2010.03.12 - Toronto Sun - Banned Slash Gear May Be Rumour: Ex-GNR Guitarist

Banned Slash gear may be rumour: ex-GNR guitarist

By JANE STEVENSON
QMI Agency

Slash heard the reports about his former bandmate Axl Rose banning fans wearing Slash-related T-shirts and top hats from the current Guns N’ Roses tour but he’s not sure he believes it.

“I give him the benefit of the doubt,” the 44-year-old former GNR guitarist told QMI Agency Friday while taking a break from his duties at Canadian Music Week.

“I hate to think someone would be that petty, so it might be more of a rumour.

“There is a little bit of infighting between fans now, too. There’s like Guns fans who support the Axl thing and then there’s Guns fans who support the Slash thing. And God knows where it originated.

“We (Slash and Rose) obviously haven’t actually sat together and talked so there’s definitely some bad blood there but at the same time it’s been, you know, 15 years and I don’t like to perpetuate the negative stuff because I don’t really have the kind of harsh feelings for him that the media exaggerates.”

Slash’s debut solo album, Slash, featuring him performing with various singers including rock legends Ozzy Osbourne and Iggy Pop, is due April 6.

Then later that month he’ll head out on the road with a touring band that will include Myles Kennedy (Alter Bridge) on vocals; Bobby Schneck (Weezer, Green Day) on rhythm guitar; Dave Henning (Doug Pinnick, Big Wreck) on bass; and Brent Fitz (Alice Cooper, Vince Neil) on drums.

'Chinese Democracy' sounds just as Slash expected

The sound of Guns N’ Roses’ long-awaited release, Chinese Democracy, released after a near 15-year wait, didn’t surprise former GNR guitarist Slash. At all.

“I thought it was exactly what I thought it would sound like,” he said.

“It was very indicative of what I thought he would do. So it was absolutely no surprise. ’Cause we had sort of like the Guns N’ Roses sound, which was just a straight-ahead rock band, and along the way Axl started to get very sort of techno, or had a lot of techno influences. And when I say that I mean like synthesizers and a lot of digital influence. And of course we sort of kept an old-school approach, and I think besides everything else musically, we sort of went off in different directions. And this record of Axl’s is definitely very digital and very Pro-Tool and very synthesized — whatever sounds are augmented by outside sources.”

Slash actually still was in GNR when the concept for Chinese Democracy was in its infancy stage but he said, “We didn’t really do all that much.”

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