2007.11.01 - Late Night with Conan O'Brien - Interview with Slash

Transcript:
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Conan O’ Brien: Hi everybody, we're back. The next guest was the lead guitarist for Guns N’ Roses and now Velvet Revolver. He's just about to come out with his new book about his life, called “Slash.” Please welcome, Slash!

(Applause)

Conan O’ Brien: Thanks so much for being here.

Slash: Thanks for having me!

Conan O’ Brien: You know, first of all, you sat in with our guys once, a bunch of years ago.

Slash: We played AC/DC.

Conan O’ Brien: Yeah. It was one of the coolest nights we've ever had here, so thank you so much for coming back.

Slash: Yeah, you should have (?) us to do that.

Conan O’ Brien: Yeah, yeah, any time. Any time.

Slash: Jimmy’s awesome.

Conan O’ Brien: Yeah, well, he's a good man. But it's always nice to have you sit in. And, first of all, so much to talk about, you're one of those iconic figures in music. The look is just so… everyone knows it's you, okay? Let me ask you: on your driver's license, are you wearing the top hat in the driver's license?

Slash: No. You keep the driver's license as vague as possible.

Conan O’ Brien: (Laughs) As vague as possible. Really?

Slash: So when the cops see it, it’s like they have no idea who you are.

Conan O’ Brien: So are you… well, then they see the name Slash.

Slash: It’s not on there.

Conan O’ Brien: Oh, it's not on there. What's your name there?

Slash: It's Saul Hudson – actually I shouldn't have said that, but… (laughs).

Conan O’ Brien: (Laughs) Right now all these APB’s are going out.

Slash: It's worked for me in the past. That's why you never see me in the tabloids getting arrested.

Conan O’ Brien: Right. So, if you want to go somewhere, the hat comes off and you put on, like, a propeller beanie…

Slash: Usually a baseball cap backwards and the ponytail.

Conan O’ Brien: And suddenly you're a different person altogether.

Slash: Not quite, but it helps.

Conan O’ Brien: Okay. What about last night's Halloween? Do you ever walk around as yourself and pretend to be a guy pretending to be Slash?

Slash: That was exactly it last night.

Conan O’ Brien: You did that last night?!

Slash: Yeah, that's what I did last night.

Conan O’ Brien: What was that like?

Slash: It's fun. It takes the pressure off, I suppose. I think, you know-

Conan O’ Brien: People are like, “Great, Slash!”

Slash: Actually, I don't like to draw attention to myself, but I think I just look a little bit different.

Conan O’ Brien: Sure.

Slash: And people are used to that.

Conan O’ Brien: (Laughs) Yeah.

Slash: So last night it was sort of – because I've been here a few days and, you know, on Halloween it's the one night you can get away and go, “Hey, I'm just a guy looking like Slash; I’m not him.”

Conan O’ Brien: Right.

Slash: And there's a bunch of other people that seem to be doing it, as well.

Conan O’ Brien: You see other Slash’s sometimes that are like, “Yours is pretty good but not great.”

(Laughter)

Slash: It’s a Halloween novelty, you know?

Conan O’ Brien: Let's talk about the book. You lived more in, like, a couple of years than most people on the planet. Intense experiences in this book. And one of the cool things is you say you have no regrets; that's the tone of a lot of the book, it’s you don't have regrets. Except one stood out to me: you wrote a line in the song Paradise City, which you say you now regret. Do you want to tell us what that was?

Slash: Well, when we wrote the song Paradise City, we got to the chorus part and wrote the chorus, and the line goes, “Take me down to the Paradise City where the grass is green and the girls are pretty.” And I was like, “Take me down to the Paradise City where the girls are fat and they got big titties.” Come on!

Conan O’ Brien: That's what you wanted?

Slash: (Laughs) Yeah.

Conan O’ Brien: You wanted Axl to sing that at the top of his lungs (mock sings the line).

Slash: Yeah! It’s got a rhythm to it.

Conan O’ Brien: I’m telling you-

Slash: But I was outvoted four to one.

Conan O’ Brien: Really?

Slash: Yeah (laughs).

Conan O’ Brien: If you ever want me to sit in, I can hit those Axl notes. I’m telling you.

Slash: Actually, you sounded pretty good.

Conan O’ Brien: (mock singing)

(Laughter)

Slash: You’ve been practicing a lot.

Conan O’ Brien: I had an operation to be able to do that.

Slash: Sounds like you’ve been practicing.

Conan O’ Brien: Well, I brought him up. You and Axl don't speak, do you?

Slash: We just haven't spoke. You know, it's not really that big a deal. When I left the band, that sort of long relationship that we had was sort of bruised, I'd say.

Conan O’ Brien: Right.

Slash: And so we just haven't really… you know, I haven't even run into him, which is sort of odd.

Conan O’ Brien: You've tried to contact him, is that right?

Slash: I have… I’ve sent him some Christmas cards over the over the years (laughs).

Conan O’ Brien: I would love to see your Christmas card. “Happy Holidays from SLASH!”

Slash: But, you know.

Conan O’ Brien: And you tried to go see Guns N’ Roses - the new incarnation of Guns N’ Roses.

Slash: Yeah, if you would say that.

Conan O’ Brien: You tried to see that show a few years ago, and what happened?

Slash: I went down to the Joint in Las Vegas. I knew that Guns was playing and I thought, “This will be interesting!” You know, [it was] New Year’s Eve, and me and the missus went down there, and management had made it so that nobody would let me in. Word got around that I was coming, and so I got there-

Conan O’ Brien: That's just so weird, that you can't go see Guns - I mean, I feel weird even calling it Guns N’ Roses, because I think to a lot of us it's not Guns N’ Roses – but…

Slash: I got there and I got in my hotel room, and we're about to walk out the door, and there's a knock on the door. It’s security, going, “We can't let you in.” I was like, “Come on, it's no big deal. What am I gonna do?” You know, like, “What's the big problem?” And they said, “No, we've got strict orders not to let you back.” But it wasn't an Axl thing - I always stressed that. It was management, who thought-

Conan O’ Brien: Right. Management doing it.

Slash: Who thought it would probably be bad for the show if I sort of showed up, that it might distract Axl from what he was doing or… whatever (laughs).

Conan O’ Brien: Right.

Slash: I'm not really sure.

Conan O’ Brien: Yeah, one face in a sea of thousands… “I THOUGHT I SAW A TOP HAT!”

Slash: No, the rumor-

Conan O’ Brien: “Now I’m not gonna go out there. See?”

Slash: The rumor was that I’d brought my guitar, I’d brought my top hat, and I was gonna get on stage and sabotage the night; which, you know, obviously I wasn't gonna do. I just wanted to sort of stand in the front of the stage and see Guns N’ Roses for the first time, because I've always seen it from the other side. You know?

Conan O’ Brien: Right. Yeah, I completely understand. You know, I want to ask you about one thing that I think is very cool. A lot of young people out there love playing this video game, Guitar Hero. Actually, here at the office we have it, the producer's always going in there, Jeff Ross is always in there playing, you know, against interns… People really get into this show.

Slash: It's a good game.

Conan O’ Brien: It's a big game, and now I understand there's going to be a Guitar Hero 3 or…?

Slash: It's out right now.

Conan O’ Brien: It's out right now. And you are in it, is that right?

Slash: I'm one of the characters that you have to play in the game.

Conan O’ Brien: So someone can try and out rock Slash.

Slash: Yeah. There's a thing called the “Boss Battle” and you get to a certain point in the game, you get to this point and you have to play me, like guitar solos back and forth and back and forth; and if you can outplay me, you can actually make me a character that you can pick to be, if you want to choose me as a character.

Conan O’ Brien: Well, my question is: it stands to reason, it seems logical to me that you would be the most amazing Guitar Hero player playing against the Slash character. Is that true?

Slash: I suck (laughs).

Conan O’ Brien: What do you mean you suck?! You're Slash, you're an amazing guitarist.

Slash: I’m not very good at Guitar Hero, though. There's a difference between playing guitar - you know, I appreciate the compliment, but…

Conan O’ Brien: (Laughs).

Slash: (Laughs).

Conan O’ Brien: I think you'd be great at a video game.

Slash: There's a difference between playing the guitar and playing Guitar Hero. It's two different animals, and I think as a guitar player it's harder to play Guitar Hero than it is if you don't play guitar and you play it.

Conan O’ Brien: Really? Because you're…

Slash: That’s my theory.

Conan O’ Brien: Right (laughs).

Slash: Other than that, I'm just stupid (laughs).

Conan O’ Brien: (Laughs) That's your story and you're sticking to it.

Slash: Well, I think I listen to it more than I watch the…

Conan O’ Brien: You're supposed to watch those little colors…

Slash: You know, I’ve realized that if I don't know the song, I don't know what I’m doing, which means I’m more listening to it and I’m not watching the dots so much.

Conan O’ Brien: Right, right.

Slash: I play by ear anyway, so it's intuitive.

Conan O’ Brien: Yeah. And it's like, you don't need to learn how to be good at Guitar Hero.

Slash: Yeah, but-

Conan O’ Brien: You are a guitar hero.

Slash: Have you ever played it?

Conan O’ Brien: Yes, I have. I have played it, yeah.

Slash: It's pretty addicting. I played it today and right away I was like, I have to put this down before I can't stop. You know, and I’ve got appointments and other things to do.

Conan O’ Brien: You’re gonna have to cancel everything for the next four years.

Conan O’ Brien: Could you imagine if it was a no show? Like, “Where is he?” “He's playing Guitar Hero and we can't get him out of the room” (laughs).

Conan O’ Brien: (Laughs) We would bring a camera crew and find. You he'd be in there, “LEAVE ME ALONE!”

Slash: I'm trying to be Barracuda - I think that was the song I was playing.

Conan O’ Brien: Well, you'll get it. You'll nail it. Just give it time, be patient. You can't rush these things.

Slash: (Laughs) No, listen, in my own defense, I did beat Guitar Hero 2. But I just haven't played it in so long that I need to practice.

Conan O’ Brien: You really can't let this go! (laughs)

Slash: (Laughs)

Conan O’ Brien: Listen!

Slash: Well, you know, I represent. I gotta represent it.

Conan O’ Brien: Yeah, yeah. I think it's a great honor.

Slash: Yeah, I thought so, too. It was very flattering to call you up and go, “Hey, would you be the next rock legend?” (laughs) I wrote a book, right (laughs).

Conan O’ Brien: (Laughs) He just wants to talk about Guitar Hero. I think people should check out this book, because you've been extremely honest about everything and it's a fascinating story. “Slash,” get the book. And Slash, thank you so much. You're welcomed here anytime.

Slash: Thank you so much.

Conan O’ Brien: It was really nice talking to you, that was fantastic. We'll take a break, folks. We'll be right back.