Matt Rowley talks to Slash…. yep that one!

Matt Rowley

I caught up with the legendary Slash from Guns and Roses in the small hours of this morning. I hope you enjoy it as much as. I do.

We have a legendary treat for you today. None other than the iconic guitarist from Guns N’ Roses, the man behind some of the most memorable scene rock history journey, and his legacy. And what’s next on his horizon? So crank up the volume and get ready for an congratulations on allergy of the damned. It is quite an interesting and deep.

Slash

Look not sure how deep it is, but it was a fun record to make and it was really a great live in a studio and at least all the music was the singers we had to do it. The music was just done jamming studio. It was a lot of.

Matt Rowley

I suppose the 12 steps were like a journey through time and space covering a lot of ground, don’t you?

Slash

Think. Yeah, it’s sort of labelled as a Blues record, but it’s really sort of a mid-Blues kind of things.

Matt Rowley

Well, I suppose it was kind of a long-cherished wish of yours. Slashes Blues live in the 90s. Those live shows released on any recordings, were they?

Slash

Slashes Blues Ball was a jam band that I put together who did all Blues covers and stuff back in the 90s, late 90s. I’d always wanted to record that and I just been so busy with so many other things for so long. And then finally, when I was on a break between guns and roses legs, I was like, you know, I’m going to make that record now and I called up the same guys I worked with. Back then, Eddie, Andreas and I said, let’s go in. The studio and. We’ll post those old songs from the old set. I got a couple ideas from these, some new stuff that I want to do together and jammed it out. We brought in Tash Neal to Sing Star and then Michael Dromore to play drums. And we were off to the races, you know.

Matt Rowley

Maybe this album was like a must for you, because this is not the sound that ultimately shaped and influenced your career. Do you think?

Slash

Well, yeah, because when I first picked up the guitar, the really the first three or four notes I was I put together were just your basis of a Blues solo. And that was always been my primary influence. And so, you know, you add punk rock to that. Everything that and so I do a lot of things sitting in clubs with people doing blue stuff. Boys really felt comfortable with that vibe and that feel and that tone. And so, if this was a great way, a great venue for me to be able to do that in a band format.

Matt Rowley

Did you have a particular hero role model that fascinated you right from the start? See someone like Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, John Mayer from the Blues Breakers, maybe.

Slash

The first real traditional Blues influence that I I remember having was B.B. King. My grandpa played me some B.B. King stuff. Way back must have been like the dates when I first baby king and that spoke at that age, you’re identifying with stuff that you like the sound of. You don’t know what it is. You don’t know who it is. You don’t really necessarily even care.

Appreciate what it sounds like. And that’s stuck with me. And I was exposed to a lot of great music as a kid. A. Lot of Blues. A lot of R and. B and a lot. Of rock’n’roll and a lot of folk music too. But Fast forward to when I’m, you know, turning 15. I’m picking up the guitar and I started putting that together. Stuff that sounds interesting to me, and I’m listening to. Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page and Hendrix and back and all that. And it took me all the way back to that baby King record. And so that’s why I sort of got my education was from the English guitar players that turned me on to Albert King and B.B. King. Robert Johnson and Little Walter, Muddy Waters and Lightning, Hopkins and John Lee ******, all those guys. Were, you know, I was exposed to initially just from the British guys. Anyway, that’s all started and to this day 3 kings are probably my first you. Can be King Freddie King.

Matt Rowley

Or when are you heard Orgy of the Damned, which is, of course, the new record for the first time. I thought the album could have been called last man standing. What do you think about that?

Slash

The reason I was being sort of sarcastic in the beginning about the deepness of it was because it was really just a fun throw together. Just us playing. There wasn’t a lot of forethought and there wasn’t a lot of research. There wasn’t a lot of, like analyzation that went into we just started jamming and putting together arrangements that I thought would work and what not. But it was really fun. And easy going and laid back.

Matt Rowley

You have a very special approach to these often covered tracks classics like the pusher, Oh well or Stormy Monday. You’ve have miraculously slowed them down and they works brilliantly with the 11 tracks. Did that also surprise you a little or was it clear to you from the beginning of the process?

Slash

Yeah. Well, the 11 tracks are, you know, that whole thing I come to realise and it’s actually a sort of a discipline over the years, less is more. So, I didn’t want to do like every single Blues track that I ever was influenced by and have 20 songs on the record because it’s just too much for one record. People will lose interest. I try to keep everything. No more than 10. And because it was 1 original track, I added the 11th and I added the 11th track and the 11th hour. But yeah, to keep it simple and but for the most part I had sort of. I had very specific songs. I definitely wanted to do. I’m born under a bad sign, Keith. The highway Papa was a Rolling Stone. Every single song on there was like. Something that I specifically wanted to do and I just didn’t more you know.

Matt Rowley

Well, with the selection of songs and this is that you have used as guests on Orgy of the Damned slash. In your choice there and what were your thoughts about Papa was a Rolling Stone?

Slash

Really, it’s rare because when the Blues ball was doing their thing. We used to do a version of superstition and you know, Fast forward all these years realise that that riff has been done to death by everybody. Everybody picks up on it. It’s like a a go to riff for a lot of people. So, I just thought I don’t necessarily want to do that song. The same as we didn’t do thrill is gone because it’s just everybody does it and it’s too it’s so predictable. But I still wanted to do a Stevie Wonder track, but the living for the city song was one of my all time favourite songs. When that record came out, when I was like 7 years old was in her visions and I loved that particular song so I thought. You know, let’s tackle that song and task things are great and I thought we actually, you know, for such a different type of a song. I thought we actually did a pretty good job of it. And then Papa was a Rolling Stone was something that I used to jam with John Creperie in one of the incarnations of Snake pit, actually, this one. It’s 5:00. Somewhere during that tour, we used to jam. Was a Rolling Stone and the singer Rod Jackson did a great version of it. So this time around I really wanted to do that song, but rather than try and do emulate the temptations versions with a male vocalist with a real soul kind of sound, I thought it would be cool to have a young girl sort of telling that same story. And I called Demi. I think that really worked out well.

Matt Rowley

You could. The entire album in the sort of live format, another important feature for the incredible dynamic and vibe that the songs have. What did this mean to you?

Slash

Yeah. Well, we did all the music, the different singers. Some of them came in the Beth Hart track was totally live in the studio, but a lot of the other tracks I had to take the tapes and go over to wherever they were located and. Do the vocals there?

Matt Rowley

Well, you used a lot of guest artists and singers on Orgy of the Damned. For once, better words, criteria. Who appeared on the album?

Slash

I just would pick the song and then think, who do I think would sound good on that, you know? And actually, it worked out. I can’t because only person I didn’t get to have on the record because of a timing issue with Steve Tyler. But he did come in later and do the harmonica part and the one person who I really would have loved to have done a song on this record. Is lemming. He would have been ******* great for this and it kills me that he’s not here. That was a big bummer for me because when I was making the record it was it was sad enough not having Lemmy when he passed as it was. But you know, a few years later I’m making this record, and I forgot what song it was. I was thinking of at the time but I was like ****. Lemmy would be great, he would love. To do this, you know.

Matt Rowley

So to put you on the spot a little bit, what’s your favourite track on the album?

Slash

I’m always the first one to say no. I don’t have. A favourite track? I mean, there’s some sentimental attachments. Like I said, key to the highway and I and I had Dorothy singing and she just ******* great came in, coming in and doing that and that. So that really was the song that tied me together with the guys that I’m playing with on the record. But everything has its own personal meanings to me, you know.

Matt Rowley

When you look at the current music scene, are you interested in what happens there? What? What speaks to? You in the music scene now.

Slash

Blaming of what’s going on in the Blues scene, it’s right now. I wish the rock scene was similar. I mean, you know, the the Blues great. I think there’s a lot of really exciting players in that area. I see that there are a lot of kids that are doing rock’n’roll on their own. They from the record companies and away from all the polling on in the 90s. In the first decade of the Millennium, they’re creating their own music for themselves. No one’s trying to make money from it. No one’s trying to get a big record deal. No one’s like ambitions or limos and ******* hot chicks. It’s all about the music, and it’s really important because I think that’s what’s going to bring the rock scene back around. And that rock scene will always be there, you know, anyway. And so that’s sort of cool. But still, you know, all things considered, I’m still listening more or less to a lot of the artists I’ve been listening to, new Crows Records, great new Queens of the Stones Records, Stone Age Records, great. There’s a couple other ones, you know, so it’s nothing super new and exciting, but there is new records coming out that I’m listening to.

Matt Rowley

Are you organise your own Blues Festival in the summer and go on tour with it? Can you tell our listeners a little? Bit more about that.

Slash

Oh, the serpent festival. Yeah, it’s going to start in July, and it’s going to be in the states, but it’s myself and a bunch of different Eric Gales. I’m Samantha fish. Kingfish Warren Haynes. There’s a list of different people on so. It’s basically a festival going around, doing kind of outdoor. Amphitheatres and it should be that I’m planning on here. And overseas too.

Matt Rowley

Looking ahead, what’s your plans for the future?

Slash

Well, there’s this. And then I’m gonna go in the studio and get the next Guns and Roses record done. And then get together with guns and get together, see what’s what we’re gonna do on this next gun’s record.

Matt Rowley

Slash, it’s been a pleasure. Many thanks for joining us on our rock show.