1995.04.07 - The Boston Globe - Slash: Cutting Tracks In The Snakepit

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Slash: cutting tracks in the Snakepit

By Steve Morse
GLOBE STAFF

Slash is having a ball. On leave from Guns N’ Roses, he’s marauding through the clubs again, laying waste to a whole new generation of rockers. And he’s headed to Boston on April 15. What better way to spend tax day than with Slash?

“The kids are right there in front of me,” says Slash, who plays Axis that night with his new side-project band, the Snakepit. “It’s way more personal than playing stadiums with Guns N’ Roses. It’s a huge release for me - very liberating. And it’s nice to know' I still have the heart and soul to do it, to get my hands dirty again. Because with Guns N’ Roses, after a while you forget what it’s really like out there.”

Slash is still in demand as a session player - he just cut some tracks for Michael Jackson’s next disc - but he gets his biggest kicks on the road. “Hey, it’s even nice to get back to Holiday Inns,” he says.

The new Snakepit had an informal start when Guns drummer Matt Sorum and former Guns guitarist Gilby Clarke “came over for a few beers and to play some pinball, then we worked up some [musical] arrangements,” says Slash. They recorded the songs in a studio in what he calls his “Earthquake ’94 House” in Los Angeles. The result was “It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere,” an uneven record that has some wild, boogie-laden highs and some dashed-off lows. But it’s a carryover project until Guns singer Axl Rose gets ready to work again.

“I played Axl the material when it was in demo form and he said he didn’t want to do that kind of music anymore,” says Slash. “Then after the record was done, he said he wanted to do it. ... To this day I don’t know where Axl’s head is at.”

Slash and Axl, however, have begun recording the next Guns album. “I’m not sure when it will be out. For the moment, I’m just enjoying being on the road with the Snakepit,” Slash says.