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Long Slash Interview (5)
Is that because you owe it to your fans, or do you simply want to avoid breaking your neck when you jump off the platforms?
It's more that I don't want to burn out or have some physical ailment pop up in the middle of a set. It was a conscious effort by people who work with us, who said, "Try this." For so long, my attitude has been to blow everything off; now I'm striving to be open-minded. I started taking vitamins-pop four with a Coke [grins]. I mean, I'll never completely grow up. After an awesome show, you come away feeling fuckin' jazzed. It's the best feeling in the world, so you do whatever you can to support that. And yes, it does help to have 20,000 people enjoy your show.
The rush must be incredible.
Yeah, it's insane. But crowds vary; sometimes you'll go out there and kick ass for two songs, and if it doesn't come back, you just cannot fake it. It's a total relationship between us and our audience. If the crowd's not happening, or the building is set up in such a way that you can't get the response, it affects your performance. Then they get pissed off and think they just saw a shitty show and that we sucked. It hurts more from a fan than it does from any critic. You can't really go, "Well, I'm sorry, but this place is fucked," because no one wants to hear it. Yet part of the reason that we're who we are is that we can't fake it either. A lot of people aren't aware of how that works. Our live shows are completely spontaneous: There are no cue cards for stage raps, and we don't play the same song in the same place every single night for an entire tour. Each night is a crap shoot [laughsl. When it's magic, it's great. If you fuck up, you're standing there for 10 minutes, deciding what song to play-the crowd looks at you, "What are you doing"' So you really take a chance out there, and that's probably why we're so controversial.
Do you ever get a little freaked out when you're in front of a sea of people?
We stopped the show a couple of times at Donington -a big racetrack in England- when things started getting out of hand. It was people as far as you could see. It rained; people would fall over and asphyxiate in the mud We didn't know that a couple of people died until after the show. But the crowd never freaked us out until St. Louis, when the place exploded. I don't think the band realized how much power we can have over that many people.
What's your side of the story?
Everybody thinks it's just because we were wimped out on photos being taken. But you can only put up with so much shit from one or two members of the crowd. It's distracting to have flashbulbs go off in your face. They're not supposed to bring cameras, right? There was a handful of security guys who weren't paying attention to the audience at all. They were turned around, watching us. AxI told one guy, "If you don't take care of this, I will!" But the guy didn't react. I don't know if it was miscommunication or if he was just not interested. We've been jumping into crowds our whole career-that's how we do things. So Axl dived in to go after the flash. When we finally got him back onstage, he just walked off. We had already played an hour-and-a-half kick-ass set, but a couple of people started throwing things, and then someone jumped onto the stage that brought out a few security guys. Al that point, the crowd got off on rushing the authority and tearing up the arnps the whole fucking grandness of it.
Then what happened?
We decided we were the only people who could take control, so we started to go bad onstage. But by then the kit and all my cabinets were down. These people were fucking ripping into the metal MESA Boogie grilles to get at the speakers! Some guy ran off with a lot of guitars -they caught him. Our crew and our own security were the wall defending our equipment. Some of our guys got stitches Backstage, there were people on stretchers bleeding, and cops coming through on stretchers. It was real intense.
How did you escape?
They rushed us out in a van, all huddled together. We saw cop after cop going in the opposite direction. They're trying to blame us for it, and in a small way, I'll say it was our fault, but there were so many other factors involved. We got to Chicago and found out the gig there was canceled 'cause we had no equipment. They got the lighting rig, the monitor boards, everything.
At your last show, Axl warned someone to stop throwing things. Do you ever worry about your hands?
I'm less sensitive to it than Axl. He takes it very personally; I just duck. As intense and high-energy as our music is-like Metallica or AC/DC-the rapport with our fans is really good. It's a magical, sweet feeling to be in sync with that many people, everyone having a good time. It's like a really oversized party with everybody dancing to the same groove.
Are you interested in pursuing outside projects?
I've got to keep active all the time. There was a period-Axi was doing vocals , when I got involved with some different people. The first record I did was with Iggy [Pop], who is just one of the sweetest guys. He was doing Brick by Brick and had some songs he thought me and Duff might want to play on. We hung out one night, listened to his home demos, and picked out songs. We went into the studio and cranked out four songs in one day~ I co-wrote one. That was great.
You did something with Lenny Kravitz.
I fell in love with his first album. We met at some awards thing and got to be friends. I went to the studio and put a solo on "Fields Of Joy" and played the riff on "Always On The Run" [both on Mama Said]. That was a great time too.
Do you enjoy guesting on other people's records?
I did one session that I completely regret. Don Was, who produced Iggy's record, goes, "Would you be interested in playing on this Bob Dylan project?" I hadn't been into Dylan since he did something good years ago. Still, I thought, "Why not?" I came down to the studio and met Bob. He was as indifferent as indifferent gets-impossible to work with. On top of that, I did one of my best one-off guitar solos ever, one take, it was killer. When the advance cassettes went out it was still on there, but he took it off the official release. He said it sounded too much like Guns N' Roses. I was like, "What the fuck was I there for?"
That's bizarre.
I played acoustic underneath the lead, right? Well, he wanted me to play like Django Reinhardt! But the chords were a typical I-IV-V progression-I couldn't figure out what he was talking about. I ended up doing some strum patterns, and he went, "That's it." I'm like, "This is not Django Reinhardt." The space is still there in the song, so now when it gets to the guitar solo all you hear is me strumming these stupid chords. I learned my lesson from that.
Any other experiences?
There's Michael Jackson's new project. When someone asked me to work with him, I thought it would be cool, sort of an Eddie Van Halen spot where I could really shine. I asked, "Can I have a tape?" That was a major situation. Finally, I managed to get one, but it didn't have any vocals-just synthesizer and drumbox Three to four months passed before they finally asked me down. I was completely out of my element, but I did one song my way. But no solo, the song was only two minutes long. I used a talk box on another one. I played my lick once, and they sampled it for the rest of the song [grimaces]. I really wanted to put a solo on that one. They wanted me to do one more song. Six months went by and they called: "Can you come down and finish?" I said, "Yeah, when?" "Well, we're trying to figure it out." A few months later, I finally call them: "Do you want me to finish this? Maybe Michael isn't hip to the stuff I put down." And they sald, "No, you've gotta do it." Ages went by and they called again. At this point I said, "No, I'm doing our record and we're on the road. Too late." I never met Michael through this whole thing.
What a hassle.
For a while, I was bummed. But a couple of days ago, Michael called. This little voice says, "Slash?" We talked; it turns out he has a song he won't record unless I play on it. He's going to delay the project until I can get into the studio. Michael sent me a tape, the song is perfect for me. I'm practicing it right now; I'm going to wall.
Where do you want to go from here?
I always live day by day; I'm not one to set goals. The main thing is to keep touring. That's really my whole life. When the album has run its course, Guns might go right back in and do the next record. But if we take a long hiatus again, I'd like to put out, not really a solo record, but something with another band-a temporary thing that I'd control. It would be geared towards an almost heavy metal funk-rock concept-music with killer rock and roll vocals and the most awesome riffs. Almost like "Jungle," only a little bit tighter and heavier. A long time ago, Aerosmith got close; Beck has a couple of magic moments too. But I don't want it to be a guitar record where I'm off on some solo trip, 'cause I think that's really boring.
Are you satisfied with your playing?
I'm just happy to still be. . .. There has been so much potential for failure, given the extremes of our lifestyle. The night I came home and played my reference CDs was one of the most romantic evenings I can remember. I listened to the entire set in sequence. After everything we've been through-all the changes, the stress, the drugs-we managed to put out a record and realize that no matter what happens, we are really into our music and we're not some fucking bullshit pop band.
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