2002.01.08 - The Cane and Cabbie Show (92.3 K-Rock) - Interview with Slash

Transcript:
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Cane: ...edited down. I think I only left one “f” word in there, too.
 
Cabbie: Oh, you did.
 
Cane: Yeah.
 
Cabbie: He swore quite a few times. Now that's not an easy thing.
 
Cane: Yeah, but it wasn't necessary to the interview, but..
 
Cabbie: Right.
 
Cane: Cuz he was just, you know, going, “f,” “f,” f,” “s,” s,” s.”
 
Cabbie: Well, he's Slash.
 
Cane: So alright, here’s Slash on 92.3 K-Rock.      
 
[Plays telephone call]
 
Cane: Hello?
 
Slash: Yeah!
 
Cane: Hey, it’s Cane and Cabbie.
 
Slash: What’s going on?
 
Cane: What’s going on, brother?
 
Slash: Oh, not much.
 
Cane: Good to talk to you again. So, obviously we know why you’re calling...
 
Slash: Well... (laughs) Actually, to tell you the truth, I got a phone call - I got a lot of phone calls this morning.
 
Cane: I'm sure you did!
 
Cabbie: Yeah, I wonder why.
 
Slash: This thing in Vegas, it’s just... It’s amazing how much controversy, you know (laughs) - I don't even know what to call it, Guns N' Roses or Axl and myself or the combination of any one of us.
 
Cane: Are you surprised that after all this time people are still talking about it and it’s this big of a deal?
 
Slash: Well, yeah, you know?
 
Cane: Yeah? (laughs)
 
Slash: I gotta be totally honest with you.
 
Cabbie: Now, do you think it’s partly a big deal because he makes it a big deal?
 
Slash:  Well they - I mean, I gotta say this much, I usually don't talk a lot of bs about anything having to do with Ax and...

Cane: Right. I’ve tried to get you to talk bs about him and you don't do it.
 
Slash: I avoid it, you know? I don't like to dwell on negativity, for one. And for two, I mean, all things considered,  granted, yeah, I did quit the band because of reasons that were not too savory. But, at the same time, a lot of time has gone by and I don't have the time or the patience to, like, just make crap out of crap for no real reason.
 
Cane: Right.
 
Slash: You know? And I'd like to sort of just get on with things.
 
Cabbie: Right. Move forward, be positive.
 
Cane: Well, so to go back to New Year’s... (laughs)
 
Slash: Well,  this whole thing started cuz my wife and I went to Las Vegas a couple of weeks ago for the opening of the Whisky Skybar  in Las Vegas.
 
Cane: Yeah, yeah.
 
Slash: And in our hotel room they have one of those Las Vegas entertainment “what's happening in Las Vegas  this month” kind of magazines and I was flipping through it, and I saw... You know, I mean, I see GN'R, Guns N’ Roses at the Joint and, all things considered, it did catch my attention.
 
Cane/Cabbie: Well, sure. Yeah. (Laughter)
 
Slash: And it says that they were playing on the 29th and the 31st. And I was like, “Honey, that would be sort of cool, you know, come back over here in a couple of weeks and go see Guns N' Roses. Now that I think about it, I've never seen Guns N' Roses”... (laughs)
 
Cabbie: Right, cuz you were always in it.
 
Cane: Yeah.
 
Slash: You know? I've never seen them from that perspective. So I booked a flight to Las Vegas and made a couple of phone calls to people I know in and around the Hard Rock Hotel and... to get tickets, so that I could go in and check it out. And no sooner had I made those plans that the entire – all of Las Vegas knew that I was going to go to a Guns N' Roses show.
 
Cane: Well, how do you figure that got out?
 
Cabbie: Oh, I know how it got out. Those people you –
 
Slash: Well, somehow it got out, because whoever it was that I was talking - well, whoever it was that I  talked to in Vegas letting them know that I was coming and when I was booking the room, it’s just, you know, someone couldn't keep their mouth shut.
 
Cabbie: Of course.
 
Slash: I should have gotten into a 007 mode.
 
Cabbie: Right. Shave your head...
 
Slash: Call my good buddy Tom Cruise and ask him how do you get into a Guns gig if you are an ex- member.
 
(Laughter)
 
Slash: Anyway, but... So what happened is, as soon as I got to the VIP section of the Hard Rock Hotel to get my room key, and it was like, you could just like feel the vibe. Like, everybody knew something that I didn't know. And it’s like, I’ve been around the block enough times to know this vibe, but I'm not gonna, like, dwell on it. Just give me my room key and basically I'll be on my way. And so no sooner had I gotten my room key and gotten in my room, there was a knock on the door and I think it was, like, four security guards and one of the management company's - you know, one of Doug Goldstein's cronies - and they came to, you know, so as not to embarrass me in front of anybody, in front of The Joint’s entrance. They came to my room to tell me that I was not allowed in the Joint – the Joint is the name of the gig, the name of the venue.
 
Cane/Cabbie: Right. That you weren’t welcomed.
 
Slash: That I was not allowed in there. And I was like, “Okay, explain to me why is this” and they said, “Because for one, if Axl finds out that you are there, he might not go on stage or he might just trip out and we just don't want that to happen.” And I was like, “Well, then, all things considered, I just really came down to see the show with all of good intentions, with - for one, just I'm curious.
 
Cane: Yeah, you weren’t gonna cause any trouble there, you know.
 
Slash: I didn't come there to cast any stones or anything like that.
 
Cabbie: You didn't go there to boo (laughs).
 
Slash: Right. I went to go see how my boy was doing, how the band sounded and so on and so forth, and, you know, have a good time and that was it. If I ended up inside the Joint that people were going to lose their job...
 
Cane: Oh Christ!
 
Cabbie: So Axl's penis is that small that he just can't have you in the same room?
 
Slash: Well, I mean, at this point, really – you know, as pissed of as I am about the whole thing, or at least I was at the time, I don't think they... They made sure not to tell Axl that I was there. I know they didn't tell him.
 
Cabbie: Because he would have freaked out.
 
Slash: He would have something. So he didn't find out till afterwards. So I'm not going to blame the initial distress on Axl. But then, you know, what pisses me off is that the little bastard had the fucking gall to badmouth me and Duff on stage the next night.
 
Cane: Are you kidding?!
 
Slash: For riding on the Guns N’ Roses name.
 
Cabbie/Cane: Oh! Oh my God!
 
Slash: I mean, that's so hypocritical.
 
Cabbie: Yeah, he's been riding on it for what, ten years now? Waiting for a new record?
 
Slash: Right. I haven't been riding on the Guns N' Roses name.
 
Cane: You’ve done the exact  - you’ve tried to disassociate yourself from that.
 
Slash:  And I’ve been working, you know ( laughs).  
 
Cabbie: Right. Yeah, Slash's Snakepit, you’ve done some jazz stuff...
 
Slash: Yeah I’ve been doing  all kinds of crazy stuff. I’ve been working, so that sort of hurt my feelings, cuz then I was like, you know - and I knew, I knew that he was going to say something on stage –
 
Cabbie: Of course you did, because he had the microphone.
 
Slash: Right. And so he had to take the time - probably took enough time to skip like two songs out of the set (?).
 
Cane/Cabbie: Yeah.
 
Slash: Anyway. So that's basically what's up.  And the reason I wanted to let you guys know what the real story was, is because of all these phone calls that I was getting and it was starting to get blown out of proportion. I figured if I could tell anybody who could get it right and convey it properly it would be you guys.
 
(Laughter)
 
Cane: Well, we appreciate that.
 
Cabbie: They might have let you in if you had put a KFC bucket on your head or something (laughs).
 
Slash: (Laughs) You know what, I did have one little stroke of - a little streak of mischievous mental activity going on, where I was going to call up the main security guard and tell him I was on my cell phone in the building, I bought my tickets.
 
(Laughter)
 
Slash: And let the whole place go nuts.
 
Cabbie: That's awesome.
 
Slash: I thought that would be a cheap shot, so I left it out.
 
Cane: Slash, again thanks for calling. We really appreciate it.
 
Cabbie: Dude, thanks man.
 
Slash: Yeah,  man. Well, listen, have a good one and just take care.
 
Cabbie: Have a great New Year and God bless you.
 
Slash: You too.
 
Cane: Take care brother.