2019.05.03 - La Nacion (Argentina) - Slash talks about his first guitar, the state of rock and the new Guns N' Roses album

Original article in Spanish:
https://www.lanacion.com.ar/espectaculos/musica/slash-habla-su-primera-guitarra-estado-del-nid2244067/

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Slash talks about his first guitar, the state of rock and the new Guns N' Roses album

By Manuel Buscalia

"I have it with me almost all the time and I grab it every day," says Slash . Almost 40 years have passed since the moment he held his first guitar in his hands, a classic that he found in his grandmother's house with a single string and with which he learned to identify the notes, but his magnetic obsession with the instrument did not last. worn out over time. "When I'm on tour I even play in the dressing room before going on stage," he says. "I could be anywhere for two or three hours playing."

This Friday the 3rd in Mexico begins Slash's new Latin American tour, which will bring him to Buenos Aires with two dates - the 17th at the Gran Rivadavia Theater and the 18th at GEBA. On this tour, the Guns N 'Roses guitarist will once again be accompanied by Myles Kennedy & The Conspirators, with whom he recorded his last three albums, including his recent work Living the Dream (2018). Twelve songs loaded with bluesy phrasing, volcanic riffs and long, electrified solos that recall his heyday with Axl Rose in Guns N' Roses.

You made solos and guitar riffs like those in "November Rain" or "Sweet Child O'Mine" that remained in rock history. In songs from Living the Dream like "Sugar Cane" or "My Antidote" you feel that same epic. How do you manage to do it again after so many years?

It is not something you decide to do, but when it happens it happens naturally. Creatively, you just come up with things and then keep pursuing them. Not all ideas are great. Solos have to have meaning in the context of the song and somehow always become like another voice. So I think that's the whole quest for me when I'm composing. But I don't have a method, I write down new ideas and record them, and see what happens.

Was that also when you did the solo for "November Rain"?

It came about when we started rehearsing the song. That was the first idea I had, like almost most of what I do (laughs). Generally, the first take is the idea I'm most comfortable with and ends up being the final product.

For some time now, rock has been losing space in the mainstream compared to other genres and in the songs that are played on the radio, even by rock groups, there are fewer and fewer solos. Do you think they can disappear?

There was always a reason to have guitar solos. That started around the '80s. From then on, for all pop music it was like "well, we don't need guitar solos." But in those years we did have many. Anyway, I don't worry about whether or not guitar solos should be in popular music. I only make them because I like them in the music I record. I like to have a guitar solo.

Rock and roll is kind of a backseat to pop music. Now in Top 40 you get pop songs, hip hop and all that, which is fine, but I think there's going to be a new wave of rock and roll bands in the next few years. I think that's going to be very exciting. We'll see what happens.

Is it true that you ended up in jail as a teenager for stealing a cassette from a Tower Records branch in Los Angeles?

Yeah! (laughs). I stole a cassette for Steven Adler on his birthday. It was Boston's first album. Later, sometime in 1984, I started working at a Tower Video store, a record store specializing in videos. I spent almost a year and a half there.

A few days ago marked three years since the first night you played again with Axl Rose and Guns N' Roses, at the Troubadour. How was that return?

The Troubadour was surreal, like some kind of magical night. In that place we had our musical beginnings, so it was also emotionally charged. We haven't played there since the 80s. It was a crazy and memorable moment.

Are you thinking about writing material for the new Guns N' Roses album while you're in South America?

When this tour ends and I return to Los Angeles we will hopefully begin to work on the new Guns album.