Rock & Roll’s invincible guitar god.
How Slash has proven he’s a force to be reckoned with over his rocky 35-year-long career.
photo by liogkih, retrieved from Wallpapers for theme Guns N’ Roses.
In 1992, Slash died for eight minutes. The Guns N’ Roses lead guitarist experienced a cardiac arrest in a hotel after overdosing on speedball (a dangerous combination of heroin and cocaine). Luckily, he was resuscitated and would live on.
Ten years later, Slash was given anywhere from six days to six weeks to live when he was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy, likely caused by his years of excessive drinking and drug use. But, thanks to medical intervention and lifestyle changes, the iconic guitarist has managed to outlast this grim diagnosis and still lives today.
Slash has repeatedly proven that he’s here to stay. Despite all of the turmoil throughout his journey, Slash is not only alive, but continues to make phenomenal music. Over the past 35 years, Slash has truly done it all: here’s a rundown of the guitar god’s legendary career.
Slash rose to fame as the lead guitarist of Guns N’ Roses (GNR) in the late-1980s and early ‘90s with three massive albums: Appetite for Destruction, Use Your Illusion I, and Use Your Illusion II. This was the golden era of GNR—it was essentially a multi-year drug-fueled bender that produced truly incredible music. During this time, Slash quickly established himself as a hyper-talented guitarist, writing some of the catchiest riffs of his time and performing jaw-dropping solos. His guitar work stood out as one of the key musical features of the band, whether it was the raw riffs of “Welcome to the Jungle” and “Mr. Brownstone” or the melodic solos of “Sweet Child O’ Mine” and “November Rain.” Slash’s gritty yet emotional tone and elusive style were invaluable in building GNR into the icon it became.
But, while GNR’s music in this era was stellar, times were tough for the band. Controversies, drug addictions, and feuds between members took a toll on the band, its members, and their music. Slash had his momentary death, rhythm guitarist Izzy Stradlin faced arrest, and original drummer Steven Adler was kicked from the band due to addiction issues. The initial creative spark of GNR fizzled out over the course of a decade, and in 1996, Slash officially left the group.
While GNR was Slash’s main project in the early ‘90s, the guitarist also frequently collaborated with the king of pop himself, Michael Jackson, playing guitar on multiple tracks for Jackson’s 1991 album Dangerous. The most iconic moment produced by the two artists’ collaborative efforts was most definitely their performance at the 1995 MTV VMAs. When Jackson ended “Black and White,” Slash continued playing for over a minute. The guitarist embarked on an epic solo, falling to his knees while silhouetted by the constant stream of artificial smoke that rose behind him. Despite the best efforts of both Jackson and a stagehand to stop him, Slash kept playing until Jackson forcibly cut him off by beginning his performance of “Beat It.” There was just no stopping Slash.
Another one of Slash’s side projects after leaving GNR was Slash’s Snakepit, a band which included fellow former GNR members Matt Sorum and Gilby Clarke alongside bassist Mike Inez and vocalist Eric Dover. While this group didn’t achieve any great commercial success, Slash’s talent as a guitarist was still very much on display while playing with them. Just listen to “Beggars & Hangers-On,” a song from the group’s first studio album featuring a soft, groovy slide guitar bit to open, a hard-hitting riff during the choruses, and a lead guitar line that wails along with Dover’s raw vocals at the track’s very end.
Even though Slash’s Snakepit never really took off, the lead guitarist was far from done. In 2002, Slash started Velvet Revolver with Sorum, former GNR bassist Duff McKagan, Dave Kushner of Wasted Youth, and lead vocalist Scott Weiland of the Stone Temple Pilots. The supergroup released two studio albums: Contraband and Libertad. It was the former which brought the band its commercial success while the latter ended up being somewhat of a flop. On Contraband, “Slither” contains the same style of heavy riffs, dynamic solos, and incredible tone that Slash brought to GNR. And “Fall to Pieces,” similarly to many of GNR’s slower ballads, demonstrates the lead guitarist’s ability to support softer vocals and belt out an appropriately emotional solo when called for.
One of Velvet Revolver’s initial goals was for all its members, Slash included, to get and stay clean. Reflecting on the band’s inception on a podcast entitled “Sound, Sobriety, and Success,” drummer Matt Sorum discussed how all of the band’s members knew that they had to look after their health—that meant laying off the drugs and excessive drinking which had fueled all of their early careers. But after the commercial success of Contraband, everything fell apart according to Sorum: “The wheels came off the machine, the train came off the tracks, and bad habits reappeared. I started drinking again, drugging, the whole thing, all of us. And shit got fucked up.” And while Sorum did like Libertad, he also acknowledges that it lacked the “angst” of the group’s first album. Things fell to pieces very quickly, and by 2008 Velvet Revolver came to a bitter end.
It was in the post-Velvet Revolver era that Slash decided to sober up after years of drug and alcohol abuse. Slash told BelfastLive: “I had two kids and I was living in a hotel because I couldn’t be around them. It all just sort of came to a head and I thought I needed to go to some sort of facility and just get away from everybody for a month and I’ll clean up. I really embraced it and I came out of it really happy and all that energy I was putting towards self-destruction I just put towards music.”
Sober and hungrier than ever, Slash launched his solo career with his self-titled 2010 album. The project contained tracks featuring Fergie, Ozzy Osbourne, Adam Levine, Lemmy (of Motörhead fame), Dave Grohl (of Nirvana and Foo Fighters), Iggy Pop, Kid Rock, and more. These numerous collaborations made Slash an incredibly diverse and unique album—nearly every song featured a different vocalist, yet each was still very much rooted in Slash’s style of play. The album notably contained two tracks with vocals by Myles Kennedy, the lead vocalist of Alter Bridge. Kennedy had previously declined Slash’s offer to sing for Velvet Revolver but finally paired his sharp vocals with Slash’s guitar in this project.
Slash and Kennedy’s musical relationship was a match made in heaven—Slash’s punchy guitar tone pairs perfectly with Kennedy’s sophisticated and emotional vocals. Both are veterans of rock & roll who have refused to let their age (58 and 54, respectively) hold them back; instead, they are still actively learning and growing, managing to utilize their experience to help them continue to innovate. After working together on Slash, the two became frequent collaborators, releasing four studio albums together under the name Slash ft. Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators. These “Conspirators” are bassist Todd Kerns (age 56), drummer Brent Fitz (age 53), and the younger rhythm guitarist Frank Sidoris (age 35).
In his four studio albums with Kennedy, Slash has continued to play and perform at an extremely high level. While all four have their own special qualities, World on Fire (2014) is by far the most exceptional of the lot, containing some of Slash’s most nuanced guitar work to date. This is at least partially due to the fact that Slash played both rhythm and lead guitar on the record, essentially allowing him to play with himself and resulting in an album in which every track is filled with perfectly executed riffs, licks, solos, and more. The project is truly an experience to listen to as it sways between quiet and loud, soft and hard, bitter and sweet. Both Slash and Kennedy show their musical range throughout the album’s combination of longer story-form songs and shorter traditional rock pieces. The two complement each other perfectly for the record’s entire duration, adapting and working together to always be on the same page.
The genius behind World on Fire is on full display in a short mini-documentary sponsored by Ernie Ball which follows the making of the album. It shows how Slash wrote and fine-tuned the record’s best riffs and solos, feeling them out until they hit the spot. We also get to see Myles Kennedy’s musical process—how he writes meaningful, inspired lyrics and preserves his voice to perfect his delivery of them. The video also highlights the album’s production; World on Fire was recorded on 2” analog tapes to preserve the classic rock sound of the ‘80s. In short, this 48-minute video gives an in-depth behind-the-scenes look at the musical process of a more mature Slash; it shows how all the elements between the lead guitarist, Kennedy, and the Conspirators gave birth to an impeccable work of art.
In that documentary, Slash also discusses his love for playing live. Slash once told Livewire “For me, playing live has definitely always been the pinnacle. It was always the whole point of all of it.”
I’ve been fortunate enough to watch Slash perform live twice with Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators, once in Atlanta during the Living the Dream Tour in 2019 and again three years later in New York City. For a man in his mid-50s, Slash played with energy, passion, and confidence unlike anything I had ever seen before. His tone was beautiful, his style and charisma were captivating, and his improvised solos left me speechless. The entire band functioned on an extremely high level, playing perfectly in sync as they flawlessly performed both their own tracks as well as classics from GNR.
Despite his numerous addictions, failed projects, medical setbacks, and more, Slash is standing healthier than ever, playing live shows with an unmatched fervor. The guitar god has gone through the gauntlet of rock & roll and emerged a better man and musician.
And if all that wasn’t enough to prove to you that there’s just no stopping Slash, there is one more crazy piece of trivia that might just change your mind. Slash has spent the last several decades out of the spotlight (at least compared to the fame that came during his early years in GNR), but his work is still relevant. Because, believe it or not, Slash played guitar on Ryan Gosling's Barbie hit “I’m Just Ken.”
No matter how you slice it, Slash is literally everywhere.
edited by Aidan Burt.
photo by liogkih, retrieved from Wallpapers for theme Guns N’ Roses.