September 19th, 2007
Even if he never appeared in his famous top hat again, Saul "Slash" Hudson would still be remembered by most music fans as the flamboyant guitarist for sleaze-rock legend Guns N' Roses. Formed while he was a teenager in Hollywood, GN'R released its massive hit debut album, Appetite For Destruction, in 1987, then spent the next decade playing in stadiums and inciting riots, until a power struggle between singer Axl Rose and the other members tore the original lineup apart.
In the years that followed, Slash worked on a slew of middling projects before joining Velvet Revolver, a strutting hard-rock supergroup that includes two fellow GN'R refuges, as well as former Stone Temple Pilots singer Scott Weiland. But Slash's past has always followed closely behind him, and last year, while he was working on Velvet Revolver's ambitious new Libertad, the Internet was abuzz about a supposed reconciliation with Rose. Just before heading out on tour, Slash spoke to The A.V. Club about that nagging rumor, life on the road as a father, and why standing in GN'R's shadow isn't always such a bad thing.
The A.V. Club: After Velvet Revolver released Contraband in 2004, you guys spent the next two years playing shows. This month, you're going to start a tour for Libertad that will last, more or less, a year and a half. Is that daunting?
Slash: No, not really. I've been on the road for so long that it's a part of my being. Even after all these years, I love playing. I love recording. I love writing. I love rehearsing. I love touring. I love all that stuff. That has not changed one iota with me. But the hard part is trying to couple that with domesticity. I am married and I have two kids now, and I love them all to death. So I am trying to put all that together and maintain the same pace I've been keeping. But really, I relish what we do. A year and a half sounds like a cakewalk to me.
AVC: Do your wife and kids travel on the bus with you now?
S: Yeah. This particular tour, they're going to come out and hang out with me for three weeks. But then the kids go to school, so they'll pop in every two weeks, or I will come back home for a couple days. It's just one of those things. When I was a kid, a lot of my parents' friends were in the music business. In the late '60s and early '70s—all the way through the '70s, actually—a lot of the bands that were around had kids at a very young age. So they were all working on that concept way early on. And I figured if they can do it, I could do it, too.
AVC: It's often been said that Libertad was a difficult record to make.
S: No, the album was easy to make. It was getting in the studio that was hard. That was difficult for all kinds of reasons. We had just finished touring, and yeah, it was close to a two-year tour. That was our first tour together, and a lot of good came out of that experience, but it was also very tumultuous. There was a lot of band and management turmoil. So after that, we kind of took off in different directions to try and wind down.
At one point, we did get back together and started working over at [drummer] Matt [Sorum]'s house. But it was at his home studio, which is a very controlled environment. That is something I don't like to work in. When it comes to actually writing, I like to write in a full room with the amps blasting, and a big drum set. Then I had a lot of issues going on. I was the one that allegedly "quit and joined my old band." That wasn't true. But it was said so matter-of-factly on the Internet that the guys weren't really sure what I was up to. Then I had some issues at home, and I fell back into the drug thing again. I did that for a few months, but when I came back from [rehab], we all locked up in a real rehearsal room and all started writing. And that was great.
AVC: Drugs and in-fighting are two things fans really mythologize when it comes to rock bands. They seem to think that it lends something to the music they create together. Can you relate to that mindset?
S: I don't know. When I was a kid, I didn't give a shit about any of that stuff. I didn't read the magazine articles. I looked at the pictures, and that was about it. What I did know about my favorite bands and their personal activities didn't interest me. It was always about the music, and the rest of it was just a waste of time. Especially if it was negative. It's like when Metallica put out Some Kind Of Monster. People don't want to know that, man. It's depressing. People want you to produce records. They don't care what it took to make it. When a band is out doing concerts, the fans don't want to know about equipment difficulties. They want their hour-and-a-half release, and that's it. The only difference is that, in the last 10 years, the public has been so affected by reality TV and the Internet. They really dwell on entertainers' misgivings.
AVC: Does Velvet Revolver get reality-television show offers?
S: Actually, it hasn't come up about the group. I know that different members of the band get offered that individually. I know that I do, and I think Scott has. But that's just this insidious thing that comes at you, and you just have to grin and bear it. It's part of what's going on out there these days, but we always turn them down.
AVC: Why are you opposed to the idea?
S: It has just turned into the lowest form of entertainment. It has become the kind of medium where it's taken the human condition and exposed it to the point where there's actually no personality left. It's just all so commonplace now, and there's no privacy and no mystique to anything. It's all just out there and exposed. Like, if you were a kid and you wanted to come out and make a statement now, you'd have to really dig deep to find something that no one has exposed already.
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