2022.02.08 - O Globo - Interview with Slash

Thanks to @Voodoochild!

Auto-translated from Portuguese:
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Slash: 'We've been offstage for a long time and the audience is dying to get out of the house'
Guns N' Roses guitarist returns to concerts with his side group, Myles Kennedy & the Conspirators, which releases album on guitar maker Gibson's label

Silvio Essinger

The big news about “4”, the fourth album by the Slash group featuring Myles Kennedy & the Conspirators , is not even in the sound – a very traditional and very well-made hard rock – but in the label that decided to release it: Gibson Records, set up by the legendary American company of musical instruments, especially rock's hottest guitars.

“They asked me if I wanted to be their first release. It seemed like the perfect combination. I was very happy to have accepted the invitation. Why hadn't anyone thought of this before? asks Slash, 56, best known as the Guns N' Roses guitarist who lives with his head buried in a top hat. “I have a bunch of guitars, and about 90% are Gibson. It's rare that you find a picture of me playing a Fender, it's usually when I'm going to hang out and borrow a guitar. I even have some Fenders, but in my collection there are all kinds of Gibson: Les Paul, Explorer, Flying V, Melody Maker, Firebird, Junior... I like all these models.

With a release scheduled for this Friday, “4” will only be seen live by Brazilians around the beginning of 2023, says the guitarist. But before that, in September of this year, he returns to Brazil, at Rock in Rio, with Guns N' Roses , about which he has been saying that he has a new album in preparation (it will be the first since "Chinese Democracy", from 2008 , in which he did not participate).

— We are probably going to release some new Guns songs this year, but I don’t think we’re going to release any albums until the festival — he says, who until the middle of the year will dedicate himself to the promotion of “4”, an album recorded practically live. in the studio in Nashville, produced by David Cobb, responsible for records by country and folk stars such as Chris Stapleton and John Prine. “When we talked to David, he said he didn't have a studio he thought was suitable in Los Angeles, so we decided to make the trip. And the studio was wonderful, it had a special atmosphere. I think all the great artists who recorded there somehow left an indelible mark that you can feel.

The recordings went from strength to strength until Covid took over the band, formed by Myles Kennedy (from the group Alter Bridge, on vocals), Todd Kerns (bass), Brent Fitz (drums) and Frank Sidoris (guitar).

“We were quarantining ourselves successively: first Myles, then Brent and Todd, and finally me. We had to wait a long time there before we could mix the record,” says Slash. — We all stayed in an Airbnb in Nashville, each one isolated in his room. There wasn't much to do but play guitar and watch TV. I had just been vaccinated when I tested positive, so my quarantine was short, I didn't have many symptoms. But Myles and Brent weren't vaccinated and were pretty sick for about four days.

The pandemic disrupted the guitarist's routine, who began to make rock history in 1985 when he joined vocalist Axl Rose's Guns N' Roses.

“Going on tour to play music is basically what I do for a living, so I felt really overwhelmed when it all happened so suddenly. Not only did everything stop, but it left all the people who work with us without a job. Those were hard times, but we kept looking for the light at the end of the tunnel and hoping that it would end soon — he resigns himself, who returns to the stage this Tuesday night, in Portland (USA) with Myles Kennedy & the Conspirators. - It's going to be something very explosive, we've been off the stage for a long time and the audience is dying to get out of the house and see live music.

But at home, Slash also manages to find a lot of action, as his two sons are now musicians. London, 19, plays drums in rock band S8NT ELEKTRIC — until last year, he was part of Suspect208, a group with Noah (son of the late Scott Weiland, singer of Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver) and Tye (son of Robert Trujillo, Metallica bassist). And Cash, 17, is a rap producer.

“He's different from London, the boy creates beats and plays the piano very well. Cash is not much for live music, he does everything in his room - explains the big daddy.

https://oglobo.globo.com/cultura/musica/slash-ficamos-fora-dos-palcos-por-muito-tempo-o-publico-esta-doido-para-sair-de-casa-25384356?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=O%20Globo

We are probably going to release some new Guns songs this year, but I don’t think we’re going to release any albums until the festival

From @Voodoochild at mygnrforum:

[...] I looked out for more info and talked to the journalist who wrote the piece (I won't provide any screenshot or personal info about him). He asked if there would be a new GNR album before Rock in Rio. It turns out that the actual quote in English is this:

"there will probably a new song or something out before then, but I don't think there will be a new record"

https://www.mygnrforum.com/topic/223057-the-new-album-thread-susan-mckagan-says-album-is-cominguniversal-database-implies-new-album-is-coming-because-the-numbers-between-hard-skool-and-absurd-are-missing/?do=findComment&comment=4925491

Quite a different thing when you get the original reply in English.