Slash appreciation thread.

[Nitro Express]

Property tax? What are you talking about he's sold over 100 million fucking albums.

The taxes on that kind of property a year are substantial. Many people are selling because of California taxes. You have to have a decent cash flow to stay there. Appetite for Destruction was a long time ago and as you know it’s all how the contract is written. You have to have some damn good royalties to live in a major property in Holmby Hills. Most rock stars don’t live there because of the expense. You live there if you own oil or are a major shareholder in something. The only other musician I know who lived there was Rod Stewart and he’s selling. People are getting out of California because of the taxes.

[Seshmeister]

Fact check

Slash moved out of the Holmby Hills to Encino 14 miles away after selling his house to a rapper 7 years ago when he was getting divorced.

https://ultimateclassicrock.com/slash-encino-mansion/

The annual property tax on the $6.25 million house is @ 0.77% so around $48k a year.

Since he was divorced then we know how much he was making at that point or more likely the minimum he could show he was making which was $345k per month.

https://www.alternativenation.net/guns-n-roses-slash-reveals-much-money-makes-per-month/#google_vignette

Since then his income will have gone up massively with the GNR tour grossing $500 million!

He has to pay $100k a month alimony to his ex wife I don't think property tax was ever even a minor fucking conncern for Slash...

The real congratulations must go to the ex wife Perla who somehow bagged a $3 million house, $6.6 million in cash as well as $100,000 per month in spousal support and $39,000 per month in child support. Even in her prime back in the day she was no oil painting, an amazing achievement.

[ZahZoo]

Slash never impressed me much as a guitar player... Had he and G&R come along in the early to mid-70's, they would have been a top act among hard rock bands. Their writing and composition styles perfectly fit within that era. Good and solid hard rock...

The same era Eddie Van Halen turned upside down sideways in 78...

To me, G&R and Slash seemed like a bunch of really competent cover band musicians who made an album 10 years after the era of that popular genre had past...

[Terry]

Looking back for a band of 'crazy out of control people' it's kind of suspicious how many good decisions they made business wise. Also I knew a fair number of people who did drink a bottle of JD every day like Slash claimed to and I've done similar myself but none of them had a six pack like he did. More recently of course we were all begging someone to tell him to put a shirt on. When Use Your Illusion came out we were all thinking there is maybe one very good album in here not 2 double albums but of course it was business genius because they made 4 times as much money. There was no point in holding back that material for later releases because they were never going to last a long time before imploding.

Yeah, well, one might be tempted to buy into the 'fucked up 24/7 on booze and drugs for years and years on end' image perpetrated by various rock stars over the last 50 years when one was young enough and impressionable enough to believe in the myths of stardom, primary among them the belief that one could actually BE fucked up and out of control all day every day for years and years on end.

Doubtless some of them WERE that way...for a while.

Slash's booze consumption I always kinda suspected was to a degree part of the show...the JD bottle being carried around like a prop.

[Nitro Express]

https://beverlyhillscourier.com/2023/03/30/the-mansion-tax-one-experts-perspective/

There’s some new taxes since then but yeah divorce in California can be expensive. It’s not like Saudi Arabia where you can just say get the fuck out.

[Nitro Express]

Yeah, well, one might be tempted to buy into the 'fucked up 24/7 on booze and drugs for years and years on end' image perpetrated by various rock stars over the last 50 years when one was young enough and impressionable enough to believe in the myths of stardom, primary among them the belief that one could actually BE fucked up and out of control all day every day for years and years on end.

Doubtless some of them WERE that way...for a while.

Slash's booze consumption I always kinda suspected was to a degree part of the show...the JD bottle being carried around like a prop.

It’s called show biz. All the shots of VH in the trashed studio were staged. If you really treated Sunset Sound like a dump they would kick your ass out. Alice Cooper loved all the crazy rumors about him because it helped sell. The more the parents hated you the more the kids loved you.

[Nitro Express]

It was all fun. I was amazed at how many cute girls liked Guns and Roses. They would sing along with the songs and giggle. For some reason they found Axle appealing. The world was ready for something else besides a bunch of bad Van Halen copies and a little mid 70’s flavor was appreciated. The same thing for Nirvana who really were another 70’s punk band. I mean what was more grungy than CBGB’s? None of that stuff was really new. It was repackaged old sold when glam was on its way out.

Anyways it earned Slash the thrill of paying a big divorce settlement.

[Kristy]

I’m not sure who that is

One of your Boomer Vomit guitar heroes.

[Nitro Express]

Slash never impressed me much as a guitar player... Had he and G&R come along in the early to mid-70's, they would have been a top act among hard rock bands. Their writing and composition styles perfectly fit within that era. Good and solid hard rock...

The same era Eddie Van Halen turned upside down sideways in 78...

To me, G&R and Slash seemed like a bunch of really competent cover band musicians who made an album 10 years after the era of that popular genre had past...

You don’t have to be a master of the instrument. You just have to be entertaining. Slash looked like a cartoon character. He stood out. The kids thought he was cool. The songs were catchy. Welcome to the Jungle baby!

[DLR Bridge]

His tone is maybe one click better than Ted Nugent’s, and that ain’t saying much.

[Rikk]

It always amazed me you could have someone extremely talented and had the look and moves and everything and they go down in flames and you can have a mediocre talent and they do great and have a long career. Sammy Hagar being a good example of the latter.

Sammy Hagar's biggest reason for being one of the richest rock stars alive has nothing to do with his music (except for the ability to make the initial investment).

Dude is rich beyond belief because of the tequila company and the cantina (and all the merchandising connected to those things). The brothers have proved time and time again how stupid and short-sighted they are (were). They sold their shares in Cabo Wabo...and then it exploded. So did Sammy's tequila.

I don't think his musical talent matches his money, of course. But, frankly, he earned his money when it comes to the tequila and the cantina. It was smart business. (I also hate to admit it, but the tequila, which he sold most of his shares for something like $100 million, is actually pretty damn good...a lot better than his music.)

[Rikk]

There’s some new taxes since then but yeah divorce in California can be expensive. It’s not like Saudi Arabia where you can just say get the fuck out.

I'm presuming you're pointing to Saudi Arabia simply to point out the other extreme (not to laud it as some ideal)? There CAN be a middle-ground.

Women in Saudi Arabia have less rights than feces in a porta potty.

Married women in Saudi Arabia are required to obey their husbands in a "reasonable manner." A husband needs to support a woman financially based on her ability to demonstrate to a court her "obedience." A wife can lose her right to such support if she refuses (without a "legitimate excuse" to have sex with him...there is an actual spousal right to insist on "marital intercourse." A husband can decide at any point to divorce a woman...but a woman has limited rights to do so. She must establish "legitimate harm" as her justification for divorce...and the judge can determine if (morally) they deem that this "harm" is legitimate. (An example: the husband fucking every young thing in his sphere is not typically considered "harm" that the wife can cite as reasons for wanting a divorce.)

Fathers also are the default guardians of the child. The mother usually will not be able to obtain custody, even if the mom demonstrates that the father is not making parenting decisions that harm the child physically, behaviorally, financially. Only in "special circumstances" may a mother obtain any level of guardianship for a child. Third-parties (appointed by the father) will have more rights as guardians of the child than the mother will.

And, in those rare cases in which the mom gets custody, the father can still get this taken away after it's been awarded for ridiculous reasons. For instance, if the mom gets custody, the father can apply to have it taken away if he's upset that she's choosing to get re-married...he can simply claim that he "does not like the new husband" and the very biased courts will often follow suit and take away her custody over the child.

I hate American civil court cases in which a mom can get away with getting $150,000 dollars a month in support after a short marriage that she clearly entered into as a gold-digging exercise, cheated on the husband from day one...then takes half his money after two years of marriage. It's nuts. (This, of course, does not always happen...but when it does, it's ridiculous.)

BUT Saudi Arabia is not exactly a positive example in the other direction. And journalist-murdering, human-rights-abusing Prince Mohammed bin Salman's new laws on this subject actually codify all this as law even more clearly than ever.

[Seshmeister]

We can all expect a lot more Saudi in our culture as they are buying up western sports like golf and football and are now moving into the movies. No one in Hollywood is going to make a movie critical of Saudi Arabia any time soon. Or China for that matter.

[Mushroom]

Slash Announces Star-Studded Blues Covers LP 'Orgy of the Damned'
Out May 17


Full story at:

https://ultimateclassicrock.com/slash-orgy-of-the-damned/

I caught Mushmouth McKagan and his wife Susan on Ozzy’s Boneyard (SiriusXM) this morning talk about Slash and his performance on the Academy Awards - she said “Slash looked so good.” My rhetorical question: does his look ever change?

Then they played this tune. Kudos to Brian Johnson for not sounding like AC/DC and more like a blues singer.