2000.MM.DD - Reality Check TV - Interview with Slash

Transcript:
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[Live footage – Slash’s Snakepit]

Interviewer: It’s truly an honor and a privilege to be in the presence of this man, one of my favorite all-time guitar players, the one and only, Slash. How are you doing, man?

Slash: Well, I’m feeling very humbled at this point.

Interviewer: (Laughs)

Slash: I wasn’t expecting all that.

Interviewer: It’s good to see you, man. So it looks like you guys have got a brand new record out. It’s on Koch, which is kind of interesting because you were in a major before, but you’ve kind of gone independent now.

Slash: Well, this is – a lot of things have changed over the years. When I was in Guns N’ Roses and it first started and it was just like a fledging or whatever band, Geffen at that time was more of an independent label as well, especially compared to all the big companies. And over the years it basically got bought out and went over to Interscope, and so, once I saw that whole corporate thing happen, and I started to get uncomfortable with this massive staff and all the different kinds of music that are going on right now, and I had no control over the industry side of things, I started looking for some of the people that got either fired or quit from the majors that were out there doing independents, to try and find a small team of really cool people. And I ended up with a couple friends of mine that come out of New York and they’re just a really cool label and they’re very tight-knit, and that way I just have more say over exactly every aspect of what happens [cut]

[Live footage – Slash’s Snakepit]

Slash: It’s that whole corporate thing and I’ve always been against that since, you know, way back in the day. And so I’m trying to at least retain that kind of personable business sense, also for the band to feel comfortable, and also so that I can deal with people on a one-to-one basis, as opposed to going through the secretary who goes through the understudy and duh duh duh (laughs).

Interviewer: (Laughs) Exactly, yes. Nothing worse than having you, like, call the assistant of the assistant.

Slash: Yeah, right, right. You can never reach the other guy or the head guy because he’s often in Guam somewhere.

Interviewer: Yeah, Guam (laughs).

[Live footage – Slash’s Snakepit]

Interviewer: Alright, so talk a little bit about this record. It’s called “Ain’t Life Grand”?

Slash: Right. Ain’t Life Grand, in a nutshell, was one of those when I was out jamming here and jamming there in all these different clubs and different sessions or whatever. I started hooking up with the guys who are in the band, one after another, and I thought, you know, “I should do Snakepit with these guys, we’ll have mutual interests” and so on. So we went so against the grain to make this record. That’s why it’s called Ain’t Life Grand, because it was like no matter what kind of obstacle you stuck in front of us, we were gonna pull this thing off, which we did. But, I mean, we had some really hard times making it. I mean, just the whole process of putting it together, the business side, cleaning up all my legal stuff from Guns N’ Roses, old managers, new managers, old attorneys, new attorneys... The record (?)

Interviewer: Yeah, ain’t that a drag when you have to do all that.

Slash: And when we finished it, we worked with Jack Douglas, who was no stranger to...
Interviewer: Great records.

Slash: Yeah, he’s had great records.

Interviewer: Astounding records.

Slash: He’s also been very against the grain as well. He was the guy that I originally wanted to do Appetite for Destruction, when we first did that, but I think there was a little bit of a chemical dependency problem between some of us and him, so the record company just...

Interviewer: Yeah, he is notorious for that as well, yeah.

Slash: They just kept us separated, right? So at this point, you know, at this date in the game, he came on. We played a pre-production gig in Miami before we had picked a producer, and he came down and he saw us, and it was probably one of the most, I don’t know, screwed up gigs out of that whole little tour – the most volatile, if anything (laughs). And he goes, “Yeah, I like you guys.” And so we hooked up with him, and we just sort of locked ourselves up in the Snakepit studios and made it, and here it is. (?)

[Live footage – Slash’s Snakepit]

Interviewer: What are your favorite tracks off the record?

Slash: I’m too close to all of them, so I couldn’t really say. I love doing this song called Just Like Anything, which I love playing because it’s just a real riff rock kind of – you know, whatever in-your-face song. But every single song on the record has a certain kind of significance and the making of the album altogether, you know, as a whole. A lot of it was written, like, towards the very tail end. We had, like, all our equipment ripped off and this and that and the other, and we just kept going. And so every song has a sort of personal thing to it. So I can’t really name one. But Anything is definitely one I love to play live.

[Live footage – Slash’s Snakepit]

Interviewer: Oh yeah, we’ve been playing you on KFOX.

Slash: Have you?

Interviewer: Oh yeah.

Slash: Okay. Cool.

Interviewer: Actually, and I busted out a track from the first Snakepit album, Dimestore Rock. (?)

Slash: Oh, that’s actually one of the songs that me and Gilby worked on.

Interviewer: Are you going to play that tonight?

Slash: I will not gonna be playing that.

Interviewer: Ah, too bad (laughs).

Slash: We’re playing... we’re gonna play Beggars and Hangers-On tonight, I know that. Dimestore Rock I don’t play it, because that was Gilby’s thing and I think it was on his record as well.

Interviewer: Oh, okay.

Slash: Yeah.

Interviewer: Alright. Too bad, because I really like it.

Slash: Little bit of trivia for it.

[Live footage – Slash’s Snakepit]

Interviewer: Actually, I have an old friend of yours in the house, and I want to bring him in right now. You’ve got a minute?

Slash: Who’s that?

Interviewer: It’s a surprise. One gentleman named Billy Rowe.

Slash: Oh, hey man, what’s happening?

(Slash and Billy Rowe from Jetboy shake hands)

Billy Rowe: (laughs)

Slash: I haven’t seen you in a while.

Billy Rowe: About ten years.

Slash: Yeah, no shit. Last time I saw you was in L.A. What’s happening?

Billy Rowe: Same old, man.

Interviewer: He’s got a new band.

Billy Rowe: (Laughing) Somewhat.

Slash: (Laughing) We’ve all got new bands.

Billy Rowe: We’re actually label mates in Japan.

Slash: Oh, really?

Billy Rowe: Okay, I didn’t...

Interviewer: JVC.

Slash: Yeah, yeah. I didn’t know that.

Billy Rowe: (?) they got a magazine.

Slash: Are you gonna hang out tonight?

Billy Rowe: I’m hanging out.

Slash: Yeah?

Billy Rowe: (?)

Slash: Now that was total surprise. I didn’t know you have been –

Billy Rowe: (?) Anyway, we could write a book together.

Slash: We’ve got from the city (?) I was talking about how we just, like, on the radio, I was going L.A. and San Francisco back and forth, back and forth. And we used to come up and play with these guys all the time. We have a mutual friend and musician that we were tight with, and so on and so forth.

Billy Rowe: We went back to the Lizard House, remember that?

Slash: They still have one.

(Cross talk – inaudible)

[Live footage]

Interviewer: Alright, so we’re gonna wrap it up here. We just had a little reunion, a little, you know, blast from the past here.

Slash: (?)

Interviewer: Thanks for being with us here on Reality Check.