by Slash
The guy wanted eight grand for it, and though I had never spent eight grand on anything before in my entire life, I had to have it. It was a pretty amazing moment when I finally held that guitar in my hands; the same instrument that played an essential role in the path I’d chosen in life was now in my possession (and I would use it on the “November Rain” video). I truly felt like I’d arrived.
If memory serves, it was around this time that I finally retired to storage the guitar that I’d used on Appetite and the “Welcome to the Jungle” video, my Les Paul replica (and the backup for it that I’d bought). I abuse my guitars when I play live, and by this point it was severely banged up after all of that touring.
In any case, I was in need of new touring guitars, so I asked Gibson for two Les Paul Standards. They appreciated my dedication, but since I wasn’t very high-profile at that point, they wouldn’t give them to me for free; they’d only sell them to me wholesale. That was fine: I got two red-and-orange Sunbursts and I immediately got them refinished so that they’d look less brand-new and brightly colored. I wanted them to be a bit duller and weathered. I used one through the rest of our Appetite tour, through the entire Use Your Illusion tour, and on both Snakepit tours. It also appeared in the “Sweet Child o’ Mine” and “Paradise City” videos. The other one remained a backup.
They saw some living to say the least. When Velvet Revolver started, those guitars were so banged up that I decided not to retire them but to use them minimally on stage—I call upon them whenever we play “Fall to Pieces.” To fill that void, I asked Gibson for a couple more and this time apparently I was a bit more high-profile so they gave them to me, no questions asked. They actually took it even further: they made me a Slash model Les Paul that is an exact replica of those 1988 Standards that I’d bought from them way back when. I now use those onstage and they are such exact replicas that the first time I opened the case to look at the prototype, number 001, I thought that I was looking at my original guitar that they were returning to me. The replica has every single nick, scratch, and cigarette burn that my guitar has. It even has a crack in the neck from that time when it exploded in my face and was rebuilt—we’ll get to that story in just a little bit. In any case, it’s called the Slash Signature model and it’s every inch exactly like mine. Considering that they did the same for Jimmy Page—they replicated the guitar he used for The Song Remains the Same and all of the greatest Led Zeppelin albums—I’m honored that they did that for me.
Photography Credits
Interior
Photographs by Gene Kirkland appear on Images:
Introduction, Chapter 6, Chapter7, Chapter8, Chapter9, Chapter10, Chapter11, Chapter12, Chapter13
Photographs by Marc Canter appear on Images:
Chapter2, Chapter3, Chapter4, Chapter5, Chapter6, Chapter7
Photographs by Ola Hudson appear on Images:
Introduction, Chapter1, Chapter2, Chapter10
Photographs by Karl Larsen appear on Images:
Chapter12, If Memory Serves
Photographs courtesy of Perla Hudson appear on Images:
Chapter12, Chapter13
Photograph by J. Nez appears on Image
Chapter13
Photograph by Jack Lue (recklessroad.com) appears on Image
Chapter6
Slash
Slash with Anthony Bozza
To my loving family, for all their support through the good times and the bad
And to Guns N’ Roses fans everywhere, old and new; with out their undying loyalty and limitless patience, none of this would matter
CONTENTS
Introduction - Having Considered All Things
Chapter 1 - Stoked
Chapter 2 - Twenty-Inch-High Hooligans
Chapter 3 - How to Play Rock-and-Roll Guitar
Chapter 4 - Education High
Chapter 5 - Least Likely to Succeed
Chapter 6 - You Learn to Live Like an Animal
Chapter 7 - Appetite for Dysfunction
Chapter 8 - Off to the Races
Photographic Insert
Chapter 9 - Don’t Try This at Home
Chapter 10 - Humpty Dumpty
Chapter 11 - Choose Your Illusion
Chapter 12 - Breakdown
Chapter 13 - Coming Up for Air
If Memory Serves
Photography Credits
About the Authors
Credits
Copyright
About the Publisher