2005.08.DD - Total Guitar - Guitar Summit '05 (Slash)

Thanks to @Surge for sending us this article!
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Transcript of the quotes from Slash:
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SUMMIT '05

WELCOME TO TOTAL GUITAR'S BIGGEST EVER ANNUAL SUMMIT, LIVE AND LOUD FROM THIS YEAR'S DOWNLOAD FESTIVAL. SLASH, MARK TREMONTI, SCOTT IAN, MARK CHAPMAN AND KILLSWITCH ENGAGE WILL SEE YOU NOW...

Words: Stephen Lawson, Claire Davis, Nick Cracknell
Portraits: John McMutrie

For anyone who grew up listening to the likes of Iron Maiden, Metallica and Guns N’ Roses, Donington is a very special place. Since 1980, almost every hard rock or metal band of note has played within its grounds. Donington is a mecca for metalheads, and there is something suitably unholy about the feeling you get when you set foot on its dusty soil.

TG has made the pilgrimage to Donington today to round up some of the most exciting guitar players on the planet, lock them in a room and get them talking about the issues that matter. You know, like how it feels to fall off a stage in front of a crowd of thousands and the dangers of 'drink shredding.’ Incredibly, the following axe heroes were happy to field our daft yet pertinent questions and hang around long enough to he photographed for our third (and biggest) annual TG Summit...


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Is there a song you have wanted to play on guitar, but couldn’t?

Slash: “Y’ know, there isn’t really anything you can’t learn on guitar. I’ve heard some intimidating stuff over the years and you get so focused on it you think, ‘I gotta at least learn it, I have to learn it.’ That, for me, is just a part of my personality. If something gets the best of me 1 have to conquer it. I think I’ve managed to learn everything I’ve ever wanted to, but there are some things you just have to let go. Whether it’s a tonal thing, a really strange bend, learning some Jeff Beck stuff, or something that’s uniquely personal to that guitar player. You get to the point where you understand how that player did it, but you can't do it the same way as them."

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What has been your most embarrassing moment onstage?

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Slash: “I’ve had a few! Falling off the stage entirely is always really embarrassing. It hasn’t happened too many times, though."

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Slash: "Man, there was a time when I was running across the stage and I ran straight into the monitor board - I just couldn’t stop myself. I didn’t really injure myself, but I saw some of it on tape and it was pretty funny. In the old days, jumping off the stage to find that nobody was there to catch me was really embarrassing. That doesn’t happen much anymore. Nowadays it’s all about the guitar - take care of the guitar. It’s not so much me anymore; it’s about not destroying the guitar! I’ve had some moments where I’ve been too out of it to play. In some ways that’s embarrassing. Moments like that are very memorable!”

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Is there a limit to how much alcohol you can drink before playing guitar becomes too difficult?

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Slash: “But, y’ know, it’s down to the individual. You have to make your own limitations and actually know them. You have to know exactly how you can balance alcohol intake. Just a couple of pints before a gig would be cool.”

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Have you ever had to chop down a stage invader with your axe?

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Slash: “I’ve had a couple of moments when people have got up onstage, and there’s this weird character that comes out of me. I don’t wanna sound like a cliché, ’cos I know everybody says this, but when I climb onstage I become a different person: I’m a lot more physical and prone to be violent when I’m onstage. When I’m walking around [offstage], I’m a lot more laidback and not very confrontational. But I’ve had a couple of incidents when somebody’s jumped across the stage and, if there’s an issue, I’ll he the first person to pounce on them. It does happen, but very rarely. I think it’s also the shock and total surprise of being caught off-guard.”

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Is it a good thing that people can now buy a pedal that gives them another player's sound?

Slash: “I’ve always been a firm believer that, as a guitar player, you pick up what you can. But you have to play guitar because you love it, and the guys that turn you on, you pick up bits and pieces from them but you don’t emulate them exactly. I know the feeling ’cos I remember when I had a distortion pedal, a BC Rich and a Fender and it was all working, and I could get this sound. But it was still what my ear was going towards - it wasn’t supposed to sound like anything else, it was just what turned me on to play rock ’n’ roll guitar.”

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Slash: “The thing is, when it gets down to buying pedals that make you sound just like someone else, and if you lock onto somebody else’s playing, you gotta understand that person and what notes he chooses, his style and characteristics. You gotta try and break away from it and think, ‘There are some things I could pick up here and learn,’ but you’ve got to adapt them to your own style instead of trying to emulate them exactly. Too many people have tried to do it; to sound like EVH, Tony Iommi, Angus Young. People try and sound exactly like them, but you can’t sound exactly like anybody else. Making a pedal where you can do that is sort of like, sell what you can sell because people are stupid enough to buy it.”

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The guitar community suffered a huge tragedy towards the end of last year with the death of Dimebag Darrell. How has Dimebag’s death affected you?

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Slash: “And it’s not that it doesn’t pop up in the back of your mind. When that happened, we were playing on the same night in another city and I got word of it after our show. It was like, ‘What are you telling me - what’s going on?’ ’Cos our crew was talking about it and phone calls were being made. It was a depressing period to try and shake off. So yeah, when you walk up to the stage you realise how vulnerable you are and how delicate the whole mortality thing is. When you’re standing there with a guitar, you realise that anything could happen when someone can turn around and do something as leftfield as [what Nathan Gale did]. A hit of that stays in your conscience to make you more aware of what could happen, but it’s not gonna stop me doing what I do. I mean, shit, there are a million things that could have stopped us from doing that, man.”

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Who is the most underrated guitar player on the planet today?

Slash: “None recently. There’s lots of underrated guitar players I can think of. Brian May is really underrated, even though everyone knows he’s a really good player. Joe Walsh, Elliot Easton from The Cars - he’s a great rock ’n’ roll guitarist. So is Johnny Lang, Alvin Lee, Billy Gibbons... I could go on for days! Nowadays, rock guitar isn’t a part of pop culture. There’s few of us around who care about rock guitar for what it turned us onto in the first place. I don’t think there’s that many people doing anything with it. I think Tom Morello’s great, but he gets due credit for it. I’m sure there are some amazing players out there, but that’s it from what I’ve seen.”

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Is there a guitar player, alive or dead, that you would love to jam with?

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“Well, I’ve got an album coming out with Stevie Wonder, so there’s some sessions I’m gonna do with him, which was one of my all-time goals. I’ve been on the road so long and every time I come home it’s only for a second, so we haven’t actually done it yet. After this European tour I’m gonna take a hiatus and start pre-production on it and work with Stevie. I was raised on his 1970s stuff. I love Stevie. I was fortunate enough to work with him for the Grammy awards. We all got up there - Bono, Steven Tyler, Stevie, Norah Jones, Alicia Keyes and Brian Wilson - and sang a Beatles song [Across The Universe] for the Tsunami fund. That was really cool because it was the first time I’d worked with Stevie.”

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