SLASH Talks About Forthcoming Solo Album

Rick Landers of ModernGuitars.com recently conducted an interview with VELVET REVOLVER/ex-GUNS N' ROSES guitarist Slash. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

ModernGuitars.com: I understand that you've also got a new book coming out by Marc Canter ("Reckless Road: Guns N' Roses & The Making Of Appetite For Destruction"). Can you tell us a little bit about the book?

Slash: Yeah, that's Marc's book. Marc is a really close friend of mine from way back in the fifth grade and when I first started playing guitar. He used to just bring his camera. He used to shoot a lot of rock concerts. He used to sneak cameras in and shoot from JUDAS PRIEST to AEROSMITH and whoever else you can think of. So, he's pretty handy with a camera. When I first started in my first band and what-not, he used to always come and take pictures and physically record the shows. When GUNS first started, I guess he saw something in GUNS that we maybe didn't necessarily see at the time. But he really thought it was gonna go somewhere. He started shooting all the shows, recording all the shows and never missed one. Really, for the whole time that we were a club band up until the point where we got signed. So this book is really, really candid stuff from all these different dates, backstage and some other casual stuff. But, it's the kind of pictorial history that most bands don't have because they either weren't fortunate enough to have somebody that saw more in them than the band itself saw or, you know, just having somebody around with a 35mm on a regular basis. But, it's really a cool, cool book. It's probably the coolest rock and roll table book I've seen in a long time.

ModernGuitars.com: That last book was kind of fueled by the sex, drugs and rock and roll theme. But near the end, I got the impression that you were beginning to side a little bit more with soccer moms, and you were looking at yourself more as a real father and family man. Is that the case?

Slash: Yeah. I mean, all things considered, it goes through all the basic craziness and then, somehow, towards the end of it, I ended up married and now with two kids. So having this sort of rock and roll craziness and domestic life sort of mixed, sort of getting rid of all the real hardcore stuff that I used to live on. You know, it all sort of works together. It is what it is. I guess you get the idea from reading it.

ModernGuitars.com: I've heard that you're working on a new solo album. Is that true?

Slash: Yeah.

ModernGuitars.com: And that you plan on having more than one lead singer?

Slash: The plan at this point is where I'm just using different singers for every song. So it'll probably be...if there are 12 songs, there will be 12 singers, put it that way.

ModernGuitars.com: Over the years, have you found that you prefer to be working in an ongoing group, or is it more fun for you now to work with various artists on various projects?

Slash: My core is definitely group-oriented. I've always been in a band ever since I first picked up the guitar. Within the first six months of learning how to play guitar, I was in a band, and I'll always be a band guy. But, I also love the experience of going and doing sessions with people I've never worked with or people that I really admire that I grew up listening to or whatever, and learning how to adapt and sort of think on my feet. I do that a lot. Working on a solo record, which is really my first solo record where I'm not using a fixed band, has just been a new experience for me because I don't have to answer to anybody. And, you know, it's a little liberating in a way. But at the same time, while I'm doing that, I'm still in VELVET REVOLVER and we're still looking for a singer, and we're still writing every day as a group. I like to be able to do it all, you know?

Read the entire interview from ModernGuitars.com.