When people talk about the definition of what a guitar hero is supposed to be, they’re normally describing someone like Slash. He wasn’t looking to be the token person that everyone comes to when they need a rock guitar on a song, but it’s hard to think of that distorted guitar tone on every Guns N’ Roses song and not see that as the epitome of cool underneath that mane of curly hair. But rock is far from the only genre that Slash indulged in when learning his craft.
That’s not to say he didn’t become an early convert to rock when first picking up a guitar. He was destined to be a rock and roll star since his mother designed musicians’ wardrobes and his father contributed to album sleeves. But it wasn’t until he heard Aerosmith that he realised that there was something a lot heavier waiting for him outside of the Joni Mitchell and James Taylor records that his family worked on. This music felt dangerous and sexy at the same time, and that quickly became Slash’s wheelhouse.
In fact, most of Appetite for Destruction feels like a love letter to all the great rock and roll that Slash was listening to. Sure, Axl Rose gave the tunes a bit more of an aggressive edge with his voice, but every great lick that Slash churned out was the perfect balance of Eric Clapton’s tastefulness, Jimmy Page’s aggression, and Joe Walsh’s searing tone all wrapped up into one, especially on tracks like ‘Paradise City’ or ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’.
He was rock and roll to his core, but every rock player is a student of the blues, whether they know it or not. There are some musicians who wear their influences a bit too close to the chest like Stevie Ray Vaughan and Jack White, but Slash was as much of a fan of those 12 bars as anyone else, and he felt that nothing beat listening to a song like ‘Killing Floor’ when he was first starting.
The tune may have been “borrowed” by Led Zeppelin when working on ‘The Lemon Song’, but Slash knew nothing could beat the original when working on the album Orgy of the Damned, saying, “I had a couple that we didn’t do, like ‘Killing Floor’, but it’s always been one of my favourite guitar riffs of all time. So we got some songs from the old set lists and then a couple different songs that were newer for us and put it all together.”
Even if we all had to wait years for a pure blues record out of Slash, it wasn’t like he was trying to hide his chops, either. He had the project Slash’s Blues Ball going in the late 1990s, and while they never managed to put out any records, Orgy of the Damned is a version of that band that happens to have a different singer on each song. Some guests may have been a shock, like Demi Lovato, but having Brian Johnson sing ‘Killing Floor’ with him is a match made in blues rock heaven.
As much as the riff is a monster, the blues always had an improvisational element to it, and that’s come in handy for Slash whenever he’s played in a band outside his usual wheelhouse. Anyone would have had to be a true professional to hang with the likes of BB King, but when working with Ray Charles, learning every part of the guitar neck was almost mandatory for Slash to keep up with all the changes he was working with.
But even in those moments when he is flying blind and his fingers are moving faster than most people can process, Slash is always finding ways to keep everything grounded once the riff comes back in. Any other soloist playing with his fury would have quickly crossed the line into guitar wankery, but he knew that taste came before any type of musical showcase.
