Guns N’ Roses very quickly morphed from a badass band of rock ‘n’ roll outlaws to Axl Rose’s backing group.
No matter how many times Axl tells you that’s exactly what GNR always were, never forget how much of a genuine tragedy this was. Because few bands have ever been as exciting as GNR were when they broke out. While Nirvana gets the credit for ending hair metal with ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’, they were arguably finishing a job that Axl, Slash and co had begun four years earlier.
Whisper it quietly, but there’s an argument to be made that Appetite For Destruction actually did a more impressive job than Nevermind did. After all, while Nirvana finished off the likes of Poison and Mötley Crüe, they did so when their careers were on the wane anyway. Guns N’ Roses saved the Sunset Strip from candyfloss-light pop-metal the very same year that Bon Jovi became one of the biggest acts in the world with Slippery When Wet.
Put simply, Nirvana finished off bands like that by being regular guys making relatable music. Guns N’ Roses put them on watch by being better than them. They were as legit as they got. A bunch of street-smart, frighteningly talented tough nuts who actually knew their way around the backstreets of LA, unlike the vast, vast majority of their peers. Never, ever forget that Def Leppard are from Sheffield. What’s more, GNR actually got to that point by being a real band where every member was as important as the other.
Sure, Axl was the lyricist and singer, but Izzy Stradlin was as much of a songwriter as he was. Matt Sorum and Duff McKagan were one of the best rhythm sections going, and then you get to… Slash. Their talismanic guitarist. Their heart and soul. That motherfucker with the hat. He is arguably the most recognisable member of the band. Not just visibly, but audibly too, considering his wailing, gnashing Les Paul is what all the band’s biggest songs are built around.
So, who did Slash worship?
Those in the know knew something was up when Stradlin left the band in 1991. However, when Slash left in 1996, the world knew that Guns N’ Roses were, if not dead, something very different from what they had been before. After all, the man born Saul Hudson was no mere sideman. Even if all he’d written was the deathless opening riff of ‘Sweet Child o’ Mine’, that would be enough to certify him as a man the band could not do without. The man wrote that and then a lot more besides.
So, when Rose started throwing his weight around, Slash was the last person who was going to put up with it. There was only one person on this planet that Slash would shut up and play whatever he was told for, and it was absolutely not the rasping ginger up front. It was one of the many rockers that Slash tapped up for his self-titled debut solo album in 2010. However, it wasn’t Ozzy Osbourne, or Iggy Pop or (weirdly) Adam Levine from Maroon 5. It was a man who, to a certain generation of rock fans, is God himself.
When asked by Ultimate Guitar about working with the singer of the song ‘Doctor Alibi’, Slash said, “That was another great moment; having Lemmy come down. Because Lemmy was one of those guys that I so looked up to, and I still do. When I was a kid, I was one of those Lemmy fans that would bow in his presence. And we got to be friends and he’s always sort of taken me under his wing, kind of thing, and he’s always been really cool.”
Slash is a consummate collaborator. One need only look at the rest of that album’s track listing to see his unique pulling power. Dave Grohl, Chris Cornell, Alice Cooper. Yet, nearly every one of them is a peer to Slash. There’s only one of them he looks up to as an inspiration and a leader. Lemmy. Fucking. Kilmister. We’d all do well to do the same.
