2010.04.06 - Spinner - Slash Responds to Axl Rose Calling Him a 'Cancer'

Slash Responds to Axl Rose Calling Him a 'Cancer'

By Jonathan Dekel

It's no secret that Axl Rose is not the biggest fan of his former Guns 'N Roses bandmate Slash.

Though the two haven't spoken face to face since Slash's departure from the legendary group back in 1996, both have spent the ensuing time using the media to discuss each others' exploits.

While neither has been complimentary, it was Rose who took the feud to a whole new level when, in an interview with long-time friend and former road manager Del James, first published on Spinner, he called his band's former guitarist a "cancer."

"There's zero possibility of me having anything to do with Slash other than by ambush, and that wouldn't be pretty," Rose told James. "There is the distinct possibility that having his intentions in regard to me so deeply ingrained and his personal, though guarded, distaste for much of 'Appetite [For Destruction,' the band's Diamond-certified debut album] ' other than his or Duff's playing, Slash either should not have been in Guns to begin with or should have left after 'Lies.' In a nutshell, personally I consider him a cancer and better removed, avoided -- and the less anyone heard of him or his supporters, the better."

At the time, Slash simply shrugged off the accusation, telling the Las Vegas Review-Journal that it didn't really affect him. Now, for the first time, the guitarist reveals his true feelings on the matter and the man with whom he co-wrote some of rock's biggest hits.

"For one, I've never said anything derogatory about anyone's performance on 'Appetite,'" Slash tells Spinner. "So right from the start it's just off."

Furthermore the guitarist, who lost his mother to lung cancer last June, reveals that though he agrees with the sentiment behind some of Rose's comments, the singer's choice of wording was tough to take.

"The cancer thing, I'll go with him on that, that fits into his description of things. I wouldn't use the word 'cancer' but I haven't gone anywhere and I don't seem to be going anywhere so that's justified," Slash says, before pausing to reflect. "Actually, I lost my mom to cancer so that was a little bit of hard rhetoric at that particular time, but it's typical Axl stuff... I know how he comes off and how he really is, so I give him credit where hopefully it's due."

Slash's self-titled solo debut album is out April 6 and you can hear it right now on Spinner's CD Listening Party.

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