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The Tour That Made Slash Want To Quit Guns N' Roses: "It Was A Really Hard Time"
(Credits: Far Out / YouTube Still)
Mon 1 April 2024 0:00, UK
For his stature as a rock legend, Slash has always seemed like one of the most easygoing guys in the business. He may have the status of being one of the most high-profile guitarists in the business, but he was just as likely to avoid the limelight every time he got onstage, often pulling his giant locks down over his top hat as he played. Though Guns N' Roses turned themselves into a tour de force with Slash out front, he admitted that the band's tour in 1991 into 1992 was what made him want to leave.
When looking at the album Appetite for Destruction, there was probably no other artist who could have done what Slash did on the hair metal scene. There had been virtuosos in the genre before, but Slash wanted to bring music away from the sounds of glam metal and more towards the old-school rock and roll of Aerosmith.
Although the band were known as the gutter punks of The Sunset Strip, it turned out that that authenticity was exactly what the scene needed. Grunge may have gotten the title of killing hair metal, but from the minute that Slash began playing the intro to 'Welcome to the Jungle', he was already starting to separate the wheat from the chaff in the music industry.
The band couldn't have asked for more by the time they got to 1989: a blockbuster album at their feet, an amazing touring schedule, and the kind of royalty checks that musicians can only hope to receive. Then there was the looming question… now what?
Most artists don't know the answer to that question, but Axl Rose sure as hell did. The next project needed to be more grandiose, which involved the band musically growing up way too fast on Use Your Illusion. Even though there were some good songs to be found on the album, the massive double album was accompanied by a tour that no one could have sustained.
Aside from going around the world twice, the original lineup could barely hold on, with Izzy Stradlin eventually leaving after not wanting to deal with their antics anymore. By this time, it would be really stretching to call the group a band anymore, especially with Rose dictating whether they would even go onstage on any given night.
For Slash, this kind of behaviour began to get too much for him to the point where he couldn't take it anymore, telling Rock Icons, "It was exciting on one hand because of the audience factor, but it was a really hard time for us as well, trying to navigate this whole thing. There was a lot of internal stuff and there was manager stuff and business stuff, and there were a lot of cooks in the kitchen that helped bring a lot of things to a head. I kinda quit the job without knowing where I was going to work next."
Given when he left, he may have gotten off the boat at just the right time. Since the tour had been marred by riots and a horrific episode where Slash almost died in his hotel room, he may have had to leave to just hold onto his sanity. While things eventually turned out for the best with Velvet Revolver and his eventual solo career, the days of swigging Jack Daniels and living the excessive lifestyle were finally starting to catch up with him.
Related TopicsGuns N' Roses Legend Slash's New Tour Coming To Alabama
It's beautiful Slash, at the height of his rock icon status, wants to bring a big spotlight back to the blues. That's exactly what the Guns N' Roses guitarist's doing with his upcoming solo album, the exquisitely titled "Orgy of the Damned." Out May 17, the album has been preceded by a hot cover of Howlin' Wolf's "Killing Floor" with AC/DC's Brian Johnson conjuring the spirit of Wolf's original, guttural vocals.
This summer, Slash will launch a 20-date tour likely to give the blues an even bigger boost. Dubbed the S.E.R.P.E.N.T. Festival, the trek will find the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer taking out a rotating lineup of blues artists. The tour launches July 5 at Montana's KettleHouse Amphitheater.
On August 13, Slash's touring festival hits the Orion Amphitheater in Huntsville, Ala. The Orion lineup boasts Slash, Larkin Poe, ZZ Ward and Robert Randolph. Doors open at 5 p.M. And the show starts at 6.
For his headlining set, Slash will be backed by the same players who anchor his "Orgy of the Damned" album: keyboardist Teddy 'ZigZag' Andreadis, drummer Michael Jerome, bassist Johnny Griparic, and singer/guitarist Tash Neal.
Andreadis was a touring musician with Guns N' Roses during GN'R's early '90s "Use Your Illusion" era. He and Griparic also previously were members of Slash's '90s live side-project Blues Ball, which covered some of the material revisited on "Orgy of the Damned."
Tickets for Slash's Huntsville show go on sale 10 a.M. March 15 via axs.Com and the Orion Box Office, address 701 Amphitheater Drive N.W. Prices run from $50 to $180 plus fees.
Superfans who've saved up a few shekels take note: There's also VIP package that gets you front-row access to Slash's soundcheck, a signed copy of "Orgy of the Damned," and more. For additional info and pre-sales visit serpentfestival.Com.
As many longtime fans know, early in his career, offstage Slash was an avid collector of snakes and reptiles. But the S.E.R.P.E.N.T. Festival name has a deeper meaning. The acronym stands for Solidarity, Engagement, Restore, Peace, Equality N' Tolerance.
In a statement, Slash says "The S.E.R.P.E.N.T. Tour is a celebration of blues and rock 'n' roll music, and a celebration of unity and togetherness in these uncertain and divisive times. S.E.R.P.E.N.T is a vehicle to help support and uplift people and communities suffering from the injustices of racism and equal rights violations, as well as to support children adversely affected by war and poverty across the world. So, we are contributing a portion of every ticket and VIP package sold from the tour to those ends. S.E.R.P.E.N.T. Will also provide an environment where folks can get together for a day of great music and hang out and have a good time."
Other acts performing at various stops of the tour included Warren Haynes Band, Samantha Fish, Eric Gales, Keb' 'Mo, Christone "Kingfish" Ingram and Jackie Venson.
The album "Orgy of the Damned" finds Slash mixing it up with A-list rocker pals -- like Aerosmith's Steven Tyler, Gary Clark Jr., ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons, Black Crowes frontman Chris Robinson and Bad Company/Free legend Paul Rodgers – on covers of blues songs made famous by the likes of Albert King, Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters.
Two of the best tracks are covers of T. Bone Walker's "Stormy Monday," featuring Beth Hart's powerhouse vocals, and a rave-up of Little Walter's "Key to the Highway," belted out by mononymous rocker Dorothy.
Rock & Roll Hall of Famer and guitarist Slash. (Courtesy Gene Kirkland)Gene Kirkland
Since reuniting with GN'R singer Axl Rose and bassist Duff McKagan in 2016 for the first time since 1993, Slash has been headlining arenas and stadiums worldwide with Guns N' Roses, the blues-metal band known for hits like "Welcome to the Jungle," "Sweet Child O' Mine," "Patience," "Paradise City," "November Rain" and "You Could Be Mine."
Slash previously performed in Huntsville in 1987, when a pre-fame GN'R opened for Mötley Crüe at the Von Braun Civic Center, during a Southeastern leg of the tour for Mötley's album "Girls, Girls, Girls"
In addition to Guns N' Roses, Slash is known for his early 2000s supergroup Velvet Revolver, which also boasted late great Stone Temple Pilots singer Scott Weiland, and his long-running solo band Slash and the Conspirators, with Alter Bridge vocalist Myles Kennedy.
"I love blues music," Slash says in a statement, "but I haven't really done the blues thing because I was always so busy with something else. All these years later, I decided to finally do it."
"Orgy of the Damned" is the first full Slash solo album since his eponymous 2010 LP, which like "Orgy" featured a dynamic range of guest singers, from Chris Cornell to Fergie.
"With any of the hard rock bands I'm in the music is usually delivered at a frenetic pace with a certain amount of aggression," Slash says in a statement. "This album is still in my style, and it still has its own sort of aggression to it because that's the way I play. But at the same time it has a simple, stripped-down sound that is transparent and stark. It was a different approach. I don't often do these kinds of records and you don't always hear recordings of me in this context. But I loved what we captured in the moment."
There are some unexpected collaborations on "Orgy of the Damned." Outlaw country star Chris Stapleton steps up to the mic to take on "Oh Well," a gem from Fleetwood Mac's bluesy pre-Stevie-Nicks-and-Lindsey-Buckingham era, when that band was led by doomed guitar legend Peter Green. Pop star Demi Lovato teams with Slash and co. To saunter through The Temptations' wah-flecked "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone." Punk god Iggy Pop turns Lightnin' Hopkins' song "Awful Dream" into art-house cinema.
As evident by some of the the material Slash and his collaborators interpret, "Orgy of the Damned" stretches blues album perceptions. For example, aforementioned Black Crowes singer Robinson belts out and plays harmonica on Steppenwolf's '60s hit "The Pusher."
The album concludes with an emotional and new instrumental titled "Metal Chestnut." In addition to his acoustic and electric guitar, the closer boasts a rare performance of Slash playing pedal steel guitar, the complicated country-music-associated instrument he's been learning in recent years.
The music for "Orgy of the Damned" was played live in the studio, with Slash and his band playing together in the same room. Crucially, the album was produced by Mike Clink, the sonic savant who gave essential GN'R discs like "Appetite for Destruction," "GN'R Lies" and the "Use Your Illusion" LPs their raw yet crystal sound.
It was a very spontaneous thing," Slash says in a statement of recording "Orgy of the Damned." "We just threw it together. There was no researching or trying to find the right tracks — these are just songs I like. I wanted to approach the music in the way I always play. These are my interpretations. With some of the songs we changed the arrangement entirely because it was how we wanted to hear it played. The beauty of improvising and not overthinking is that something interesting or unexpected can come out of it."
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Recordings By Guns N' Roses, Lauryn Hill, Donna Summer And More Inducted Into Grammy Hall Of Fame: Complete List
Ten recordings were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame on Wednesday (March 20), following a two-year period in which the Hall was put on hiatus for a reevaluation. As before, this year's choices are eclectic and wide-ranging, including several that played a key role in creating or popularizing sub-genres – Lauryn Hill's The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (neo-soul), Donna Summer's "I Feel Love" (EDM) and De La Soul's 3 Feet High and Rising (alternative hip-hop).
Several changes were made during the hiatus period. The number of inducted recordings is down significantly from 25 to 30 in prior years. And while past classes have included repeat inductions by such Hall of Fame mainstays as The Beatles and Ella Fitzgerald, all of this year's choices are by first-time inductees into the Hall.
Also, the inducted recordings will be greeted with more fanfare than in the past, when each class was merely announced via press release. This class will be saluted at the Grammy Museum's inaugural Grammy Hall of Fame Gala and concert on May 21 at the NOVO Theater in Los Angeles. Significantly, the event was scheduled more than three months after the Feb. 4 Grammys to give it its own moment.
This year's induction class consists of six singles and four albums. All four albums were the artists' debut studio albums (or solo debut, in Hill's case). The three other debut albums honored were Buena Vista Social Club's eponymous album, Guns N' Roses' Appetite for Destruction and 3 Feet High and Rising. (Remarkably, Hill has not yet released a follow-up studio album, and Buena Vista Social Club disbanded without doing so.)
The inductees vary widely in terms of their commercial success. The list includes two Diamond-certified albums – Appetite for Destruction (18 million) and The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (10 million). But it also includes a single, William Bell's "You Don't Miss Your Water," that peaked at a lowly No. 95 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Some of this year's inducted recordings were showered with Grammy Awards at the time, including Hill's album of the year winner The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill and The Doobie Brothers' record and song of the year winner "What a Fool Believes." But many others weren't even nominated when they were eligible, including Appetite for Destruction and "I Feel Love."
The Grammy Hall of Fame was created in 1973 to honor recordings that were released prior to the inception of the Grammy Awards in 1958. Eligibility was soon changed to allow any recording released at least 25 years ago. Counting this year's 10 inductees, it includes 1,152 recordings.
Let's take a closer look at the 10 recordings being inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame this year. The titles are arranged alphabetically by artist.
Release Date: 1961
Label: Stax
Producer: Chips Moman (unlisted)
Hot 100 peak: No. 95
Grammy nominations: None. Bell finally received his first Grammy nominations in 2017, winning best Americana album for This Is Where I Live.
Notes: The complete thought on this bluesy lament about romantic regrets: "You don't miss your water/ Till the well runs dry." Bell, now 84, had a much bigger hit in 1977, "Tryin' to Love Two," which reached the top 10 on the Hot 100, but "You Don't Miss Your Water," his first Hot 100 entry, may be his most classic work. It has been recorded by such top artists as Otis Redding, Percy Sledge, The Byrds, Brian Eno, Taj Mahal, Jerry Lee Lewis and Peter Tosh & The Wailers.
Release Date: Sept. 16, 1997
Label: Nonesuch
Producer: Ry Cooder
Billboard 200 peak: No. 80
Grammy nominations: Best tropical Latin performance (won)
Notes: Buena Vista Social Club was an ensemble of Cuban musicians directed by Juan de Marcos González and American guitarist Ry Cooder. Their debut album was recorded at Havana's EGREM studios in March 1996 and was released through World Circuit internationally and Nonesuch Records in the U.S. The album's release was followed by a short concert tour in 1998. Footage from those dates, as well as from the recording sessions in Havana, was included in the 1999 documentary Buena Vista Social Club.
Release Date: March 3, 1989
Label: Tommy Boy
Producer: Prince Paul
Billboard 200 peak: No. 15
Grammy nominations: Best rap performance for the track "Me Myself and I"
Notes: 3 Feet High and Rising was the first of three collaborations by De La Soul and producer Prince Paul. The album spawned the hit "Me Myself and I," which reached the top 40 on the Hot 100. The album's title was inspired by the title of Johnny Cash's 1959 country hit "Five Feet High and Rising." This album reached a new peak on the Billboard 200 in March 2023 when De La Soul's long-unavailable catalog appeared for the first time on global streaming services.
Release Date: January 1979
Label: Warner Bros.
Producer: Ted Templeman
Hot 100 peak: No. 1 (one week)
Grammy nominations: Record and song of the year (won both); album of the year and best pop vocal performance by a duo, group or chorus for Minute by Minute
Notes: Michael McDonald and Kenny Loggins co-wrote this song, and Loggins was actually first to record it, on his 1978 album Nightwatch. But The Doobies' record, featuring McDonald's soulful vocals floating atop a cool synth arrangement, went all the way. The song topped the Hot 100 in April 1979, a pop/rock outlier at a time when disco was at its white-hot peak. It was the band's second No. 1 hit, following "Black Water" in 1975. The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2020.
Release Date: July 21, 1987
Label: Geffen
Producer: Mike Clink
Billboard 200 peak: No. 1 (five weeks)
Grammy nominations: None. The band received its first nomination for its follow-up album, G N' R Lies.
Notes: How could this album have received no Grammy nominations? It didn't really break through until 1988. At the end of the 1987 eligibility year on Sept. 30 of that year, it had climbed no higher than No. 70 on the Billboard 200. The album has spent nearly five years, all told, on that chart. It spawned three top 10 singles on the Hot 100 – "Welcome to the Jungle," the Hot 100-topping "Sweet Child O' Mine" and "Paradise City." The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012.
Release Date: Aug. 25, 1998
Label: Ruffhouse/Columbia
Producers: Lauryn Hill, Che Pope, Vada Nobles
Billboard 200 peak: No. 1 (four weeks)
Grammy nominations: Nine, resulting in five wins, including album of the year and best R&B album. It was the first hip-hop album to be voted album of the year.
Notes:The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill melded neo-soul and R&B with hip-hop and reggae. Recording sessions took place from late 1997 to June 1998 mainly at Tuff Gong Studios in Kingston, Jamaica. The album spawned three top 40 hits on the Hot 100 – "Ex-Factor," "Everything Is Everything," and the No. 1-reaching "Doo Wop (That Thing)." The album, one of the most universally acclaimed releases of the 1990s, has proved to be a hard act to follow: Hill, now 48, has yet to release a follow-up studio album.
Release Date: June 1960
Label: Capitol
Producer: Ken Nelson
Hot 100 peak: No. 37
Grammy nominations: None. Jackson received her first nomination in 1964 for best country & western vocal performance, female for Two Sides of Wanda Jackson.
Notes: This rockabilly track is one party invitation nobody is going to pass up. Elvis Presley recorded this song (under the title "Party") for his 1957 film Loving You. His version appeared on the film's soundtrack album, which topped the Billboard 200 for 10 weeks. Jackson recorded it for her first album, Wanda Jackson, released in 1958. Her version later appeared in the 1989 film Dead Poets Society, which starred Robin Williams. It's easy to see Jackson's influence on such subsequent popular singers as Tanya Tucker, Miranda Lambert and Elle King. Incidentally, that "party" is still going strong. Jackson, now 86, cracked the Billboard 200 in 2011 with an album titled The Party Ain't Over.
Release Date: 1922
Label: Nordskog
Producer: N/A
Hot 100 peak: This pre-dated the Hot 100.
Grammy nominations: This pre-dated the Grammys.
Notes: "Ory's Creole Trombone" is a spirited example of New Orleans jazz. Kid Ory wrote the piece and first recorded it in 1922 in Los Angeles, which is the version being honored here. The recording constituted the first issued recording session by an African American jazz band from New Orleans. Ory recorded the piece several times over the years. In 1927 he made a recording as part of Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five. Ory died in January 1973 at age 86.
Release Date: Oct. 23, 1971
Label: RCA Victor
Producer: Jack Clement
Hot 100 peak: No. 21
Grammy nominations: Best county vocal performance, male. Ben Peters won best country song for writing the song.
Notes: Pride amassed 29 No. 1 hits on Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart, but this was his only song to make the top 40 on the Hot 100. The warm, mid-tempo ballad, which led the country chart for five weeks, was Pride's signature song virtually from the time it was released in the fall of 1971 until his death nearly 50 years later. Ben Peters won a Grammy for writing the song, which contains this unforgettable couplet: "Kiss an angel good mornin'/ And love her like the devil when you get back home." Pride was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2000. He received a lifetime achievement award from the Recording Academy in 2017. He died in 2020 at age 86.
Release Date: July 2, 1977
Label: Casablanca
Producer: Giorgio Moroder, Pete Bellotte
Hot 100 peak: No. 6
Grammy nominations: None. Summer received her first nominations the following year for "Last Dance" (which won) and "MacArthur Park."
Notes: This icy, synthesized smash still sounds modern – and it sounded positively otherworldly when it was released in 1977. It's one of Summer's most influential hits, helping to lay the foundation for electronic dance music. "I Feel Love" logged 23 weeks on the Hot 100, more than any other Summer single. The futuristic-sounding smash has been covered by such artists as Bronski Beat, Messiah and Sam Smith. Summer died in 2012 at age 63. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2013 and received a lifetime achievement award from the Recording Academy earlier this year.
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