2008.01.09 - Jimmy Kimmel Live (via Blabbermouth) - Interview with Slash

Former Guns N' Roses and current Velvet Revolver guitarist Slash visited ABC-TV's "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" in Hollywood on Wednesday (January 9) to promote his memoir, "Slash". A couple of excerpts from the chat follow:

On whether he's been asked by any other musicians, "Why did you write that about me?" or "Why did you reveal that?":

"There's a story in there about James [Hetfield] from Metallica and I don't talk to him. I took it upon myself to include the story about him in my hotel room one night. And I'm wondering — because I know he's married with kids and all this, and I'm hoping he doesn't come after me."

On the medical device in his chest:

"That's from drinking, okay. But the doctor put that in this, a safety precaution in case I ended up in the hospital for alcohol poisoning. And I had a condition called cardiomyopathy, which basically they told me you have six weeks to six months to live. That was it. I managed to get through that. This was a few years back. Rick James died from the same thing. He called me, he said, 'You know, how do I deal with this?' You're going to have to stop doing what you're doing. And he couldn't stop. And it killed him. So I did, I stopped drinking for about a year and whatnot. But they said if — in case you go down this path again, this will be a physical warning and it will straighten you out."

On Aerosmith's role in nixing any potential BMX career:

"Guns N' Roses was opening for Aerosmith, I think this was in 1988 or '89. I used to take my bike on the road and Aerosmith had one of the cool stages with the ramps that go up and around the back of the drums and all this kind of stuff. So I take my bike up there and I'd jump off the ramps and jump off the stage and in the seats and do — all with a bottle of vodka in one hand. Then three weeks into the tour, all of a sudden, one morning I went to get my bike off the truck and I want disappeared. It was gone. Where'd my bike go? Nobody ever told me, I figured out they took it... I think the Aerosmith people said, you know that's a risk. If the band — because we were selling a lot of tickets for Aerosmith at that point. And if something happened, the tour would have been canceled. So they said common sense take the bike away. I was too drunk to really realize it was gone and I just moved on, you know?"

His relationship with Axl Rose:

"We have not spoke, no. You never know. I don't have a crystal ball to foresee the future, but as fate will have it we'll end up in the same room or maybe never. He's not crazy. He has his own way of looking at things. That's basically it. I have a genuine affection for the guy that will always be there. But we also hit some very rocky roads along the way and stuff. So I can't say I necessarily miss him. But he was a really interesting, great musician. He was great to hang out with and all that kind of stuff so it's regrettable that we ended up going off in such a negative — on such a negative note. I can't say at, you know, I sit around going, God I miss him. I don't think he probably would do the same for me, but we had some really cool times together, so I don't hate him."

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