2024.05.21 - Paris Match - Slash at the roots of the blues

Original article in French:
https://www.parismatch.com/culture/musique/slash-aux-sources-du-blues-237665

Translation:
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Slash at the roots of the blues

The Guns N' Roses guitarist summoned his musician friends to cover the standards that inspired him. Remarkable.

By Benjamin Locoge

Generally speaking, Slash's solo efforts have left us unimpressed. The guitarist, surrounded by a band and a bad singer, Myles Kennedy, has tended to wallow in bloated metal riffs and soulless songs. Out of a sense of conscience, we gave "Orgy of The Damned" a listen anyway. And, despite an undignified album cover, Slash is here to challenge us once again.

Here, the man in the black hat embarks on a journey to the heart of the blues, summoning his pals to jam with him. Chris Robinson of the Black Crowes sings on "The Pusher", the Steppenwolf song used in the film "Easy Rider", ZZ Top leader Billy Gibbons tackles Muddy Waters' "Hoochie Coochie Man", Chris Stapleton takes on Fleetwood Mac's "Oh Well". We're delighted to hear Demi Lovato on "Papa Was a Rolling Stone", while AC/DC bellower Brian Johnson steps out of his usual register on "Killing Floor".

And let's not forget Beth Hart, who rivals the boss on "Stormy Monday". Slash slips his notes and solos into the gaps, no longer trying to impress, the man who performs in stadiums all over the world with Guns N' Roses, or who still packed the Paris Zenith under his own name on April 29. The next day, we find him at the Paris Match offices, smiling at the whole team, sitting in the conference room amidst the newspaper's archives. "You know I used to sell Paris Match as a teenager? It was one of the magazines we had in the store I ran on Hollywood Boulevard.

Completing a project started decades ago

At the age of 58, Slash is above all delighted to be bringing to fruition a project he started decades ago. "I started a band in the mid-1990s with a few friends to play in bars, without anyone paying any attention to me. Since then, I've always wanted to record with those guys. But it took me thirty years to get there...". His encounter with the blues dates back to his arrival in the United States.

Saul Hudson, born in the London suburb of Hampstead in 1965, arrived in Laurel Canyon in 1971. His neighbors? "Joni Mitchell, David Crosby. The Doors or Steppenwolf were still very popular in Los Angeles, my father listened to a lot of stuff, my parents had me very young, so I was always cradled by the music of the time. In the United States, our musical palette logically broadened. It was my grandmother who pushed me towards B.B. King - she thought all those young English bands had done nothing but copy him!"

Saul picked up his first guitar at the age of 15 and tried to copy everything he heard: "Led Zeppelin, Cheap Trick, Black Sabbath, Van Halen and even the Cars," he smiles. My musical range is much wider than what people know about me. Blues isn't a genre I've dabbled in with Guns N' Roses or Velvet Revolver." Although any questions about Guns are off-limits, Slash can't avoid returning to it himself. "Playing the blues after I left the band was probably a lot more therapeutic than I wanted to believe at the time. In the end, the only thing that kept me going was my love of music." Which still gives him a lot.

A quick trip to the Oscars and back

Recently, Slash was Ryan Gosling's surprise guest at the Oscars. "When I was asked if I was available to go and play at the ceremony, I looked at my schedule. It fell between a show in Seoul and another in Manila, two days later. So I politely declined. But that was without taking into account the power of Hollywood. "Three weeks before the event, I was told that Ryan wouldn't sing if I didn't play with him. So everything was arranged for me to go. A private plane was waiting for me after the Seoul concert. I arrived on Saturday to rehearse, and found myself completely out of place. Then, the next day, I did my performance, which lasted just 28 seconds, and the Mattel boss's jet flew me straight to the Philippines."

From the blues to Barbie to the never-ending touring with Guns, whom he finally rejoined in 2016, Slash never knows when to settle down. "Let's just say that after a week's vacation my fingers are itchy. I still want to play, to be on stage." Even to play the riff from "Sweet Child O'Mine" for the thousandth time? "Of course. It's a damn good song, the kind of track that makes you flinch as soon as you hear it. When you have that kind of song in your catalog, you know you've got something special." We couldn't agree more.