2008.03.28 - Sky News - Interview with Slash

Transcript:

Interviewer: Slash, welcome to Sky News.

Slash: Hey.

Interviewer: You're here to talk about your signature guitars and for the layperson, what does a signature guitar mean?

Slash: A signature guitar is basically a guitar that's designed more or less around a particular artist. and in this case a Les Paul which is a pretty standard popular guitar but it's got a couple trademarks on it or within it that are identifiable to me.

Interviewer: So is this a copy of your guitar or is this something you've designed?

Slash: Well this particular one is not a copy of my guitar. There's three different models, one of those models is a copy of my guitar. This one is a Les Paul which has my kind of pickups that I use. It has certain particular pieces of hardware that I use, a certain shape of the neck, you know, just little things that I prefer on the Les Paul. So they decided to basically design one based around those facts.

Interviewer: Now that you are a world famous guitarist they want to do this for you, back in the day you did phone Gibson, didn't you, and asked for some free guitar? What did they say? "Slash who?"

Slash: "We'll sell it, we'll sell you at a cost", which is basically artists costs.

Interviewer: But you were also fairly well-known at that stage?

Slash: We were just, we were sort of on the ladder going up. you know. and at that point you could, you know, they don't know if you're gonna be around for a long time or anything. You could disappear in a second so people aren't usually willing to take a lot of risks.

Interviewer: And these days when they give you guitars, have you got to play them on TV or what's what's the deal?

Slash: I really don't have to do anything. You know, if they give me a guitar basically they just, you know, I need it for something, you know, for touring, or for a recording, they're just happy to give it to me. I don't have any obligations as far as, you know, talking to you or anything like that. In this particular case though it's nice to get the word out that you've got something with your name on it so that people know that it's out there.

Interviewer: And as well as the expensive versions you've got the kind of inexpensive one here, the Epiphone. I mean if somebody starting out, why will this guitar... does it make it easier for them to play I mean you'd be the next smaller [?] isn't it I think that a standard [?]

Slash: The neck is a little bit thinner but that's not really, you know, a really big issue for a beginning guitar player, I wouldn't imagine. None of these are tailor-made necessarily for the beginning of the guitar player except for in the Epiphone, which is a really good guitar. It's a little bit more affordable.

Interviewer: Guitars have been a massive part of your life, hasn't it?-

Slash: Pretty big!

Interviewer: If you hadn't played guitar, have you ever thought about what you'd have done with your life if you hadn't done that?

Slash: Well I've been asked that question a couple times and I probably would have.... before started playing guitar and BMX racing and all that, I was always an artist, like illustrator kind of thing, graphics and stuff, and I probably would have headed in that direction. I still do it, not really in the professional sense, except for I do design logos for the bands that I'm in and t-shirts and stuff like that.

Interviewer: You still do that?

Slash: Yeah.

Interviewer: You think guitar got you into trouble or kept you out of trouble?

Slash: It got me into a different kind of trouble but I think all in all it would... guitars probably got me a little bit more focused and a little bit less haphazard and less of a danger to other people and actually more of a danger to myself [laughs].

Interviewer: You've come out the other side about now?

Slash: Yeah, I try.

Interviewer: What's life for you like now?

Slash: Oh god, it seems like everybody asks me that as well. Really, it's not that much different, you know, because music's always been like the main focal point, the rest of it was just sort of extracurricular. And so I still hang out in the same circles and I pretty much do the same thing but I'm not habitually using the same recreational chemicals as I used to, you know.

Interviewer: It's a lot clearer for you now?

Slash: Yeah it's great because I can really tell the difference between how I was then and where my focus is at this point and it's, you know, it's just one of those things actually after you've been doing it a long time you tend to burn out on it and everything else sort of goes along with it. So it's one of the other, you know.

Interviewer: Do you look back on it with regret or do you look at it as something you just came with the territory or how do -

Slash: I have no regrets about anything, you know [chuckles]. I can fall off the wagon tomorrow, right after we get done talking, you know. But all things considered, no, I have really just basically.... considering I never, you know, harmed anybody [chuckles], you know, or caused anything any harm to anybody or whatever. I have no regrets whatsoever.

Interviewer: We were listening to a bit of Amy Winehouse before you came here, I mean, she's obviously someone-

Slash: On this thing? [pointing to a jukebox]

Interviewer: Yeah, on the jukebox here. She's obviously someone very talented but going through a problems with drugs, I mean, do you look at her and think, "Well, you know, that's what happened to me," or do you, I mean, how do you see, sort of, her situation?

Slash: Oh yeah, you know, the thing is, you know, it's so under the microscope these days, you know, what I mean, it's... I don't know exactly to the extent of her situation, it doesn't necessarily seem like that big a deal to me but it's really blown out of proportion when it hits the media the way it does. I was horrible but no one really knew about it except for, you know, people that were close to me [chuckles]. And it was never really an issue, you know, sort of, that was just the way it was. So I'm sure she will sort things out if she want [?].

Interviewer: Coming back to the guitars, how many of these things have you got now, you think?

Slash: It's roughly between 90 and 100 and we sort of keep it that way.

Interviewer: [?]

Slash: I'm not a collector but I did go through an explosive guitar buying period and, like, I think it was like 1991, and I did pick up a lot of instruments at that particular point. But as of lately I'm not really out in the market looking for... you only really need one or two [laughing] when it comes down to it.

Interviewer: A lot of guitarists when they're starting out think they've got to get the best one to play, I mean, what would you say? [?]

Slash: [?] trying ty figure what is the best one you really, you know, as a kid you are... as an aspiring... young aspiring guitar player you're very impressionable and you're looking for your sound, you're looking for the right thing that's for you in terms of aesthetics and all these other different things and then there's all these magazines with tons of advertisements for all these different piece of gear and then there's different artists that you're influenced by and this and that, and so you go through this long seemingly endless searching period, you know, and you pick up a lot of stuff along the way but it's something that it's inevitable, every guitar player goes through.

Interviewer: The last 12 months, Slash, we've seen a lot of bands who've said, "Never again," they'll never reform again, reforming, even Led Zep got back together. What would it take to get Guns N' Roses back on the stage together, the whole band again?

Slash: I don't know, I guess that would be some sort of twist of fate [chuckles].

Interviewer: Not money, then?

Slash: No, if it was for the money we would have done it years ago. But it's just, you know, you know, I used to be really bitter about the whole thing and I was adamant that there was no possible way that could ever happen and in light of the trend right now of everybody getting back together for the cash, I don't think we'd want to, you know, do it, especially based on those reasons, but definitely not to do it to keep up with the Joneses. I think it would just be one of those things where everybody all of a sudden decided, or maybe a couple, two guys, decided you, know, "Let's really do this," and it turned out to be an idea that everybody was into. It's a possibility but there would be so many little things that would, I mean big things, that would have to change before it was even possible and I don't see that happening. So it's just it's not in the foreseeable future as far as I'm concerned.

Interviewer: Does that inspire you though that Led Zep, I mean, bands that you think never because they hated each other back, you know. The Police certainly had ended up hating each other but they've got back on stage. Did that raise your eyebrows a little bit?

Slash: No, I really don't pay much attention to, you know, like, the internal stuff that's going on with other bands, I got enough issues of my own, so I didn't know what was going on with The Police. I never really kept up with The Police anyway and the fact that they got back together wasn't a huge marvel to me, you know. Obviously Led Zeppelin getting back together was sort of like, "Oh cool!" you know. I wanted to go to that gig. That was one of the ones that would have been cool to go to. But, you know, some people do it for the right reasons some people do it for monetary reasons or whatever but I think the main thing is when you know fans are really... I mean that would be the main reason to do Guns would just be for the fans that got missed out on that whole thing. That would be the main priority as far as I was concerned.