2018.08.21 - Loudwire - Interview with Slash

Slash was recently asked by Loudwire whether his newfound sobriety in the past decade had any impact on his creativity, to which he replied (transcribed by UG):

"That's a good question. A lot of that material from the old days - I can pick particular songs that were definitely written under the influence, but I can pick other songs that were written under the influence of a couple beers. Not that big a deal, right?

"But I found out that when I got sober, sort of looking back from the time I started playing to 2006 - my partying thing was really a matter of killing time in between gigs. I wasn't really using on the road, I wasn't really using when I was in the studio. I was always focused on music.

"So when I got sober, all that effort that I had put into what had turned into a massive addiction at that point, I took that and just put it straight back into the music. And it wasn't really relying on me being buzzed or inebriated to create stuff.

"I was fortunate. I really just put everything into writing and felt really comfortable sober. ... For the most part, I wasn't trying to bury anything because I had like a massive insecurity or something I was trying to bury in my past. I was really just partying because it was fun."

You grew up with a lot of famous people because of your parents [father Anthony Hudson, an artist who created album covers for Neil Young and Joni Mitchell, and mother Ola J. Hudson, a costume designer for David Bowie]. David Bowie was around the house a lot, your dad always had artists, David Geffen was at your house before you got signed...
So, an average day for you was really exciting to the everyman. Do you think that when you were out on your own, you were used to your average being that level of excitement and you were trying to seek that?

"That's a good point. When I was a little kid, it was exciting, it was a massive turn-on to be around people who were creating music - being in the studio for a Joni Mitchell recording or whatever was going on - it was exciting, but I didn't recognize it as being exciting when I was a kid. You know what I mean? It was just the environment that I was raised in."

Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash was recently asked by Loudwire on how Myles Kennedy became the lead singer of his solo band, to which he replied:

"I had two songs left over [while making my 2010 self-titled debut solo album] and during the entire making of the record I could never figure [out] who should sing these two songs.

"I had been hearing a lot about Myles for years but I never met him, and I wasn't even really familiar with his voice but he had just recently been flown over to England to do this possible [Led] Zeppelin [reunion] tour thing.

"I said, 'Well maybe that guy because he's got to be good. If Jimmy [Page] called him, he's got to be really good.' So I cold-called him..."

Slash then remembered that the first song Kennedy delivered was "Starlight," calling it "fucking awesome."

Loudwire added:

"But when Slash thought about who could sing all of the material on the album - plus Guns N' Roses and Velvet Revolver songs - for the subsequent tour, he determined Kennedy was his man. After one tour the combination stuck, and the new band was born."

Slash's debut album featured a wide array of guest vocalists, one of which was Myles. The rest of the lineup consisted of Ozzy Osbourne, Fergie, Lemmy, The Cult's Ian Astbury, Kid Rock, Adam Levine, Chris Cornell, and more. As of the second record, 2012's "Apocalyptic Love," Myles has been the only lead vocalist of the Slash band.