Slash - The Autobiography

[binnie]

While the drug problems were certainly a factor, it was AxHole's enormous ego that destroyed Guns N Roses, more than anything else.

I just don't think that they were a band capable of holding it together under that level of fame. Few bands can, but one where at least 3 of the members are fucked up beyond recognition and a fourth is Axl Rose really doesn't stand a chance......

[binnie]

I think that people are being a bit harsh on Slash as a guitar player here. Partly that's because of over-exposure - both he, and the 'Appetite' songs, are so ubiquitous that's it's got to the point where familiarity breeds contempt. But I think that there are two principle things that make him worthy of respect:

1) in the '80s he stood apart from all of the Eddie/Lynch clones by being defined by the bluesier approach to playing.

2) when you hear one bar of his playing you know it's him - distinctive style and tone, whether you like 'em or not.

I'd also say that there are a lot of killer riffs he's written that people forget about. Check out the second - and criminally under-appreciated - Slash's Snakepit record 'Ain't Life Grand' for plenty. As far as GNR goes, 'Coma' would be a good example - that riff is HUGE.

[FORD]

While the drug problems were certainly a factor, it was AxHole's enormous ego that destroyed Guns N Roses, more than anything else.

[fraroc]

And I say again: FUCK AXLE GREASE! HE IS A FUCKING ASSHOLE COCKSUCKER BITCH FUCKHEAD FUCK MOTHERFUCKER!

Well said. Axhole Rosebud really lives up to his name.

[Hardrock69]

And I say again: FUCK AXLE GREASE! HE IS A FUCKING ASSHOLE COCKSUCKER BITCH FUCKHEAD FUCK MOTHERFUCKER!

[Hardrock69]

So I finished it today. He says he has been clean since 2006. He got married...twice...and with is second wife he now has two sons.....the book was published in 2007. Being clean for a year is nothing. It is a start...but junkies seem to never be able to control the urge to shoot up.

So who knows....the book was published 6 years ago.

I will say this: I used to not think he was some great guitarist, but I saw him jam with a band at FM Station on Lankersheim in The Valley in 1991, and it changed my mind 180 degrees. One of those guitar performances that was absolutely terrifyingly good.

He IS a VERY good guitarist. Despite his drug and alcohol problems, overall he seems to be just your average guy dealing with incredibly extraordinary circumstances.

And, since I do not know him, and only have said "Hey what's up?" to him on an occasion he will never remember, I can always say he could be a really cool person.

So.....in general I feel like "More power to him". He HAS continued to be a success in the music business...he does have his image that is unique......and I really do hope that his family life is great and that his sons are being raised right.

That said, I still do not ever want to read anything written by junkie motherfuckers ever again. I do not have any addictions (I am fortunate in that aspect), I never have, and even though I realize not everyone is as strong as I am when it comes to avoiding them, I just think people who fall prey to shooting smack are somehow weak, deficient, or otherwise incapable of controlling themselves. Perhaps I am being overly critical of people who fall victim to heroin, but fuck it. It REALLY bothers me when a musician with talent decides to fuck off his life in favor of getting obliterated every day. ESPECIALLY when said musician is in a situation or band most of us would kill to be involved in. Or when they say shit like "I blew $8,000 on drugs in 3 days".

FUCK! I am not rich...that is a lot of fucking money to me!

Sorta like I fail to understand motherfuckers that are so ignorant about controlling their finances that they make tens or hundreds of millions of dollars and wind up with nothing. Like MC Hammer running through 30 million dollars.

THAT is fucking stupidity.

[Terry]

Densmore's book WAS a pretty good book. He's always been pretty straightforward about what a pain in the ass Morrison was when he drank and how Morrison spiralling down into the bottle wasn't some noble tribute to the life of excess but more a sad, pathetic waste of talent and life than anything else.

[Terry]

I think a lot of the comments in this thread about Slash are spot-on, at least in the sense that I totally agree with them. When Guns and Roses broke big years ago with Appetite, I never looked at Slash as being to Guns like I viewed, say, George Lynch with Dokken - where Lynch was really the one standout player in the group. All of Guns were firing on all points, and Slash was never some amazing lead guitarist to my ears. He had a great look, or at least a unique one at the time, although that look seems a bit silly these days.
I suppose it's that Slash has made himself available for whatever comes his way over the years (Guitar Hero video games, etc.) that his image has endured and is still profitable. Much more so than any of the music he's actually participated in post-1991.
Don't know the guy, but he comes off as a stoner (plants, powders, pills or Pabst - whatever) who was in the right band at the right time. None of the interviews I've ever read or seen were of much interest in terms of what he had to say or how he said it, so I would doubt that a book of his life would be very interesting. Even the old story of him and Axl Rose not getting along is of little interest now to me, in that Guns never quite had the great body of work behind them before they broke up: they had one stellar album, one so-so holding pattern album, a double album that was in equal parts bloated and half-realized as it was solid and thrilling...then The Spaghetti Incident...then fizzled out.
Some rock stars just don't make for good reading - not that this is a problem, because they are primarily musicians, after all - and I suspect Slash is one of those.

[Zing!]

I do a ton of reading. One of the best Rock-related books I've ever read was John Densmore's book. You wouldn't think so, as John was so dry (and I should say while I like the Doors, I'm far from being a big fan) But it was a great read the way it was written..

YES! I will agree with this! The best Doors book out there; much more interesting (and factual) than No One Here Gets Out Alive.

[Hardrock69]

blah blah blah....

[Kristy]

I have no respect for junkies.

Hey Kirsten, Rebecca Gayheart was a junkie and I'd still get as freaky as fuck with her.

[Kristy]

Slash Autobiogrpahy summary:

"I was a slacker, always a slacker. Had no job, no fucking ambition, no fucking hope. I was an asshole. One day when my mother was cleaning out the shit stains from my underwear she told me she wold buy me a guitar if I took a bath and quite blowing the local pedophile for dope money. Well, to this day I never took a bath but I quit hanging around pedos and met Mel Bay. Mel taught me a few chords. First tune I ever learned was 'Bye Bye Love' by the Everly Brothers and some Donny & Marie shit. I made up my solos by playing gibberish. I still do.

Anyhoo, one day I met a Nazi psychopath while bumming around the local 7-11. He real name was Malen but he called himself Axl because he never made it out of the third grade. Geesh, this dude was so fucking retarded. I swear he dad beat the fucking shit out of him to where it caused serious and irreversible brain damage. At 16 he knocked up some girl and that girl's father cut his balls off. Malen told me that having his balls cut off could make him sing. He screamed like a rape victim from the HBO series Oz. We thought while thoroughly stoned we should form a band so we could date rape underage girls in our scummy L.A. apartment. Neither one of us could write a song so we hired that guy from The Simpsons who called himself "Duff" you may know him as "The Duff Man."

Soon we were up to our eyeballs in free beer and herpes pussy that even the CDC could not quite identify. Malen was gay I knew it when he confessed to me he liked to watch a lot of Tarzan movies. He used to secretly jerkoff in the bathroom after seeing another man in a loincloth. We wrote a song about it...Jungle something-a-rather. The rest is history.

[Igosplut]

Will do.

I do a ton of reading. One of the best Rock-related books I've ever read was John Densmore's book Riders on the storm. You wouldn't think so, as John was so dry (and I should say while I like the Doors, I'm far from being a big fan) But it was a great read the way it was written.

Keefs book was good also. Much more to him than you would think. And well written.

[vandeleur]

Keith Richards life is a fucking great read in the exact same way that the Anthony Kiedis book isn't :D

[Hardrock69]

Will do.