2011.01.19 - SoundSpike - Q&A: Slash

Q&A: Slash

Story by Christina Fuoco-Karasinski
SoundSpike Contributor

What started as a one-off project has become the fulfillment of a lifelong dream for legendary guitarist Slash, formerly of Guns N' Roses.

To support his self-titled album, Slash recruited stellar musicians Myles Kennedy (lead vocalist for Alter Bridge), Bobby Schneck (rhythm guitar), Todd Kerns (bass) and Brent Fitz (drums), and now the band will hit the road with Ozzy Osbourne. Slash and his cohorts will pull songs from his first true solo album, "Slash" (Dik Hayd Records via EMI Label Services), a certain selection of Guns N' Roses tunes, a little Velvet Revolver and even some Slash's Snakepit gems.

"It's one of those one-offs that happens to have a certain magic to it," Slash told SoundSpike. "It started as a one-off and now it's a long-term thing. It had that spark to it when we first got together. Every night is a new night. It's not all mapped out, so we just go and we do what we do."

In April 2010, the guitarist and songwriter released "Slash," which debuted on the Billboard 200 album chart at No. 3 (and at No. 1 on the Rock chart, No. 1 on the Independent chart and No. 1 on the Hard Music chart). The collection also became the No. 1 overall digital album and hit No. 1 on iTunes in 13 countries. The 14-song CD features collaborations with vocalists Osbourne, Iggy Pop, Ian Astbury, Lemmy Kilmister, Chris Cornell, Rocco DeLuca, Dave Grohl, Kennedy, Kid Rock, Adam Levine of Maroon 5, Duff McKagan, M. Shadows of Avenged Sevenfold and Andrew Stockdale of Wolfmother.

The tour started Sunday (1/16) in Omaha, NE, and will continue through Feb. 22, when Slash and Osbourne perform at Jacksonville, FL's Jacksonville Veterans Memorial.

While taking a break from "getting all my shit together" for the tour, Slash spoke to SoundSpike about choosing the vocalists for the album, the forthcoming tour and a proposed statue of himself and Kilmister in their hometown of Stoke-on-Trent, England.

SoundSpike: Are you looking forward to the tour?

Slash: Of course. The band sounds great. For the Ozzy set, we only have a 50-minute set, so I have to keep certain songs in there. But I managed to squeeze in a couple new songs.

A couple new songs that aren't on the album, or …

Just songs that we didn't do on the last tour. We've got headlining shows in between some of the Ozzy dates where we're doing a two-hour set where we have a lot of material.

That's amazing that you chose Myles Kennedy of Alter Bridge to be your singer.

Yeah, well, Myles is somebody that I just was not real aware of when I was making the record. I got to the end of the record -- I had recorded 90 percent of it -- and I had two songs left over. I couldn't figure out who would sing them. I had just become familiar with Myles but I didn't know his voice that well. I just heard a lot about him. I just took a shot in the dark and said, "Let's see what this guy Myles Kennedy is like." I sent him some music and he came back with the lyrics and the melodies and I was like, "This is fucking great." It was an exciting discovery for me, personally.

What does he bring to your music, particularly on the songs he doesn't sing on the album?

It's a really tall order to adapt your voice to this many different types of songs: Guns N' Roses to any number of songs off my records, Velvet Revolver to [Slash's] Snakepit. It's all different styles. And he just manages to do it. It's nothing short of miraculous, without sounding too dramatic. He does it so that the song is totally recognizable, but he still has his own sort of style.

When you wrote the album, did you write the songs specifically for different singers, or did they bring the lyrics to you?

I wrote the music, and the music inspired who I thought would be a good singer for it. I think that's why it worked so well. I definitely identified a vocalist for each song based on the style of it. I let them take the ball and run with it. It was an open canvas for them to do whatever they want.

It must have been inspiring.

It was fun. It was a lot of fun. It was a unique and different experience to work with that kind of process where you take an original piece of music, find somebody that you like that you think would fit on it, give it to them too and work together to work on the arrangement, or whatever it needs to sort of adapt it. And go in the studio with each of these different people.

You have some pretty unlikely collaborations on the album, like Adam Levine of Maroon 5 and Fergie from the Black Eyed Peas.

The Fergie one, I wanted a good rock 'n' roll female vocal for. A couple years previous, I heard Fergie sing outside of the realm of what the Black Eyed Peas do. I don't think anybody had ever heard her sing like that. It was really exciting. When it came time to make the record, I was like, "I know who would be good for this." The Adam Levine choice, that particular piece of music, if you listen to it without the vocals, it's very unique style for me, based on what everybody else is familiar with, anyway. It needed a certain kind of vocal. And Adam's got this really great, smooth bluesy voice that fit perfectly with it.

Being that I'm from Michigan, I have to ask what it was like to work with Kid Rock.

Bobby [real name Bob Ritchie] was awesome. I'd known him here and there over the years. Not real well, but we've jammed together. He's fun to hang out with. I was actually at Fergie's wedding when I approached him about this particular song. Bobby has his own way of doing things. He definitely has his own point of view and his own style. It's very rock 'n' roll. The way he wanted to do it was just to jam it out -- either at his house or somewhere in a band situation -- which is what a rock' n' roll band does. I thought that was real exciting. So I flew out to his house [in Oakland County, Michigan] and we just worked on the song. I had the basic parts. We sort of wrote it from the ground up with some local guys in the neighborhood just to get a live feel. Then I went back, re-recorded the song and sent it back to him. He put the vocal on it. It was just really sort of organic that way. And he sang great. I've known of Kid Rock since the '90s and he's gone through a lot of different styles. A lot of people are familiar with his pseudo-hip-hop kind of thing. He's only recently pulled out this blues-rock kind of thing. He did this song, and that's how he approached it. It was just a really great performance.

When you open for Ozzy, are you going to do "Crucify the Dead" from "Slash" with Ozzy?

We'll see. We talked briefly about it last week. The band has rehearsed the song and we know how to play it. We'll just see how it goes.

What else can we expect from the live show?

It's a great fucking rock band, the likes of which you don't see around these days. It's very genuine, in the rock sense. It's got a lot of energy and a lot of balls. Good players and all that kind of stuff. Also, it's a good chemistry.

Yesterday, I was reading NME and it said there's a movement to erect a statue of you at Stoke-on-Trent, England?

Stoke-on-Trent is where I'm from. I think that's very cool. I think it's a statue of Lemmy and myself. They're petitioning it. It's very flattering. It's nice to be in the company of Lemmy, who's a longtime hero of mine and good friend and everything. I don't know if it's actually going to see the light of day, and we'll see.

How's it coming along with the new Velvet Revolver singer?

Well, there's been a lot of talk about that, and a decision hasn't totally been made yet. I don't want to say it's a state of limbo, but it's just sort of hovering there right now.

What are you doing for the rest of the year?

I'm touring. I'm touring with Ozzy, then we go out to Asia and Australia and South America. Then, I'll come back, work on some new material for a new record that I plan on doing with Myles. Then, go back out in the summer with this band and Myles, and tour some more. And any number of things could happen between now and then.

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