2022.02.21 - Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend - Interview with Slash

Excerpts from Blabbermouth:
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During an appearance on talk show host Conan O'Brien's podcast "Conan O'Brien Needs A Friend" this past Monday (February 21), Slash opened up about his trademark black top hat, explaining that it dates back to 1985 when he first started playing shows with Guns N' Roses. "I stole it from a place called Retail Slut on Melrose [in Los Angeles]," he said (as transcribed by Blabbermouth.net). "I remember this because there was two stores — there was Leathers And Treasures and Retail Slut next door. And Taime Downe, the singer from a band called Faster Pussycat, used to work at Retail Slut, so that's how I remember the name of it. And I went in there. I didn't have any money. I always used to wear some sort of a hat. It completed whatever look you had going on. And I went in there. And I just saw the top hat. And it just spoke to me, I guess. So I figured, what the fuck, I'll just walk out with it. And so I did. And then I went next door to Leathers And Treasures and I stole a Concho belt and then went back to the apartment me and Axl were living in at the time. And we had a show at the Whisky that night, so I took the Concho belt and I cut it up and I put it around the hat and I wore it that night."

Slash added: "It just became a thing where I really identified with it; I wore it all the time. It was a way you pull it over your eyes; you could hide behind it if you were really high. I had no intention of it being this long-term thing… It was really something to hide behind for a long time. It was, just put the hat on and nobody knows who I am and what I'm doing and what I'm up to. I can see you, [but] you can't see me. And during the shows, it was great to have that, because to this day, I still can't look at the audience — like, straight into the audience. And so having the top hat, really, you just pull it down and you could just do your thing and you didn't feel as intimidated by the crowd."

https://blabbermouth.net/news/slash-never-intended-to-make-his-top-hat-part-of-his-signature-look