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Re: 20 Years Ago: The Snake and the Devil
Some Slash comments from the era. Funny how he uses the same allegory on the 3-4 Snakepit demos almost in verbatim in separate interviews.
"And then Axl went on to do the vocals [for Sympathy] and he brought another guitar player. It was a guy from Indiana, who I can't stand. And he, sort of, added a little rhythm guitar there, but he also put little answers on my guitar solo, my first one. There's two solos in the song. The first one, if you listen to it, you'll hear my guitar and you'll hear this teeny little thing in the background, and that pissed me off. As a result, we ended up doing another cover song that didn't need to be covered, for a lame movie, and it didn't do anything to the band, so it was an effort made, but an effort that was wasted, too."
"When I first got into this [Snakepit] thing, there were certain songs he wanted back. Like he thought that anything went into this hand from this hand with a guitar in between, was to be designated Guns N' Roses material, you know, Guns territory, which wasn't the case." (Slash, 95)
"They [were] intended to be Guns N' Roses songs. Well, you see, that was a problem with Axl I had. Axl figured that once I put this hand together with this hand, that anything I wrote was designated Guns N' Roses material. He was just amazed that I could take off like that, cause I'm always there. With Guns, it's just like, I'm always there. And this sort of shocked him." (The Word, 17/02/95)
"[Axl suing for the Snakepit songs] was mentioned at one point, because, like I said, he's got this distorted vision, or thought, that when I apply my talents to the guitar, or whatever you want to call it, that it's automatically Guns N' Roses material, which isn't the case. That means Lenny Kravitz stuff, Iggy Pop, Michael Jackson, Carol King, would all be Guns N' Roses material. That's not the case at all."
"Stephanie Seymour? I don't even know Stephanie Seymour... Well, she was Axl's girlfriend at the time [while doing the UYI videos]. I don't really like her or dislike her, she's useless. I don't care about her."
(Slash, 02/95)
"Guns is fine, I learned from other people's mistakes not to get so egotistical or selfinvolved, that you quit the band because you can't get along with one of the other guys in the band... I'll be the lead guitar player [on the next Guns album], yeah. Unless I'm fired (laughs)." (Slash, 95)
"We go through these periods, where I do my thing and he [Axl] does his, and then, eventually, we come together and that's when another Guns N' Roses record gets done. When this tour ends, it's a six-month tour, in August, I'll go home and basically, we'll regroup, so to speak. And then, Guns will probably spend a little bit of time in the studio, and then we'll be on the road for a while. We'll be like family for a long time, and when the tour ends, I'm probably just go back do another Snakepit record and do another small club tour. And we'll just sort of play it that way. But of course, nothing is ever that predictable. That's the basic plan." (Slash, 06/05/95)
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Re: 20 Years Ago: The Snake and the Devil
Axl admitted to wanting a few of them... and working on the others maybe.. Slash said, no, these are finished or something to that effect. At first Axl said no, but then wanted a few back from what I recall.
Re: 20 Years Ago: The Snake and the Devil
Axl admitted to wanting a few of them... and working on the others maybe.. Slash said, no, these are finished or something to that effect. At first Axl said no, but then wanted a few back from what I recall.
Sounds about right from what I can remember too 
Reading apexs post above, and watching the interviews, I can see why Axl might hold a grudge against Slash. Whether it's bad enough to warrant holding a grudge for 20 odd years I don't know, but whilst still a member of GN'R Slash went on a media campaign to promote Snakepit and ended up taking shots at Axl in the process.
Re: 20 Years Ago: The Snake and the Devil
Yeah, it does seem to tie in with what Marc Canter (among others) has alluded to. Slash is the one who brought the Snakepit conundrum to the public and made Axl look like the bad guy. Now, Axl may well have been wrong by thinking that Slash 'stole' the demos from Guns by recording and releasing them under the Snakepit banner, but Slash could've certainly handled the situation differently. Apparently, he never gave Axl a headsup, like 'If there's anything here you want to earmark for Guns, do it quick - I want to release this stuff'.
While Slash was on tour, Axl had to deal with the media reports about the band's dirty laundry, both Sympathy and Snakepit. While Slash's version of the events appears factual all the way, he consistently downplayed his own errors of judgment in the matter. Obviously, the atmosphere in the band and their working relationship suffered immense blows by both their inability to suss out their issues before the Snakepit tour and by Slash's constant comments in the media about how Axl nearly sued him. If Slash really thought he could just come back after that and find a happy Axl eager to work on a new album, he was way off his rocker.
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Re: 20 Years Ago: The Snake and the Devil
Did Slash ever admit to actively doing drugs. Seems like every interview all time he is saying how he is done with drugs. Lol. That said, I don't think he is on drugs, but even in 94, 95 he talks as of drugs are a thing of the past. I guess everyone would say that no matter what. And maybe he was done with heroine at that point and just did pills or something and drank. He is like "every time we come off the road". Wasn't there only one big tour prior to illusions? The tour for appetite. Then two years of nothing. Then 3 years illusions then nothing then Snakepit. Right?
Re: 20 Years Ago: The Snake and the Devil
There were legs and breaks too, which he probably considers "coming off the road". But yeah, that was the big three and it looks like he more or less lived like a junkie in those long stretches. So understandable that he wanted to keep active, but still no excuse for neglecting the band and creating drama in the press. As if Get In The Ring hadn't made things abundantly clear how Axl felt about that type of stuff.
Re: 20 Years Ago: The Snake and the Devil
A very illuminating article from Kerrang, Jan '95 - right around the Zakk Wylde sessions.
Guns N' Roses guitarist, Slash, can't stand new band mate Paul Huge - and that's official! The bombshell was dropped this week by the superstar six-stringer, who says he has never liked GN'R's new axeman - an old friend of band frontman Axl Rose. In addition, Slash sensationally reveals that Axl refused to record with the rest of the band when they entered the studio to work on latest single "Sympathy For The Devil"! He also owns up to the fact that there are no new songs for the long-awaited follow up to the 1991 "Use Your Illusion" LPs.
Life in GN'R is as turbulent as ever. Virtually all new material Slash has written in the past 18 months will end up on his forthcoming solo LP, "It's Five O' Clock Somewhere", due out next month through Geffen. The only other new tune written by the guitarist features on a high-tech GN'R pinball machine called "Snakepit"! "Other than that, "Use Your Illusion" is the last piece of original material, and that's three years ago," Slash shrugs, speaking to Mayhem (a Kerrang! Column) in a no-holds-barred interview. And the guitarist has plenty to say!
It was hoped that "Sympathy...", a cover of the Rolling Stones classic which features on the soundtrack to movie blockbuster "Interview With the Vampire", would be the prelude to a long-overdue burst of GN'R musical activity. But things couldn't, Slash reveals, be much further from the truth. When GN'R got off the road early last year, Slash went straight into his home studio to start work on what was supposed to be a new get-it-out-quick-and-get-back-on-the-road LP.
Things went sour when Axl turned down flat all the songs that Slash had written and put down on tape with GN'R drummer Matt Sorum. Rather than throw these songs away - songs which Axl now wants back for the next GN'R LP! - Slash put together his sideline band Snakepit, and made the aforementioned "It's Five O' Clock Somewhere". Produced by Guns producer Mike Clink and featuring sacked GN'R guitarist Gilby Clarke, Matt Sorum, ex-Jellyfish axe Eric Dover on vocals and Alice In Chains bassist Mike Inez, the Snakepit project could well be seen as an alternative, slimmed-down Guns N' Roses.
Why isn't Duff Mckagan playing on the album?
"It would be Guns without Axl if Duff were playing on it."
A good idea, by all accounts.
"No." Says Slash. "That's not cool.
"Axl is in such a funny place, you know, because Axl is Axl, and no one will ever really understand him as much as he would probably like to be understood. So he really is on his own in that respect. But I've known him long enough where there's a certain amount of leeway with his outbursts that I can handle. They just don't affect me. But I feel sorry for him sometimes, if only because he's such a tough act to be: to maintain any kind of dignity with this public scrutiny and having all this negative press and so on..."
But here you are, his closest friend in the band, putting together your own group - with songs that he now considers Guns songs! Plus, you're with a drummer who's in Guns N' Roses and a guitar player Axl kicked out of the band! He must think you've turned against him as well!
"The Gilby thing did piss Axl off. But Gilby was pissed off too. He was shocked when he was fired, because there was no other reason behind it other than Axl had made up his mind. And of course I had to be the f***king messenger of bad news, which was f**ked for me because Gilby and I are really close.
You don't play with people like that. I hooked up with Gilby and rightly so, because Gilby didn't deserve that kind of treatment - especially when he covered our ass so we could complete the world tour when Izzy quit. I wasn't mad at Gilby. I can do what the f**k I want. And if he wanted to work with me after all this shit...
We (Slash and Axl) just had a really rare, heated conversation a couple of days ago, where everything that I've had brewing - you know how quiet and laidback I am - I just let everything out. He sort of listened to me. I said everything I could possibly say that I didn't agree with. So that's about it."
Has Slash going off on his own like this shocked Axl into taking more notice of him?
"I have no idea. He hasn't heard my record yet. I don't really want to hear his opinion. He and I are so close that he could say something that could dampen my enthusiasm for what I'm doing."
Slash is not thinking too much about Guns N' Roses at the moment. Snakepit is taking up all his time - he's rehearsing and organising a tour - and all of his musical energy. Snakepit is very much in a simpler, more direct, early Guns vein and a lot of the material is very reminiscent of Guns' classic debut LP "Appetite For Destruction".
Slash says that Guns N' Roses' "Las Vegas" (
) direction towards the end of their last gargantuan tour, with the horns, orchestras and backing singers onstage, was something he did not agree with. He says it made him "uncomfortable". The guitarist tried to change things, but failed.
With Snakepit, he's doing everything on his own terms. But GN'R do have a future. Slash says he loves the band "with a passion", that it is where his "heart lies" and - for what it's worth - that he and Axl are as close as ever.
All this in spite of Axl threatening to sue Slash over those Snakepit songs...
Slash says: "Legally, it's all verbal stuff. We have never gone into litigation of any kind with this. Axl just thought that the songs were rightfully Guns' because they were written with the intention of them being Guns songs. I disagree."
Since Gilby was sacked - after speaking out last summer in Kerrang! - the only flicker of activity from the collective Guns camp has been the "Interview..." track, on which Paul Huge (pronounced "hoogie") made his debut. Slash is far from happy with the situation.
"I never liked that guy from day one," he spits. "That's one of the biggest, most personal things that Axl and I have gone through. It really pissed me off that he brought in an outside guitar player without ever telling me. There is a funny story to "Sympathy...".
When the movie came out (in the US) a couple of months ago, Geffen called and said, "Could you do us a favor?" That movie coming out was a big issue for me, because the books ("The Vampire trilogy" by Anne Rice) were great. They have a real kind of passion in there - a sort of dark romanticism - and I'm a real heavy-duty, old time vampire horror movie freak. And it was like Tom Cruise AND Brad Pitt? No f**king way!
So I got this call saying would we do "Sympathy For The Devil" for the movie. I thought, "Well okay, maybe it'll be a vehicle to get the band back together and get the wheels in motion for some pre-production stuff." So I went to the screening in one of those stiff theatres full of showbiz f**king suits, and I'm half asleep! I'm not having a good time, and I couldn't just get up and leave, so I was trying to be cool.
I started smoking some cigarettes, which is not something you're meant to do in an LA cinema... it's like murder! So I got up and left before the lights went out. I have to say Tom Cruise did the best he could, but the film's laughable to me. The Stone's version of the song was playing in the same place ours was meant to be. Anyway, I got up and went home.
I called Doug (Goldstein) and said, "Leave it: the Stone's version's fine. There's no need to do a song that doesn't need to be redone." Then Axl went to see the film the next day, and it's inevitable that he likes it and comes out of the movie completely at odds with me! It just goes with the territory - I love this singer/lead guitarist relationship in bands... it's just f**king stupid! So Axl went and saw it and said he loved it. He was ecstatic. "Let's do the song!" he says. So I said "okay".
We show up at the studio... who shows up? Matt, Duff and I. That was it. Paul Huge came in with Axl a couple of days later. While we were doing it (recording the song), we had to write down how many bars each section was, because without vocals you don't know where the next change is going to come. But we got it done and the guitar solos on and everything, and then Axl went in to do vocals... and the next thing you know, there's this "answer" guitar going on during my guitar solo! It's Paul Huge!
I will probably never forgive Axl for that. But we talked about it. We made a deal that if Paul ever plays on anything, then I should at least be told first, because it really took me off guard. I wasn't there when he did it. Axl likes the song. I haven't listened to it since it was mixed. It's not like it was lousy guitar playing or anything; I think it's how it went down. If people like it, then fine. I haven't gone to see the movie again again because I don't think I could bear it."
Slash says he's got "no idea" when the next GN'R album will appear, but is convinced that there will be one. He and Axl - who is currently checking out bands for the soon-to-be-revived Uzi Suicide label - have come to an agreement whereby any time off Slash gets from Snakepit will be spent working and rehearsing with Guns. The most dangerous band in the world has survived all the obstacles, including three band member changes, and Slash insists that GN'R have gained strength from all of this. Strength to overcome whatever else gets thrown in their path.
The Snakepit tour is set to last through the summer, so don't expect any Guns studio action until then at the earliest. "When I get done with the tour and all that," Slash says, "then we'll see where Guns' collective heads are at. And if everything's okay, then I'd love to continue doing it."
Did you pick up the upheaval Slash inferred to? It was a recurring thing. This is from April 13th, '95.
Before his concert with his own group, Slash's Snakepit, in Manhattan last week, the guitarist Slash took time to discuss the status of the other band he plays in, Guns 'n' Roses, which hasn't released a record since 1991's two "Use Your Illusion" albums.
"There's a lot of confusion as to what this is about," Slash said in reference to Snakepit. "Did I quit Guns? No. Why am I doing this? Because I felt like it."
Snakepit's album, "It's 5 O'Clock Somewhere" (Geffen), was recorded with the Guns 'n' Roses drummer, Matt Sorum. But Mr. Sorum was not able to tour with Snakepit because Axl Rose, Guns 'n' Roses' moody lead singer, decided to start working on new Guns 'n' Roses songs. "If Matt was touring with me, it would stop Guns 'n' Roses in its tracks," Slash said.
Referring to the rhythm guitarist Zakk Wylde, Guns 'n' Roses' temporary replacement for Gilby Clarke, who left the band, he added, "I don't know whether he's going to be part of the band or not. Axl really wants to do a Guns record now. But there's a lot of debate over who's going to play guitar. Axl and I were having an argument about it yesterday."
The preceding day, Aprli 12th, Snakepit played a show in Philadelphia. The most sound conclusion is that Slash and Axl had their discussion over the phone. The below interview was recorded in late May, early June.
Slash takes his time to consider when he last spoke to Axl. His response ("about six months ago") gets a bit of an incredulous response from the interviewer ("Is that so?"). About two months ago would've been more likely, all things considered. I recall another interview from that era where Slash was asked does he call Axl often. Slash immediately dodged the bullet by saying he barely has the time to call his wife.
There was definitely traffic between Slash and Axl throughout that period, but Slash doesn't bring it up much.
Re: 20 Years Ago: The Snake and the Devil
Here's another very interesting one, this one's from late '96, when Slash was rehearsing with the band.
And our man Slash's main gig has been on something of a respite since its Use Your Illusion tour wound down in 1993. With exception of some oddball oldies projects - The Spaghetti Incident LP (which, by the way, features a Slash vocal medley of T-Rex's Buick Makane and Soundgardens Big Dumb Sex and the remake of Sympathy for the Devil for the interview With the Vampire film - the Guns have been firing only sporadically.
But the group has been working hard of late, with every intention of releasing a new album in '97. And the band's guitar ranks have swelled to three - with Rose picking up an axe of his own.
"That tripped me out when I first came back," Slash says. "I figured 'Okay, that's where his focus has been. I haven't really talked to him about it, to tell the truth. I guess he's just been sitting at home, figuring out chords or something. Maybe he's been taking lessons."
So how is he?
"How's Izzy?" Slash asks with a laugh."I'm avoiding the question."
Well, is he better than Mick Jagger on guitar?
"I've never paid attention to Mick Jagger playing guitar, so I couldn't compare them. Rose's sound is a lot more synthetic than anything I would get anywhere close to. That's about all I can say."
So far, Slash and McKagan say the band has worked up about 16 songs, and the bassist reports that: "the material is really strong...This record is going to fuckin' rock. There's nothing like the chemistry of Guns when we're in the same room."
But Slash warns of potential chemical alteration in the future.
"Right now we're in sort of a trial and error period," he says. "To me, the group is actually Duff and Matt and Axl. Where I stand is not etched in stone." Oh. "I can't say it's all working out perfectly," he continues. "That's part of the illusion of looking at five different personalities onstage and seeing them actually get on. It's not as easy at it looks. Over the last year, everybody has gone in different directions. Putting us all back together in one room is not simple."
There are issues, he says. He was unhappy with the Sympathy For The Devil remake, mostly due to tinkering on Rose's part after Slash had recorded his part.
And then there's the matter of Guns' second guitarist. Guns has been working with a friend of Rose's, a guy Slash firmly says he 'can't stand'. And then there have been the rumours - Zakk Wylde, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani...
"Steve Vai - I have no idea about that one. He might have to take my place is anything weird were to happen," slash says. "As far as Zakk is concerned, he was there. I rehearsed with Zakk for like two days. I think he is a great guitar player. The problem is taking two lead guitar players and trying to get a lead-rhythm thing happening. We play the same guitar style at the same volume. There's no texture there.
"It'd definitely be the same thing with Vai, having two overly - I wouldn't say flamboyant - but two aggressive front guys as lead guitar players. We'd both be doing the same thing at the same time, and it would lose its personality. The guitar playing shouldn't be excessive; it should be one of the instruments in the band."
Slash, in fact, is putting his money on a return of Izzy Stradlin, Guns' original guitarist who split in '91 amid much acrimony but came back to play some shows on the Illusions tour after now-departed replacement Gilby Clarke suffered an injury.
"It works that way," Slash says. "If you have someone who plays like Izzy and someone like myself, you play off each other. You have two textural things, a different mentality."
So where does all this leave Slash - and Guns N' Roses? It's hard to look at this band without a feeling of opportunity squandered. At the turn of the decade, they seemed poised to take over the world. Appetite For Destruction, their major label debut, has sold more than 13 million copies worldwide. A follow-up EP, GN'R Lies, was another multi-million seller.
And the two-part Use Your Illusion extravaganza was the most highly anticipated release of its year.
But an astounding proclivity towards self-destruction - substance abuses, erratic performances (sometimes coming onstage hours late), internal squabbles - has sullied the band's position. The chemistry McKagan mentions may gel again, and Guns N' Roses may re-emerge as the exciting, combustible hard rock outfit it once was. But until that happens, one can't help but wonder where Guns N' Roses will stand when it does offer new music to the alternative-saturated marketplace that hasn't shied away from abrasive or aggressive performers during the intervening years.
"Guns is one of those things; it'll basically always be the same things it's always been," Slash explains. "We might spend too much as far as the studio is concerned, but whenever we go out and play live it's the same thing - very brash and energetic. That's the reason I don't like to spend time in the studio, but I can't seem to convince the lead singer of that... Axl likes to ponder everything and spend a lot of time with it.
"When I talk about the individual personalities and so on and so forth - this is a group whose members have a really strong individual outlook. When we get together, everyone had to compromise. That's why Duff and I work outside of the band so much. When you're in the band, you have to sit there and work together, and deal with the idiosyncrasies of everybody else. "A good song transcends all that, of course. When you wind up with material everybody collaborated on and meshed together on, you've had a success. So it makes up for it. Sometimes."
A Guns N' Roses without Slash, however, seems like a decidedly lesser band.
"It would be egomaniacal to say that," he says. "There's no animosity between the guys in the band, put it that way. But I've been out if it for so long, and there's a reason why that hasn't changed all that much. I'm trying right now; if it works out I'll be ecstatic... And if it doesn't, I don't want everybody to think it's a done deal and everything is fine. If they turn around and I'm not in the band, I don't want everyone to say 'He Lied'."
====
Duff comments from the same era. They've been translated to French and back.
HR: You play guitar on the Neurotic Outsiders album. Are you the replacement of Gilby Clarke?
Duff: Surely not!
HR: Does it bother you if I ask you some questions about Guns N' Roses?
Duff: Go on man, anything you want!
HR: OK! What is the status of Guns N' Roses today?
Duff: We rehearsal every night and I play bass! Axl is playing the rhythm guitar, and it works very well! We work from Monday to Friday, ha, ha! There's me, Axl, Slash, Matt, Dizzy. There's also a friend of Axl who helps him to learn to play guitar. But we play, and it works!
HR: And with Axl on the guitar, it works?
Duff: Believe me man, it kills! You know, with that Neurotic Outsiders thing, I found old sensations. I don't know if I lost it or if I didn't know how to recover it, if you can understand the difference… With Guns N' Roses, we started to play in very big places, and at a moment, you start to forget where you come from. It's hard to explain. When there's a 20-meter pit and 40,000 people, it becomes surrealist. The Neurotic bring me back on the ground and it makes me play like in the beginning, in small bars. Matt feels the same thing. And we both bring this freshness at the rehearsals.
HR: Is there something concrete that came out from these rehearsals?
Duff: Yes! Some songs are almost finished.
HR: Titles?
Duff: No! It's only work titles, it's very stupid. I don't want to mention them to have bad luck!
...
Duff: OK! Last night, I went to sleep at 3 am, after the rehearsals. Normally, we stop at 5 am, but yesterday… Anyway. I got up at 10 am. It's OK. I can do with 6 hours of sleep. Then I do a lot of interviews on telephone. After, we go out! Slash, Axl and me are going to see the Sex Pistols in Los Angeles. They play here tonight. After the show, we will go to rehearsals. And it goes on. I don't have a social life. I don't even have a girlfriend. Maybe I will find one tonight!
...
HR: To come back to the Neurotic Outsiders, do the members of Guns N' Rose listened to the album?
Duff: Yeah! Slash played with us at the Viper Room, many times.
HR: Yes?
Duff: Of course. Everybody knows that he plays with anybody, ha ha!
HR: But there's no solo on the Neurotic songs…
Duff: Not on the album, but on stage, we do what we want. And Slash is very good even when he plays rhythm. I'd really like to see Axl playing with us. I invite him many times. One day, he will. The guys of Guns N' Roses really like the Neurotic Outsiders. They know that it's just a side project.
HR: And Axl, he said nothing? People doesn't have a good perception of him in Europe…
Duff: Oh no! He's quite at ease right now. You know what is the problem with Axl? He doesn't go out at all and then everybody starts rumors. But Axl Rose has a normal life!
HR: I read that some songs were ready, but Axl didn't want to use them.
Duff: Ha, ha! I never heard this one. Don't believe everything you read! It makes me think that I received Kerrang, but not anymore. But I moved!
...
HR: Of all your band, Guns N' Roses, your solo career and the Neurotic Outsiders, which one do you prefer?
Duff: I really love those three. I'm very happy: I play in the Neurotic with my mentor. My band, Guns N' Roses, it's… it's a carnage. We are back together and it will be great. And I'm in good health. What else could I want?
HR: Guns N' Roses is often on the "who's hot/who's not" thing. How does it feel to be in the band that people like to bash?
Duff: It's cool. They can fuck off. I don't care. It's a thing that has to happen anyway. If I was not in the band, I think I would also bash them. But they are not into the studio with me and that the band works very well and that we are preparing a carnage.
HR: Appetite or Illusions orientation?
Duff: Appetite. It's normal. We haven't played together in a long time and our collaboration in fresh, just like in the beginning.
