2010.03.24 - Spinner - Slash Bears the Burden of Guns N' Roses' Legacy

by **Blackstar** Sun Jul 18, 2021 5:32 am

Slash Bears the Burden of Guns N' Roses' Legacy

By Steve Baltin

After more than two decades in two superstar groups, Slash should be an expert in music-business savvy. Surprisingly, the guitarist tells Spinner that the opposite is true. "I still have a certain amount of naïveté about things," he says. "I'm just not aware or spending a lot of time thinking what other people are thinking."

What he's referring to specifically is what fans suppose of him musically. They see him as the hard-rock guy, and despite the fact he's played with the likes of Michael Jackson -- he's even included Fergie and Maroon 5's Adam Levine on his debut solo album, 'Slash' -- fans are surprised, which has caught the axeman off-guard. "It's been very recently, since I started working on this record, the amount of expectations people have of me," he says. "And I thought, 'Since when did I become that guy that represents something?'"

Probably since he played on one of the most influential hard rock albums of all time: Guns 'n' Roses' 'Appetite for Destruction.' That brings up an interesting question -- as the most visible member of the original lineup, with Axl Rose keeping a lower profile, does Slash bear the brunt of that legacy? "I know that in some way, shape or form I am responsible for partly carrying that torch, as with any of the other guys," he says. "But I'm the one that's most active, and so I do -- as far as [fans are] concerned -- represent."

Still, Slash is aware of those fans who do question his musical collaborators. "When I f---ed with 'Paradise City', I heard about it. Trust me," he says, referring to his remake of the song with Fergie. Still, he wants everyone to know he's still the rock kid he was growing up.

"All things considered, as a rock 'n' roll fan, I think I'm more of a rock fan and more representative of what I thought was cool and uncool and all that when I was a kid," he says. "So I stand behind the fact I'm a rock guy. That's where I come from."

https://web.archive.org/web/20111117115746/http://www.spinner.com/2010/03/24/slash-guns-n-roses-legacy-solo-album/