2010.03.11 - Toronto Sun - Slash Talks Sex, Drugs & Axl

Slash talks sex, drugs & Axl

By JANE STEVENSON
QMI Agency

Slash gave CMW delegates what they wanted during his keyote address at Canadian Music Week on Thursday morning in Toronto: Sex, drugs, rock’n’roll ... and Axl.

Being interviewed by CNN anchors and real-life couple John Roberts (a Toronto native) and Kyra Phillips, the former Gun N’ Roses/Velvet Revolver guitarist was surprisingly complimentary of his onetime bandmate and GNR’s lead singer, one Axl Rose.

“You have to attempt to understand him as a human being and where he’s coming from,” said Slash, 44, in his trademark black top hat, sunglasses, a black leather jacket and torn black jeans in a packed ballroom at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel.

“I see things very black and white. That’s just me. And that doesn’t necessarily mean that that’s right. And he sees things in a very colourful kind of way, and I can’t really knock it, ’cause that’s just him. So I try not to sit there and say derogatory things about his personality, because it’s his personality that makes him so f---ing great, and just difficult to deal with.”

On his coming solo debut album, Slash, due in stores April 6, the guitarist pairs up with various singers including former Black Sabbath frontman Ozzy Osbourne.

“Working side by side with Ozzy, which is a voice that I had been listening to since my early rebellious days, taking acid and being 13, and listening to Iron Man and s--t, was a really great experience,” Slash said.

He plans to tour in April with a backing band comprising Myles Kennedy of Alter Bridge on vocals, Bobby Schneck (Slash’s Blues Ball band) on rhythm guitar, Dave Henning (Big Wreck) on bass and Brent Fitz (Alice Cooper) on drums.

Slash, who was born Saul Hudson but given his famous nickname by character actor Seymour Cassel, said he remains to this day still turned on by the sight of a guitar.

He joked that he keeps one in the bedroom to keep things interesting with his wife, Perla.

“We keep a guitar at the end of the bed, in case I need some imagination,” he said with a laugh. “There’s something about a guitar that is just innately sexy. And it is still to this day, when I open up a guitar case, there’s still this sense of ‘Ahhhhh.’”

The onetime heroin and cocaine abuser also said that he has only been sober for three-and-a-half years, despite being a married father of two young boys — aged five and seven.

“When Perla announced that she was pregnant, I was loaded on Oxycontin going to an Aerosmith gig, and I was out-of-my-mind high that night. And I was like, ‘Okay so now it’s time to start taking care of this issue,’ but I thought I could juggle it, which I did up until about three-and-a-half years ago. So really the sobriety thing is relatively new, and it’s almost like you could fall off any second. But I’ve been holding on to it because I want to be attentive to the responsibilities that I have, and also because after years and years of doing it, it starts to get old.”

Of Michael Jackson’s drug-related death last year, Slash said of the man he performed with live: “It’s sad that he’s not here ... When all that stuff happened in 2001 or whenever it was, he got all of those (accusations) and stuff, the one thing that Michael really wanted, and the one thing that made him happy, was he wanted everybody to like him.

“And so all of the sudden he was completely ostracized, pretty much by North America, for all these accusations (even) though he was acquitted, and it sort of just killed him.”

https://web.archive.org/web/20101115133030/http://www.torontosun.com:80/entertainment/music/2010/03/11/13198501.html

This article in The Rock Radio (March 12, 2010) is a recap of the Toronto Sun article, but also contains an additional quote (in bold) from an earlier Slash interview with The Rock Radio:
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Slash on Axl Rose: "You have to... understand him as a human being

Former Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash offered his thoughts on his ex-bandmate, Guns singer Axl Rose, during an interview on Thursday morning (March 11th) at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel in Toronto, Ontario as part of Canadian Music Week. According to the Toronto Sun, Slash was more complimentary toward Rose that he's been in the past during the interview, despite Rose lashing out at Slash as recently as last year in several online chats and interviews.

Slash said about Rose, "You have to attempt to understand him as a human being and where he's coming from. I see things very black and white. That's just me. And that doesn't necessarily mean that that's right. And he sees things in a very colorful kind of way, and I can't really knock it, 'cause that's just him. So I try not to sit there and say derogatory things about his personality, because it's his personality that makes him so f***ing great, and just difficult to deal with."

Slash left Guns N' Roses in 1996 and told us a while back why he finally found it too difficult to work with Rose: [ Click to listen if you have a backstage pass] "Something with Axl was very insecure and it just kept the band from sort of functioning properly. Although he was wanting to do things, I never to this day really understand exactly what he was getting at, and because it took so long to ever get anything done, I always attribute it to some sort of fear factor."

Slash also spoke in the interview about being sober for only three-and-a-half years despite having two sons aged five and seven. He said, "When Perla (Slash's wife) announced that she was pregnant, I was loaded on Oxycontin going to an Aerosmith gig, and I was out-of-my-mind high that night. And I was like, 'Okay, so now it's time to start taking care of this issue,' but I thought I could juggle it, which I did up until about three-and-a-half years ago."

He also spoke about the late Michael Jackson, for whom Slash laid down some guitar parts on the album Dangerous. Slash said, "When all that stuff happened in 2001 or whenever it was, he got all of those (accusations) and stuff, the one thing that Michael really wanted, and the one thing that made him happy, was he wanted everybody to like him. And so all of the sudden he was completely ostracized, pretty much by North America, for all these accusations (even) though he was acquitted, and it sort of just killed him."

Slash releases his self-titled solo album on April 6th.

https://web.archive.org/web/20101120053827/http://www.therockradio.com/2010/03/slash-on-axl-rose-you-have-to.html

Audience recorded audio (very bad quality - can't be transcribed) from Slash's interview at the Canadian Music Week event: