Slash: 'Simple And To The Point. Just Play The F-cking Song'08/14/2010
Did what occurred between Velvet Revolver and Scott Weiland burn you out on the band concept for a bit?No. The band concept is fine, but we had to find a new singer, and I knew that wasn't gonna be the easiest thing in the world to get. I just wanted to take that opportunity to just clear my own head, and just do something by myself. It's as simple as that. I'm still a member of Velvet Revolver.
In an interview, you said that two singers you would've liked to have worked with for your solo album were Aerosmith's Steven Tyler and Megadeth's Dave Mustaine. If you had the opportunity, what type of tracks would you potentially record with them two?Actually, I worked with Steven for a second, but it was just a huge conflict of interest with Aerosmith. The song hasn't been used with anybody else, but there was no chance that the record company was gonna allow us to release it, so we had to let it go. I might go back and revisit that with Steven. The song that I did with M. Shadows was originally an idea that I thought would be great for Dave, but Dave was on the road. I like to work quickly, so I never even pursued the idea because I thought M. Shadows would be cool. He's very melodic as far as heavy metal is concerned, so it just went there. I think Dave is probably one of the metal riff masters though. I think that with a lot of the shit he's done, he's naturally a genius. I used to jam with him back in the day, and with the style of riffs that he does, it would've been an interesting thing. I'm sure Dave and I will get together at some point and do something, but schedule wise, it wasn't possible at the time. I don't even think he knows (laughs), but I knew he was on tour, so... Anyway...
Are there any other vocalists you'd like to work with in future?Really, when it came down to it, I ended up working with everybody I had pegged for the material that I wrote. There's probably a lot of vocalists I could work with if I had the material for them, but I'm not gonna start naming names. Otherwise, things'll blow out of proportion, but there's a lot of people that I admire. It's not like I got every single singer that I like. It was just that the music that I wrote I got the right singers for. If I was gonna do another one of these records, depending on the material, names'll probably spring up.
You recorded a video for "By the Sword". What are your thoughts on that video, considering you've expressed a dislike for music videos?I don't know. I saw it the other day; I was somewhere in Europe, and it was on MTV. "By the Sword"'s music video is a cool video; it's a simple, live kind of thing, which is more my style. The big concept videos I'm hard pressed in liking. Videos have always been a medium that I never one hundred percent got into. I love the music aspect of it; I love recording and I love touring, but I've never been huge on the big productions, and all that's involved with that. I've always liked something that's just stripped down. We have a new video coming out for a song called "Back From Cali", which is just a bunch of clips really from a bunch of live shows that we just did on our European tour. That's it, simple and to the point. Just play the f-cking song (laughs). We're gonna be doing a video with Fergie coming up, and that's gonna be more of a concept thing. At that point, I just leave it to the director to f-cking get it all together.
Will you record a second solo album?Well, let's see... I'm writing now, and I'm gonna be touring this record for awhile. At some point, I'm probably gonna sit down and take all the pieces that I'm writing now, and start forming them into songs. We'll see what happens with Velvet Revolver; if we find a new singer, we'll be ready to go into the studio. If that doesn't happen, I might do another solo record.
Do you have a timeframe in mind where you, Duff, Matt and Dave will get together once again, and actively attempt to find a new vocalist for Velvet Revolver?We've been trying; I've been listening to potential singers, and everybody's been very quietly listening to what's out there. We're probably gonna need to get together at some point, and see if there's anybody out there who's the right guy.
You obviously can't name names, but are there any vocalists you've worked with for your solo album who you felt might be suitable candidates for the vacant Velvet Revolver slot?Everybody on my solo record is very well known and established. We don't necessarily want someone like that, especially after what happened with Scott. Scott was a chameleon. Actually, it worked pretty well with Scott as far as Scott sounding, but most times when you get a well known singer, you end up sounding like the band they were previously with. We want someone who you'd probably consider a local, hometown hero who's got the experience, but hasn't reached his potential yet. We wanna discover somebody who's really talented that nobody's heard of - that's the ultimate hope, I think.
You've previously mentioned that you already have material written for a potential third Velvet Revolver album. How would you describe the sound of this written material?When Velvet Revolver first got together, we wrote a certain way, writing mostly pretty heavy, straight ahead cool hooks and all that. Basically, it was brazen, in-your-face stuff, and a lot of that stuff didn't make the first Velvet Revolver album. And so, I think one of the things that we personally want to do is make what we'd consider a proper Velvet Revolver record that sounds the way we collectively want to. The new material is basically pretty heavy and driven, and we wanna find a singer that can sing that way.
In June 2010, it was announced that you will be inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame. What are your thoughts on that?I don't know. It sort of came out of nowhere, so I guess I haven't really digested the news yet. So yeah, I mean it's an interesting kind of thing. I was speechless about the whole thing (laughs). Having my own star in Hollywood is sort of an honour. What else am I supposed to say (laughs)? It's not quite getting knighted, you know? Getting I guess some sort of appreciation from the town that I basically started in.
Edited to fit complete interview here:
http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/interviews/hit_the_lights/slash_simple_and_to_the_point_just_play_the_f-cking_song.html
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