That time when Sam Kinison choked Slash and Duff saved his life

by **Soulmonster** Fri Jun 12, 2020 7:50 pm

Just adding this chapter to the history part and since it isn't as well-known I thought I should it here too:

APRIL/MAY 1991

SAM KINISON CHOKES SLASH, DUFF COMES TO THE RESCUE

Sam Kinison was a popular LA stand up comedian who hung out in the rock scene of the city. Both Steven and Slash had featured in the music video for Kinison's cover of "Wild Thing" which was released in 1988.

On April 20, 1991, Kinison was doing a show in Las Vegas and Slash was supposed to be there. Slash bailed out due to sickness:.

Well, Sam calls me – he calls me up - I was supposed to do a show in Las Vegas, and I didn’t go because I was sick.

The Howard Stern Show, April 30, 1992

But, seemingly, also because he feared the consequences after having read Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and considering Kinison's reputation as a bad car driver:

I was like - I was sick, but I was almost about to go. I was like - you know, cuz I said I would do it. […] And then I thought about “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,” and I said, "Nah" […] “I’m not going.” I could just see – you know, that’s another way to go, like sitting in the car with Sam Kinison going 500 miles in an hour (laughs).

The Howard Stern Show, April 30, 1992

This resulted in Kinison "roasting" Slash from the stage in Las Vegas and belittling Slash's guitar playing [Howard Stern Show, April 30, 1992]. Not long after, Kinison confronted Slash at a hotel room:

And so [Kinison just showed up at my hotel room one night. I didn’t even – you know, a knock on the door and, like, it’s Sam, and I’m like, “Okay.” And so he got on my case about all this stuff, and he called me a dickhead. […] And I got pissed off and I jumped off the bed, and I didn’t expect him to react the way he did. And I turned my back – you know, I turned around for a second – and he just jumped on me. […] He jumped me in from the blue and just landed on my chest.

The Howard Stern Show, April 30, 1992

[Kinison and I] got into a really big fight. […] [Kinison] was sitting on me. […] And I had no way of getting out, because he had my elbows pinned down. […] I was gonna be dead. He was chocking me. […] He got me by the throat and my arm was just underneath his knee. And I was like, “Oh, this is it. I’m going out.” […] I was history. I was sitting, like, going, “I’m going out this way.”

The Howard Stern Show, April 30, 1992

But Duff came to the rescue!

Then Duff woke up in the other room. […] It was real violent, and Duff punched [Kinison] out, the cops were involved, too, and it was a big deal. […] Duff punched him out. […] He gave him a black eye. […]

The Howard Stern Show, April 30, 1992

The story is corroborated by Andrew Dice Clay:

Dice told Howard [Stern] that Duff from Guns N Roses beat up Sam Kinison recently. Howard said he didn't know that and now Sam is going to think that he's goofing on him if he talks about this. Dice went on to tell the story about what Duff told him about beating Sam up. Dice said that duff told him that Sam was choking Slash to death and Duff had to step in and do something about it.

Dice said that Duff was held down by Sam's body guard but he was able to get in a punch to his head. Howard said that he doesn't know if this story is true or not. Dice said this is what he heard. He went on to say that Duff ripped off the dirty rag from Sam's head at one point. Sam was going to have him arrested but they dropped the charges after the cops showed up.

Howard said that he's friends with both Sam and Dice and he's not going to say anything bad about Sam. Dice said he thinks that Sam is a very talented guy and he's not saying anything bad, he's just telling the story. He said it's a shame what happened to the guy.

MarksFriggin.com

The Andrew Dice Clay interview happened on May 14, 1991. This means that the fight between Slash, Duff and Kinison happened between April 20 and May 14, 1991. It is natural to think that since Duff and Slash were staying in hotel, the incident must have happened close to May 9 in San Francisco when the band was doing a show there, but apparently, Slash had just booked hotel rooms for him and Duff to "hang out":

There was one occasion when Duff and I went out by ourselves and got a couple of hotels rooms just to hang out. But I ended up in a huge fight with (comedian) Sam Kinison and Duff nearly got arrested for punching him out!

Use Your Illusion Tour Program; source of original quote unknown

EPILOGUE

Slash would say that after the fight, he and Kinison had made up, slowly [The Howard Stern Show, April 30, 1992].

On April 10, 1992, Kinison died in a car accident. This was just weeks before Slash discussed Kinison on two call-ins to the Howard Stern Show, where he also briefly talked to Kinison's widow, Malika Souiri.

by ludurigan Thu Jul 02, 2020 10:16 pm

interesting!

thanks for sharing that

imagine that you are in a hotel and a guy (that is supposed to be your friend) gets in and tries to kill you

what a crazy and fucked up life these guys had

That time when Sam Kinison choked Slash and Duff saved his life

That time when Sam Kinison choked Slash and Duff saved his life

Re: That time when Sam Kinison choked Slash and Duff saved his life