When Guns N’ Roses decided to open Appetite for Destruction with the song ‘Welcome to the Jungle’, it was whatever the musical equivalent of a statement of intent is. The LA scene was missing some venom, and they were here to provide it, with killer riffs, dynamic vocals and a couldn’t-give-a-fuck attitude. Guns N’ Roses were here, and they meant business.
At the heart of it all was Slash and his exciting guitar playing style. The band could never have perfected their tone of voice in the way they did without the versatility and talent of their lead guitarist. It didn’t matter what the style of the song was; Slash was able to play in a way that was unique and had elements of what was previously missing from LA rock music. Whether it was their debut record or the more complex Use Your Illusion albums, Slash was on hand with his six-stringed superiority.
Because of how much of an asset he was to Guns N’ Roses, when the band split up, there were a lot of people who felt he might struggle to thrive elsewhere. Oh, how wrong they were! Granted, Slash went through a rough period when working on Slash’s Snakepit, but that was less because of a creative slump and more because of his personal life spiralling out of control.
“This one was a career move,” he said when discussing the project, “This is everybody’s individual fucking-let’s-lock-arms-and-do-it”.
However, the project proved a lot for the guitarist, as he was more focused on his spiralling addictions as opposed to music. “The last incarnation of Snakepit was just a huge mess; as much as I liked it, I was all fucked,” he said, “I almost killed myself drinking too much—and I had a lot going on.”
Once Slash got clean, he was ready to centre himself, and he did that by working on a new solo record. The concept of the album was simple: He wanted to work with artists from a range of different genres. This meant some legends who fans of Slash would already know, and some artists from the world of pop that fans would be less aware of.
The result is one of his most underrated records, where he brings out the best in everyone he works with, managing to truly encapsulate the sound of the artist he was playing with and giving their unique sound the Slash twist. One of the best songs from the album is ‘Crucify the Dead’, which he made with the legend Ozzy Osbourne.
The song flies under the radar in both artists’ catalogues, but it’s a great piece of work that really highlights both their abilities. What’s even more interesting is the fact that the song only came about because of a trip that Slash made up to Osbourne’s house.
“Ozzy was a lot of fun. It was a real honour. He’s so busy with his stuff, and he took the time to stop and really focus on writing the lyrics for this song,” recalled Slash. “We recorded the vocals up at Ozzy’s house, and it was funny because I’m sitting here and Ozzy’s here and we’re sitting at the control board and he’s got his microphone, and he’s working on the lyrics and he’s singing them, trying to work out how they should go. It’s such a recognisable voice!”
He continued about how sitting there and listening to a childhood hero of his calibre figuring out the mechanics of a track he had made was an unforgettable moment: “It was just a trip to hear Ozzy working out the parts for a piece of music that I wrote. Somebody I’d been listening to since I was a kid, all of a sudden right there. He put together a very poignant set of lyrics about a particular subject matter that a lot of us can relate to.”
