2010.06.04 - Billboard - Slash Talks About the Guns N' Roses Legacy

Slash Talks About the Guns N' Roses Legacy

Slash talks about the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame, the legacy of Guns N' Roses, why they were so popular and what would have happened if they had stayed together.

Guns N' Roses will be eligible for induction into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame in 2013 and although he says he'll be there, former guitarist Slash says he doesn't know the event might turn out.

He says he'd have been a fan of the band even if he'd never been part of it, and he lists some unpredictable tracks among his favourites.

Slash, who left GN'R in 1996, tells Billboard.com: "I'm not sure what it was about the chemistry of the group or the songs that have resonated for so long. But there was something about the honesty of Axl Rose's lyrics and the energy of the music people related to. It was a phenomenon.

"If Guns had stayed together it would have gone through some musical changes. Axl has his thing and I was sticking to whatever it is I do. But it would have stayed as big and relevant as it was when I first started."

Unsurprisingly Slash lists the band's classics as amongst his top tracks from their catalogue: Sweet Child O' Mine, Paradise City, My Michelle and so on. But he says he's "fond" of Coma and Locomotive from Use Your Illusion I and II respectively, and says the video for Paradise City is the only one he likes because it was live.

The band become eligible for Hall of Fame induction in 2013 and it's almost unthinkable they won't be voted in first time round. Whatever happens, Slash is planning to attend.

But he says: "I have no idea how that's supposed to go. If Axl, Duff, Izzy and myself start communicating, it could go one way. If we don't, God knows.

"Guns N' Roses was all the really great bands I was turned on to as a kid. If I hadn't been in Guns it would have been my favourite band."