1991.08.DD - Danish TV - Interview with Slash [VIDEO]

TRANSCRIPTION:
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[Voice-over in Danish – Intro titles – Clip from Patience video]

Slash: Okay, there’s the band on a public level, on a commercial level. No one knows us as people and we have our lives to go through. And there was a huge adjustment, mentally, from a street band to being a street band with a lot of money (laughs). Alright? And we were separated, you know, like, we all had to buy our own houses. And so we had to adjust to that and then the drug problems that came along with it. And then there was the Steven situation. And we weren’t going to put out a record just because there was a demand for it. We were going to put out a Guns N’ Roses record, you know? So it took to a point when we felt comfortable with how we had established ourselves personally, and found a drummer that was gonna replace Steven, and felt secure and into it, you know. That’s what happened. And I’m sorry it took so long.

Interviewer: The title, Use Your Illusions Part I and II, I understand you took from a painting. But you also decided to do something completely new in the rock ‘n’ roll business, namely to put out two separate albums on the same day and kind of competing with yourself that way.

Slash: No. I mean, the records are coming out because the material is being released. So that in the case... You know, we had to do it in a certain way where we could get it all out and didn’t cost too much money. And there it happened, okay? And we felt satisfied. We aren’t competing with ourselves. I don’t care if I sells more than II or II more than I or anything like that. That has nothing to do with that. That is a matter of the band expressing itself and as genuinely as possible, alright?

Interviewer: Okay. Since you put out Appetite for Destruction, you’ve had this extreme experience of going from, as you said, a street band to sort of major success and then actually being mega stars these days. How is that process – it’s a very short process – influenced on the songs that you sing on the album?

Slash: Well, there’s, I mean, kind of so many songs on the record. They’re all... There’s sure the heart, you know, “this is what we’ve been through.” Some of them were written during that period, the transitional period. Some of them were written afterwards, some of them were written beforehand. So there’s no main theme to the album as far as that goes. The ones that deal with the industry and the ones that were a just, like, “leave us alone” kind of thing... You have to hear the songs to really express it, you know?

Interviewer: Okay. The single, You Could Be Mine, suggests, in a way, that you’re still a very hard edged rock band with a sort of punky feel in it. Is that (?) but you still have that rough edge.

Slash: Well, okay, there’s 26 songs on the record, right? There’s stuff that’s harder than that. Like in-the-face, just one take -bam!- on the record, and then there are songs that are like You Could Be Mine where it’s established as a song. And then there’s ballads and there’s, like, acoustic stuff, that’s really (?) to all kinds of different (?) of music, because of the amount of material that there is. And it’s like, okay, we have these first songs like this, and there’s three songs like that and then... It’s like somebody said, “Well, does it sound like Appetite.” Well, there is a song on there that sounds like, maybe, something that could have come out of Appetite, I don’t know. And the band plays it out better than it did then.    

[Clip from You Could Be Mine video]

Interviewer: When you look back on Appetite For Destruction, and then at the new material that is on the new album, do you agree with some people who say that you have actually made rock classics or that you have made two classic rock albums, that you can even compare them to Rolling Stones' Exile On Main Street. Some people think that. Do you agree to all of that?

Slash: Well, I appreciate the compliment. I’m sure there's gonna be a lot of negative that goes along with it, you know. I’m just, "the album’s coming out, that’s it", you know, and you can take it as... For me, it means a hell of a lot to me that somebody likes it, and, you know, people can see what went into it, but at the same time, knowing how fecal the music industry is and so-on-so-forth, the thing that was important for us was just to get it out, to get it across. And you can take it, you know, how you want it, right? And we let it on down the line, I suppose, and see what happens.

Interviewer: So you don’t consider yourself...

Slash: This is a genuine Guns N’ Roses record, so anybody who really likes Guns N’ Roses will like the record.

Interviewer: So you don’t consider yourself being this greatest...

Slash: No, no (laughs).

[Clip from Paradise City video]

[Voice-over in Danish]

Slash: No, I’m settled back and I’m on tour, so... For me personally, being on the road, that whole sense of, that whole lifestyle, is what I love. So being off the road is what fucked me up, okay? I was, like, standing in one place going, “Now what?” okay? “What?” Alright? And I, sort of like, got used to it, and it changed me in the sense that I... of my responsibilities. “Okay, cool. Take care of it, no problem”. Alright? And now I’m back on the road, I got my responsibilities taken care of and I’m back on tour, so I don’t... I haven’t changed any of it really, you know. I just have grown up a little bit. I know what’s going on and, it’s like, I take care of it. That’s that. That’s the big change, I think, and that I’m not loaded all the time (laughs).

Interviewer: Are you a totally cleaned up person now?

Slash: No, I’m not totally clean. I don’t shoot heroin any more. You know, I stopped hard-lining, okay? (laughs) That’s the new word for the month, right? Hard-line, right? But I stopped being so overindulgent in that area, to the point where I wasn’t keeping up with what I really wanted to be doing. And so that finally came to a point where, you know, I just said, “Okay, the fun is over, let’s move around a little bit, let’s get the band going, let’s...” you know. And it was really like a fun period of just, like, racking off. And, you know, at this point in time, it’s like, I’ve gotten enough experience, you know, like, the situations that we’ve been through and the things that we’ve been exposed to, to know what I can and can’t do. And so I’m just trying to keep my wits about me and know what the fuck I’m doing.

Interviewer: You’ve always been connected to this classic rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle. I mean, you’re not part of this new fitness wave or whatever. Do you think it’s necessary to be a real rock band, to sort of live a self-destructing life?  

Slash: No. Okay. Did you go to the show last night?

Interviewer: I did.

Slash: It’s very physical, that, a little bit, huh? So, yeah, there’s been exceptions in the cliched rock star lifestyle that you probably think that we adhere to, right? We do... I don’t know, I have (?) for me and I just have a massage so I don’t cramp up while I’m jumping off the stage and shit. Otherwise, you know, I’m like, I’ll take my vitamins and I’ll just try to be cool, you know. That’s about as much as adjustment that I made, you know.

Interviewer: So you don’t have to be unhealthy to be a real rocker.

Slash: No, I mean, the people that are ranked on this really heavy duty program... I mean, that and rock ‘n’ roll do not mix, alright? Part of rock ‘n’ roll is the looseness of it, and being able to do whatever the fuck you want and what you feel like you should be doing. And if you feel like you should be completely smashed, then fine, so be it, right? At this point, I don’t feel like I should be totally out of my head all the time. At the same time, I could never just have a regimen and exercise schedule or anything like that. That would drive me fucking crazy (laughs).

[Clip from Sweet Child O’ Mine video]