped, I didn’t know what to do with my time. Besides, I couldn’t go anywhere anymore. People would come to me on the street, “hey, Slash!” – I hated that. So I stayed at home and I was bored to death. That’s why I’d do drugs. Now I keep myself busy; I write, I work on films....

Will there be a new Guns N’ Roses album?

Slash: I have to be very careful of what I say, because, when I’m quoted, it’s not always my words. We get along well with Guns, we work well together. Axl and I never got along so well. As soon as our tour ends (note: in 2019), we will want to get together again. This is the next step. It’s something we all want. It will please people, but we’ll do it for ourselves first.

Slash with Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators, "Living The Dream", Warner, € 16.99; in concert on February 22, 2019 in Paris, on March 10 in Toulouse, on July 3 at the Nîmes festival, on July 4 at Eurockéeennes in Belfort.