1994.02.02 - The Province - Slash Quakes In Snowstorm

Slash quakes in snowstorm
 
Guns N’ Roses guitarist was happy to leave his home in L.A. until he ran into winter in Toronto
 
By Mike Roberts
 
What does it take to get a rock ’n’ roll hero out of the Hollywood Hills and into the waist-high snowbanks of a Toronto winter?
 
For Guns N’ Roses lead axe­man Slash, a new album, a trashed studio and a good old California quake. And not necessarily in that order.
 
“They (Geffen Records) said, ‘Do you want to come over to Toronto and do some press?’” says Slash in a phone interview from Toronto. “I was like, ‘Anything just to hang out and anything that even seems remotely close to being on the road.’ So I said OK. Like an idiot!"
 
“It’s f—ing freezing. It’s like 20 below zero. Great, from an earthquake to a f—ing snow storm.”
 
Back from their extensive two-year world tour for Use Your Illusion (which sold 27 million copies worldwide), the G N’ R boys put out The Spaghetti Incident? — an album of cover tunes— last November. A departure from their usual ’70s-inspired raucous rock sound, The Spaghetti Incident? features covers of classic, ground-breaking groups of the punk era.
 
“It’s a tribute to songs and bands that had a lot to do with where we come from,” says Slash. The album includes songs from The Damned, The UK Subs, T. Rex and Iggy and the Stooges.
 
“There were some great bands back then but they aren’t being recognized as newer generations get into music.
 
“The album’s not so serious but it’s real honest. It’s live and haphazard, just us hanging out. It’s not making any particular statement; it’s just about passion and spontaneity.”
 
Like his spontaneous trip to Toronto for some Spaghetti Incident publicity.
 
“I was the only guy in the band that got hit with the quake and I just split," says Slash. “I live in the Hollywood Hills so it hit our house real hard. The whole house was pretty much devastated, but all my animals, my wife and myself were fine so that’s all 1 really care about."
 
Slash, who owns a menagerie of exotic reptiles, is relieved that they didn’t become shoe leather under the rubble.
 
“Fortunately, none of the animals were damaged. I thought for sure the snake cages were going to break, and the lizard cages, and stuff like that. The two things that came out of the earthquake unscathed were the animals and the pinball machines.”
 
The Spaghetti Incident? has hit No. 18 on the record album charts. Hair of the Dog — a Nazareth cover — was the first single. The second single, the Skyliner’s, Since I Don’t Have You, will be released as a video by mid-February.
 
The album’s seventh track, T. Rex’s 1972 classic Buick Makane, is one of Slash’s favorites. It’s also the first time the guitarist sings lead vocals.
 
“The song wasn’t quite right for Axl's voice so he asked me to sing it. But beyond that, I’m not the singing type. It’s probably my first and probably my last time singing. It came out OK, it’s just I hated doing it.”
 
STILL HAPPY
 
But he’s still happy with Guns N’ Roses. When he isn’t on the road with Axl and crew or dodging earthquake aftershocks, Slash keeps his bridge to the grindstone.
 
“We’re working on the next record now. I’ve been doing the demos with the other guys at my house... until the earthquake hit. The studio is now down; it’s not functioning at the moment. As soon as I get back to L.A., I’m going to go into pre-production.”
 
Which doesn’t leave time for the music biz, including the uproar surrounding the Charles Manson controversy. Manson’s ditty, Look at Your Game, Girl, appears on The Spaghetti Incident? as an uncredited 13th track. The mass murderer would have received as much as $60,000 in royalties for the song, if California authorities hadn’t put a stop to it.
 
“It’s a dead issue at this point,” says Slash. “It was just a typical dark, humoristic Guns N’ Roses tongue-in-cheek sort of thing that got blown way out of proportion.”
 
What does concern Slash is the G N’ R clubhouse fallout. A couple of members have been given the unceremonious boot.
 
Drummer Steven Adler went into self- destruct with his drugging and was fired. And rhythm guitarist Izzy Stradlin pushed off to pursue a separate career.
 
“I talked to Steven Adler on the phone a couple of weeks ago and he doesn’t sound too much better but Izzy sounds like he’s doing fine, just hanging out. (Adler) doesn’t seem like he’s turned around much, put it that way.”
 
Slash doesn’t see either musician back with the band.
 
“No,” he says. “I mean, we’ve done too much since all that happened.”
 
Mike Roberts is The Province's Urban 20 columnist.