2007.12.20 - LiveDaily - Interview with Slash

LiveDaily Interview: Slash of Velvet Revolver

By Christina Fuoco-Karasinski
LiveDaily Contributor

Fans of Velvet Revolver and its guitarist Slash shouldn't expect his book, appropriately titled "Slash," to be a typical Hollywood tell-all.

"I'll let you in on a little secret," Slash told LiveDaily during a recent interview. "The book has a lot of stuff in there and it's all good and everything, but I'm very private. There's a lot of stuff in there, but it doesn't tell all. It's not as personal as it sounds. It's all stuff anybody could tell you if they were there.

"There is some personal stuff in there, having to deal with certain incidents that a lot of people wouldn't know, or weren't there for. But the majority of the book has things that happened--and it's all sort of cool--but it's not an emotional or opinionated or a personal view on things the way that some autobiographies are. I can't even keep a journal or write lyrics because it's so hard for me to express myself on that level. If someone were to ask me to write a book about, "How do you really feel?" I'd say, 'F--- off.' It has a lot of accounts of a lot of different things, which are sort of cool. It has some in detail and it has a lot of what was going on that led up to the Guns break-up and stuff that happened post-break-up."

Besides pushing his book, Slash along with the rest of the band--vocalist Scott Weiland, rhythm guitarist Dave Kushner, bassist Duff McKagan and drummer Matt Sorum--are touring in support of their sophomore effort "Libertad." The album, which debuted at No. 5 on The Billboard 200 album chart, spawned two singles so far, "She Builds Quick Machines" and "The Last Fight."

Slash talked to LiveDaily--before it was revealed Weiland was due to go to court in January on charges of driving under the influence of drugs--about "Libertad," living a greener lifestyle and working on the game "Guitar Hero 3."

I've seen a few stories about your book signings, and all of them seem to focus on you living a greener lifestyle.

You try and do your best, especially if it's something within your grasp. There's not as much information out there as there should be. Al Gore put out the movie "An Inconvenient Truth" and that was a really, really good piece of information, but there's not enough of it, for as dire straits as this planet is in. You pick up what you can, about what you should or shouldn't be doing. It's the most basic stuff. Everyone should look at the amount of water they use, the amount of heat and electricity they use, the amount that you drive. It's just really basic s---. But it has an impact. The recycling thing was around forever. No one appreciates how important it is, really, because it's not engraved on everybody's conscious thinking. Basically, I just try to do my part--like selling my Hummer. I don't let the water keep running when I'm brushing my teeth. I'm a real stickler for recycling. There's a lot of little things. I'm not waving a flag or anything. But I'm just trying to do what I can.

With Velvet Revolver's second album, "Libertad,' how did you decide on the name of the record?

Initially because it was on a T-shirt and it looked cool. That was the initial thing. I sort of appreciated it because it's Spanish and my wife is Cuban. It's Spanish for "liberty." I always like the sound of the Spanish language. When someone mentioned it--either Scott or Duff--I thought, "'Libertad'; that's awesome." Then it started to have a lot more relative connotations as to what the band was going through and where the music was at. It was really the only title that we ever entertained as an idea for the record. It stuck and it became more and more significant as the band got further and further into working on this record.

It seems like it reflects the newfound freedom you had musically during the recording sessions.

Well, yeah. It does also reflect the amount of work we had to put in to be able to have that freedom.

What kind of work did you have to put in?

Well, the same kind of work I'd have to put into anything. Everything I've ever been involved with has been against the grain, or the status quo. This band is definitely no different. There's a lot of different kinds of unnecessary pressures coming from different directions, about what you should or shouldn't be doing. What direction something should go in. What you should be writing about and whatnot. There's all of those kinds of ominous kind of influences going on. We just f---ing hate that s---. We had some other obstacles going into this record. We had some internal issues--not internal among the band members, but some personal issues that happened to a couple band members with family and stuff like that. So it was a title that really did represent what the band felt like in a sort of complicated time.

I know your Japanese shows and your Australian shows were canceled. Are your two US dates still on?

Yeah, yeah.

You appear on Chris Daughtry's song "What I Want." How did that relationship come about?

Um, there's not really what you call a relationship there. We're on the same label, and the label asked me to do it. But I never met him before. I knew he was an American Idol guy, so I was reluctant to even get involved with him. But I did it as a favor to the record company, then when I went down and met him, I was pleasantly surprised. He's a really down-to-earth guy and a really good vocalist. A little bit too commercial for my tastes, but he's doing very well. That's what he wants to do. That's what the record company wants. So he's fine. We don't really relate on that level. [Laughs]

How was it to work on "Guitar Hero 3"?

That was a lot of fun. That was something I was really excited to do when I got the phone call. Now that it's finished, I'm really proud of the work that we put into it. I'm glad to be associated with it. You wear a motion-capture suit which has these little camera receivers all over it. These cameras take up from all angles what you're doing and record it to computer and it comes out actually as a physical moving thing. Then they paint that in with your likeness, which they got from 3D cameras at a separate sitting, and put it all together. It's very interesting how it's done. They do it in movies all the time. With the recent "King Kong" that came out, there's a character who acted the gorilla out and wore the same kind of suit. Then they painted the gorilla in with CGI.

Has Velvet Revolver begun writing new material?

I've been working on new material probably since the beginning of the Alice in Chains tour. As a band, we only had a couple rehearsals, but at those rehearsals we started putting some different ideas together. So that germ's been planted. [Laughs]

When do you expect to head in the studio?

It depends on how long we continue touring. Right now, we're going through April. I would imagine that, between now and April, a bunch of ideas for summer will probably come up. We'll go as long as necessary and then probably jump in, hopefully right away, start working on the record.

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