“Inspired”: How working with Iggy Pop exceeded Slash’s expectations
Sometimes, fans of certain genres are so committed to their cause that they struggle to accept their heroes drawing inspiration from elsewhere. Can you imagine the rock fans who burned disco records in 1979 trying to comprehend that the bassline in The Rolling Stones’ ‘Miss You’ is basically a disco rip-off? Or the all-American rockers who see Slash as the king of the guitar solo, unaware of his admiration for Michael Jackson? Some fans, stuck in the pigeonholes of their own genre loyalty, see these crossovers as near blasphemy. In reality, they’re what help music grow.
As the 1980s bled into the next decade, it’s hard to argue with anyone that Jackson was the world’s biggest artist. While the controversy that would mar his reputation was yet to happen, his fame was steeped in the prolific and unique output of his work. In collaboration with Quincy Jones, he delivered back-to-back albums that broke chart records and helped define a new age of pop. Combine that with his enigmatic performative style, and he was truly an artist to be reckoned with.
Guns N’ Roses had operated somewhere in the tier below during the 1980s and were becoming global household names in their own right. While Jackson dominated the charts, Guns N’ Roses were delivering hit after hit, and placing monumental rock ballads at the top of the charts against all odds. Essentially, they had built an appealing brand of commercial rock for all of music.
So as artists queued out the door for a Jackson feature on their song, Slash slipped in the back entrance and formed an unlikely partnership with the Motown legend. The guitarist worked on Jackson’s 1991 album Dangerous, notably the song ‘Give In To Me’, as well as on the iconic intro and outro of ‘Black or White’.
It was an experience that lived long in the memory of the guitarist, who said, “Michael Jackson amazed me. Even though I’ve always thought he was great, to work with him in person was a phenomenal experience.”
But rock fans can rest easy, because when Slash recalled some of his fondest collaborative memories, he was sure to mention some of the powerhouse names who fit more comfortably in the wheelhouse of his fans. He continued, “And it goes the other way. There can be guys like Bob Dylan, who was extremely difficult to work with. But, working with Iggy Pop was a great experience and I had no idea that working with Iggy could be so inspired and cover so much ground musically, you know, in just a couple of days.”
Iggy has featured on two Slash tracks since 2010, a chapter in the legend’s life that has put the brakes on the hedonism and maybe contributed to the creative fruitfulness that Slash refers to. While his 2024 track ‘Awful Dream’ is a more mid-tempo ballad that foregrounds the character of Iggy’s voice, their 2010 track ‘We’re All Gonna Die’ was a bona fide celebration of rock that would have kept the one-lane rock fans suitably satisfied.
