Maybe not it's immediately apparent from songs like “Sweet Child o' Mine” or “November Rain,” but Slash's roots are in the blues. “Everybody knows me as a rock 'n' roll guitarist,” he says Rolling rock. “When I was a kid, though, I was exposed to great blues music from my family. So even though my intention was to be a rock musician when I picked up the guitar, it was always firmly rooted in the blues ideal.”
When he left Guns N' Roses in the 90s, Slash devoted himself to music with an ensemble he called Slash's Blues Ball. The band performed songs originally written by blues and soul giants such as Robert Johnson and Stevie Wonder, but never recorded any of them after he sidelined the Blues Ball at the end of the decade to rekindle his hard rock band , Slash's Snakepit.
In the years that followed, he joined Velvet Revolver, released a solo album, reunited with Guns N' Roses, and released several albums with Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators. For the past year or so, though, he's been wanting to play the blues standard “Key to the Highway,” a Blues Ball set list staple, again. So he contacted two former Ballers – bassist Johnny Griparic and keyboardist Teddy Andreadis – and put together a new band that also includes guitarist-singer Tash Neal and drummer Michael Jerome.
All it needed were some vocals. So he called on Iggy Pop, AC/DC's Brian Johnson, Demi Lovato, Paul Rodgers, Chris Robinson, Billy Gibbons and Gary Clark Jr., among others, to sing songs for an album to be titled. Orgy of the Damned and releasing in his name. He had to cold call Chris Stapleton to sing Fleetwood Mac with him. The album comes out on Friday.
Slash enjoyed the experience so much that he organized a blues-focused festival tour, SERPENT (meaning “Solidarity, Engagement, Restore, Peace, Equality, N' Tolerance”), which will feature the Warren Haynes Band, Keb' ' Mo, Christone Kingfish» Ingram, Robert Randolph, among others.
In a late February zoom from Australia, where he was touring at the time with Miles Kennedy and the Conspirators, Slash says Rolling rock how the experience of making the album reshaped how he sees almost everything.
You could just as easily record albums with Guns N' Roses or the Conspirators. Why was now the right time for a blues album?
I had a two week window between legs on the Guns tour and I just decided I was going to use that time to make this record. Suddenly, I felt inspired to do it.
We didn't need a lot of foresight and time to deal with it. We just got the musicians together and I made a list of songs and we started rehearsing. In the back of my mind, I had the idea of having different singers on it. I had Gary Clark come in [for “Crossroads”] and I had Beth Hart come in [for “Stormy Monday”], and then I went back on the road with Guns N' Roses. I started setting up sessions on days off where I could work with different singers wherever they were. That aspect of it took a bit longer, but the main disc only lasted about 10 days.
You said you chose Brian Johnson for “Killing Floor” because you like it when he sings in a lower register. Did you choose all the songs for each singer?
Well, almost everything. Iggy Pop was not someone I had originally thought of. I found out from Johnny, our bass player, that Iggy had mentioned in an article that he always wanted to play the blues. I love Iggy. I've worked with him probably more than anyone when it comes to outside artists over the years. I called him and said, “Well, is there anything you'd like to do in particular?” And he said “Awful Dream” by Lightnin' Hopkins. He sent me a link to the song, and I hadn't actually heard it before.
It's like a crazy outtake that just happened to be on the record. It is very relaxed and there is no specific layout. It sounds like something they jam on after the session or something because no one is playing the same thing at the same time. So I said, “Okay, fine.” And we made an appointment to meet at my studio in Los Angeles, and he showed up and we just recorded it live on two stools. It was very, very spontaneous.
Is Iggy meowing to this?
Yes. You know what it is? He is the one imitating the harmonica. The funny thing about it was that at the time I had no idea where it came from. I looked around and then looked ahead and there he was.
Did you find yourself playing guitar differently on any of these songs?
My approach to this session was different than how I would do, say, a Conspirators record or a Guns record. I think my game was a little more relaxed. I didn't care about mistakes. I was just trying to go with the feel of things. We'd do a take and the take would be good, and if the guitar wasn't perfect, I'd leave it at that.
A good example of this was when we did “Stormy Monday” with Beth Hart. It was the first time we played it with her. It was supposed to be a rehearsal, but she gave such a hard-hitting performance that we just kept it as is. He put on this crazy fucking really emotional vocal.
You can hear her say, “That was awesome” at the end.
Well, she—and we all were—was reeling from Jeff Beck's death. She was devastated because she had just returned from his funeral. This vocal was her emotional tribute to Jeff. He couldn't make another stop.
Do you hear any Jeff Beck influence anywhere else on the album?
Yes. Jeff's influence on me is generally in my playing. I probably don't sound like much of Jeff's fusion stuff, but I'm an old fan of Jeff Beck from the Jeff Beck Group. There's definitely a lot of his influence on “Living for the City,” the Stevie Wonder song, because I did it with a Tele and I had Jeff in mind when I did it for sure.
Your playing on “Killing Floor” is really sharp and noticeable in a way that I haven't heard much from you before. Is it because the rest of the song is more boogie?
I just think it comes from a different place, and I can't really put my finger on it verbally, but there was definitely a difference from doing a Conspirators record to doing this. It's definitely a more relaxed approach… just doing what you're doing right now. I really enjoyed it.
There was some anticipation, however, as covers of songs like “The Pusher” and “Crossroads” bear no resemblance to the originals.
We didn't spend much time listening to the originals. It wasn't necessary, because you know the songs and you start to have a different interpretation of the arrangements in the context of the group you're playing in. Or maybe you just want to hear it go the other way, Do this.
You have permission to take certain things in a different direction if you want. It was just the way things fell naturally. With “Key to the Highway”, if I remember correctly, it is the Freddie King arrangementbut it's delivered at a slightly faster pace, which I did of course because I just liked it faster.
On stage at the OVO Arena Wembley in London this spring.
Matthew Baker/Getty Images
“Living for the City” we cut a bunch because I didn't want to try to imitate it the live action part of the street, as cool as it is and as influential as that was to me as a kid. There are a lot of other really cool but enjoyable parts of Stevie Wonder's version that worked perfectly for him but didn't necessarily mean as much to us.
You added a code to “Crossroads” which you recorded with Gary Clark Jr.
Originally, I was going to “Cross Road Blues,” the Robert Johnson thing, but I didn't want to make a “Blues Player's Blues Record” where everyone would look at it from a purgatory point of view and take it too seriously. I thought, “It would be more natural for me to do something a little more shocking than the Robert Johnson version.”
Gary seems like a perfect choice for you then.
One of my all-time favorite guitar moments on any record by anyone in recent memory is his guitar parts on this particular song. He took a break from recording his own album, and I could tell he took the opportunity to come to LA to do something else for a second. It was noticeable when he was happy to be somewhere else and doing something where all the focus wasn't on him. It was very beautiful.
How did Demi Lovato come to sing 'Papa Was a Rolling Stone'?
This was so left field for everyone involved, because they are from the pop world. But I had this very distinct idea in my mind that her voice delivered that lyric and the emotional content of that story. I know her background. She's had her mistakes in her life and we've known each other for a while, so I called her and asked her about it. It turns out that this song really meant a lot to her. So she came in and delivered a powerful fucking vocal that I think will be a huge surprise to people who are familiar with her other stuff.
The album ends with “Metal Chestnut”, an instrumental, which seems unusual for you. What inspired you to record an instrumental?
We were, like, two days away from going into the studio, and [our producer] Mike Klink says, “Do you have originals?” And it hadn't even crossed my mind. I was kind of dumbfounded. I was like, “No. Let me think of something.”
I went home and threw something together and showed up the next day. I was really nervous to play it in front of all these guys because I had never made a real record or written original material with any of them before. So to start picking this thing up, I was nervous and playing it really fast. But they got it right away, and Ted started playing the organ part and we went into the studio.
The version that's on the record was maybe one of two versions we did. I'm really, really proud of it. The emotional content came from a real place.
Why did you call it “Metallic Chestnut”?
I heard someone say these words to the cans [headphones] right before we did the shoot, and I said, “What did you say?” I thought they said, “Metallic Chestnut”, which I thought was really funny. It's not what they said but I decided to keep it anyway.
what did they say
Forgot. Whatever it was, it wasn't as good as “Metal Chestnut”.
Now that you've made this album, how do you view blues and soul music differently?
I don't think I do. The thing for me is that making this album allowed me to know that I can do a lot more than this, because I was really frustrated. I don't have many outlets for this really.
What do you mean? You're in Guns N' Roses and the Conspirators…
I'm in different bands and they all have a blues-oriented base, but it's not traditional blues. I'm always looking for outlets where I can just block it. Working with different guys and organizing this festival was great. If the festival goes well, I will do it every year. So it kind of opened that door for me to be able to find people to do that, and that's exciting.
With the blues, you just get together and play and you don't have the pressure to be “super this” or fuck “Grammy winning this” — you just jam and have fun. That's something I really relate to in music, and sometimes it can escape you. So having that opened up the idea that I can do it all the time.
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