Slash interview in Aftonbladet Puls

Source, Aftonbladet Puls, July 9th 2004.
http://www.aftonbladet.se/vss/noje/story/0,2789,502239,00.html

I've translated this myself so sorry if something is misspelled or bad grammar. And don't know if you want it to be here. Maybe it should be moved, but I leave that to the mods

Here we go:

"Liquor almost killed me"

...but the ex-Guns N' Roses-guitarist survived both drugs/alcohol and a crazy Axl Rose. Puls Magnus Sundholm has met him.

It's afternoon when the call comes:
- Slash is sitting on Asia de Cuba. Can you be there by four?
A bar is the logic place to meet Slash at. The guy almost drank himself to death a couple of years ago. And now he has formed Velvet Revolver - with some of the worst addicts in the rock world.

Slash has already warmed up when I see his gigantic hair by the table inside of Mondrians hotelrestaurant in Los Angeles. He says hello with a firm handshake and lifts two fingers to the waitress.

Before the tape-recorder has been put on a couple of cold beers has arrived at the table.

- If you only knew how good it feels that it has worked. I've been waiting for this so much, he says about the debut-album "Contraband".

No wonder. Who could even think that he and his bandmates would be alive today. It's like the entire group has been picked up from a drug-clinic:

> Guitarist Dave Kushner from Jane's Addiction lost all of his teeth being drunk.

> Ex-drummer fom Guns, Matt Sorum, let millions dissappear up his nose.

> Duff McKagan, Ex-bass player in Guns, drank and used so much drugs that his thyroid gland exploded.

> Scott Weiland, Stone Temple Pilots ex-singer, has had major problems with heroin.

- I'm not close to drink as much as I used to, Slash says and removes the beer-moustache with his hand.

For a while I woke up from like a big scream every morning. It wasn't that I expected something terrible to happen, but I slept with one eye open all the time. It hasn't been easy, but now we're here anyway, says Slash.

But it's not all good yet. Last october, the same day as Velvet was going to make the first official gig, Weiland was arrested for drunk-driving.

- A perfect start, isn't?
Slash laughs.

- It's funny cause there's a song on the album, "Fall to pieces". It's a ballad and we wrote it in the studio at the evening och the next morning I got a call from someone that says that Scott is in jail.

Did you have a crise-meeting?
- No, no. We just...
He shakes his shoulders.
-...moved on. It wasn't that bad - not really anything.
Don't forget that we're used to Axl.

It's no question that Velvet is a product from the supergroup, from the early ninetees.

Guns N' Roses last real album, "The spaghetti incident", was released 1993. Three years later Axl fired Slash. Sorum the year after. Shortly after McKagan left on his own request.

Slash, Duff and Sorum has denied that the new band has been formed like a fuck you to Axl. But it's obvious that the wounds hasn't healed.

- The best thing with the breakup is that it ended before we lost it. I'm to into the thing I do to let it go right to hell and become like Styx or something (laughs).

- Despite the shit that came afterwords, I'm happy that it ended.

Didn't it cost you a lot of money?
- Fuck, man. It never ends. It's still going on.

Axl Rose owns the name of Gn'R and are planning on releasing "Chinese Democracy".

Slash snorts.
- He has been saying that since -93. What does he have - two songs with vocals?

How could you let him have the name?
- He came with threats when we were on tour and refused to go on stage if we didn't signed a contract. We didn't want to let our fans down, so we decided to do the gig and signed the fucking paper.

Do you regret it?
- Even this day, at least mostly, I don't care. But I think that he should have changed the name when he realised that all the other members was gone. That way, it would have been no problem if something happened in the future.

- But now he has dragged it through so much shit that even if he says "Hey, guys. I've been through therapy and I'm a better person. Let us reunite and do a gig", we would never want to be in that band again. It't totally wrecked.

He didn't even want you in the audience on his gigs. What do you think must happen for you to get along again?
- I probably has to stop talking shit about him (laugh).
I don't think about it anymore. It's not on my list. I know that it is on many others lists, because of financial reasons.

Don't you need the money?
- Everyone needs those numbers. But it's not the money that decides. It's a relasionship that is to human, to delicat and to sensitive to let it be manipulated by money.

But...?
- OK, if you get Axl, and get him in the right direction, make him start behaving...then we can talk about ONE gig.

After a taste of the beer he changes his mind:
- That's what I felt before. But now, after Velvet's got started...It's just not anything I think about no more. I'm not waiting for Axl to come to his senses.

And why would Slash do that? In USA, "Contraband" went straigh up at number one on the charts with 256 000 copies.
That's not bad from a group that was started for a charity-gig.

- I hadn't played with Duff and Matt for several years and had forgotten how good we were together. We made six songs, went up on stage, Steven Tyler joined us on stage and the crowd loved it.
The next day I said to the others that we should do something about it, Slash says.

They recruited Kushner and started the hunt for a singer.
Everything from Axl-copies to others were tested.

- It felt like we were listening to a million damn singers.

When they were close to giving up, Weiland became available.

Weren't you worried over his drug-addiction - he had just been released from another session at rehab?
- Well, his situation was easier to deal with than it was in the last band I was in (laugh). But I took him to the side. I said "Since we all wants to do this, we just have to deal with this other shit". We became something like his therapy-group.

Are you dissapointed that it didn't work the entire way?
- We're not any hypocrites that can point finger. We know what he's going through. We've all been there.

How far did it go for you?
- I destroyed myself. I drank so hard 24/7 for so many years that I ended up at hospital. I woke up four weeks after and was pure. After that I didn't drink anything for a year.

What happened when you had to look for help?
He spins the glass and lowers his look.
- I had to much alcohol in my system.

Was it the liver?
- No, heartproblems. It didn't affect my liver as it should have, but it almost killed me.

Still you're drinking now?
- My health are okey. It's just beer. And I'm not even close to how much I used to drink.

Aren't you afraid to fall back during the tour?
- Well, it's easy to drink to much when you're on the road. But you have a gig every evening and that affects of what you did the night before. I care to much about the music to let that happen. I want to be able to play.

Does it feel that you have to have an eye on what Scott's going to do?
- With our past, everyone has to look out for eachother.

Magnus Sundholm
2004-07-09

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Edit to add: Yes, it should be moved. Don't know what I was thinking of when I posted it here