2007.11.27 - Much On Demand - Interview with Slash

Transcript:
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Interviewer: Welcome back! You're watching Much On Demand. Okay, so it's probably one of the most interesting books I've read in forever, and so we have Slash here. It's all about him. Please welcome Slash!

[Applause]

Interviewer: Hello! How are you? Very nice to meet you. Welcome, welcome. [To the audience in the studio] You’re very loud! It’s gonna quiet down… Okay, can I just say this? I started reading this book yesterday afternoon at my house and I finished it by lunchtime today. I could not stop reading it.

Slash: Seriously?

Interviewer: No, I swear on my death. By the time I was done, it was kind of like I felt brain-dead, because I had all this information. I was like, I needed to get a coffee to have some… It was unbelievable, though. I couldn't put it down.

Slash: Thank you.

Interviewer: So, you know, there's so much to talk about in this book, but I wish you were here for, like, a full hour so we get to every single topic, because it's so interesting. Some of the things like why Guns N’ Roses broke up-

Slash: That was the main reason I wrote the book.

Interviewer: Yeah – and trashing hotel rooms or stories about STDs… It's just amazing. But I just want to ask you why you decided to put it all down.

Slash: Well, what happened was, I decided I was gonna write the book because I wanted to set the record straight on a lot of the Guns N’ Roses mania that's been going on. So we figured the best way to do it was to do it in book form. And this is why the timing is such, it’s because in the last couple of years the Guns N' Roses stuff has been overwhelming - and because of Velvet Revolver: I'm out doing press all the time and I have to deal with 15% or 20% of Guns N' Roses questions, all the same stupid stuff. So we said, “Well, let's do an autobiography.” So it's a snapshot of my life and the Guns stuff is in there, and… there you have it.

Interviewer: You're probably one of the most fascinating people I've ever interviewed. I know we've just started the interview, but I'm sitting there reading and I do, like, call my mom - like, I never knew this about you. It's unbelievable. Like your upbringing, just surrounded by creative people. Your mother was a costumer who made costumes for, like, Ringo Starr, John Lennon…

Slash: Yeah…

Interviewer: And then your father was a painter, an artist…

Slash: Right…

Interviewer: You had, like, Joni Mitchell living a couple doors down from you…

Slash: Yeah.

Interviewer: Jim Morrison lived in the area where you grew up in L.A… I was just like, “Holy…” – you know what.

Slash: (Laughs) It was a pretty eclectic upbringing, you know. But it was good. It sort of prepared me for the life I was going to live later.

Interviewer: Well, of course you were a little rock star in training.

Slash: (Laughs).

Interviewer: You'd have to think that would have some sort of impact on your career as an artist, right?

Slash: Yeah. It’s funny, too, because I have two boys.

Interviewer: They're adorable. Their pictures in the book are so cute.

Slash: And I'm sort of looking at the lifestyle that they're raised in to and seeing what they're going to end up being like.

Interviewer: It's amazing it, isn’t it?

Slash: But I'll keep a tighter leash on them than my mom did (laughs).

Interviewer: Will you?

Slash: Yeah (laughs).

Interviewer: But everything happens for a reason, right? Everything you’ve gone through?

Slash: That’s the way I look at it.

Interviewer: You know, it's interesting, because I read that when you're about 13 or 14 is when you really knew that – because you obviously you rode BMX bikes, you had that love, but then you knew that guitar was the only thing that you, like, really wanted to do, that you thoroughly enjoyed.

Slash: It just came really abruptly. I picked it up when I was 15, and as soon as I played those first couple notes, that was it.

Interviewer: Yeah, that's amazing to me, because I think back to when I was 13 and I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life. So what was that moment for you?

Slash: I didn't really know what I wanted to do with my life, either. The only thing is I discovered guitar and I was completely absorbed in that. I didn't know what the whole future was going to bring, but I wouldn't put it down.

Interviewer: You just knew it was your, like, one true love.

Slash: I discovered this one thing. I found my calling.

Interviewer: Thank the Lord, right?

Slash: (Laughs) Yeah.

Interviewer: Thank the Lord that happened. Well, now, speaking of, because obviously Guns N’ Roses was, you know, one of the best rock bands of all time…

Slash: Yeah…

Interviewer: Right?

Slash: It definitely was, yeah.

Interviewer: Absolutely, and you've talked about it a lot in this. But one of the things that I never knew is that you guys kind of found each other in a L.A. It was, like, a free newspaper kind of thing? Like a “Wanted” ad?

Slash: Yeah-

Interviewer: It's just crazy!

Slash: They had us, like, basically in the Classifieds that was called The Recycler. I knew Steve Adler already and we were friends – like, when we were 13 or 14 years old we were best friends. Then I answered an ad in the paper for Izzy and Axl at one point, but I met them later. It’s sort of convoluted how that all happened. And then I had an ad in the paper for a bass player, and that’s how I met Duff. And we were all wandering around the same scene, and we had different combinations or different variations of different bands. It was like, Axl and Izzy and I had – or Axl and Steven and I had a band, Duff, Steven and I had a band, Axl and Izzy had a band. Then, finally, we all came together.

Interviewer: It was all the same circles. Do you think it was faith?

Slash: Yeah, it was definitely faith.

Interviewer: It was meant to be.

Slash: We were, like, the only five guys in L.A. that could have made up that band, and it was us against them. But there was definitely a hand of something sort of-

Interviewer: Drawing you together, right?

Slash: Together, yeah.

Interviewer: Like magnetism, obviously.

Slash: And all the songs that we wrote, the way they came together and all that, the record that we made.

Interviewer: Absolutely. Okay can I read an excerpt from the book?

Slash: Sure.

Interviewer: Is that okay? I laughed out loud.

Slash: It’s not about Izzy on my leg, right? Not that part (laughs).

Interviewer: I had to! It's the funniest thing-

Slash: Oh, that’s it? (laughs)

Interviewer: Of course it is! It’s the funniest thing I've ever read. Can I read it? Is that cool?

Slash: I don't know, you guys have the ratings-

Interviewer: Well, I'm not gonna say that f-word.

Slash: Okay.

Interviewer: How about that? Okay.

Slash: I'll say it.

Interviewer: Okay. [Reads from Slash’s book:] “I remember being up in the bunk one night after a show with Izzy and some girl. We were taking turns having sex with her, but Izzy wasn’t wearing any protection, so when he pulled out, he ‘bleeping’ finished” – I’m gonna say ‘finished’ – “on my leg.” I was dying! That’s the greatest-

Slash: We used to live in really, really cramped quarters.

Interviewer: Uh-huh… You were pretty close.

Slash: I was doing Howard Stern a couple of weeks ago, and Izzy was listening and heard that on the radio, and thought it was very funny, because he didn't remember that. And I said, “I'll never forget it.”

Interviewer: But that's the best part, there's so many stories. How did you remember all these amazing moments of your life?

Slash: Well, once I got started on the book, I was sort of forced to. And once I got into that sort of rhythm of using as best recalls as I could, it actually all came back pretty well. Now, at this point, I can remember everything.

Interviewer: Really?

Slash: Yeah (laughs).

Interviewer: I wish I could do that. I don't remember last week.

Slash: Well, that's what I thought.

Interviewer: Yeah.

Slash: But when you’re forced to… It’s either writing a book or being in court; you end up… it comes back to you (laughs).

Interviewer: It's probably like a therapy session, almost, right?

Slash: I wouldn't call it that.

Interviewer: You wouldn't? For me it would be.  

Slash: No. It’s not very therapeutic.

Interviewer: No? It was hard to get it all out?

Slash: (Laughs) It was a lot of work.

Interviewer: Was it?

Slash: Yeah.

Interviewer: But you're probably so proud of it, though, right now. Right?

Slash: I’m proud because it's done, you know. And people seem to be digging it, which is really cool, because I didn't expect much. It was written intentionally for Guns N' Roses fans, and I figured, if they needed a source to find out some real information, here's a book. But I didn't expect everybody to pick it up.

Interviewer: That's what I mean. Whether you're a Guns N’ Roses fan or not, anybody that loves reading will love this book, just because of the stories. You know what I'm saying?

Slash: Thank you very much.