‘Slash’: the best album that Guns N’ Roses guitarist ever made
Slash was never a guitarist who could fit comfortably playing one style of rock and roll for the rest of his life. He may not have been as down on performing on the kind of monumental epics that Guns N’ Roses had during the final incarnation of their career, but it’s insane to think that he didn’t have eclectic musical taste when he would perform with everyone from Bob Dylan to Ray Charles to Carole King later in life. If there were so many people calling him up as a session player, why not try to reverse the process and have everyone else come to him?
After all, people already knew Slash’s playing without him having to play more than a few notes, and since he exuded cool out of every pore in his body, it wasn’t out of the question for people crawling over themselves trying to work with him. But while bringing in a lot of musicians for his self-titled debut record could have backfired spectacularly, every single person brought their A-game and then some.
Does that mean every single part of it works? Not exactly. No album is perfect, and there are a few tunes that lean too close to safe radio-rock territory, like Kid Rock’s ‘I Hold On’, but with each song, it’s like getting a different piece of what makes Slash tick musically. There are the down-and-dirty rock and roll songs like ‘Doctor Alibi’ with Lemmy behind the microphone, but anyone who thought that the guitar god wasn’t metal needs to listen to ‘Nothing to Say’ with M Shadows from Avenged Sevenfold, complete with the machine gun-style riff you’d hear in a Metallica tune.
Even though the album features the epitome of rock and roll behind the fretboard, getting the most out of every singer is half the battle. ‘Promise’ is one of the greatest pop-leaning vocal performances Chris Cornell ever gave, and while ‘Gotten’ sounds far closer to a Maroon 5 song than it probably should, Adam Levine does a fine job regardless. Hell, the fact that Slash was able to make Andrew Stockdale’s ‘By The Sword’ not sound like a Zeppelin ripoff like every other Wolfmother song is almost a feat in itself.
By far, though, Fergie is the biggest surprise on the record. Anyone familiar with the pop charts knew that she could sing her ass off, but considering how gravelly how voice could get on ‘Beautiful Dangerous’, she could easily take the place of Axl Rose in a Guns N’ Roses reunion show if the frontman had to call out sick for any reason.
Although Slash clearly fell in love with the way Myles Kennedy worked with him, his songs ‘Back From Cali’ and ‘Starlight’ are about more than making badass rock tunes. This is the kind of ensemble that Velvet Revolver should have been, and since Kennedy has tried his hand at every piece of Slash’s catalogue, it’s safe to say that he could have filled Scott Weiland’s shoes if given the opportunity.
What’s even stranger is knowing the magic that was left on the cutting room floor. ‘Saint is a Sinner Too’ is a fantastic tune with Rocco DeLuca singing it, but Slash’s original plan to get Thom Yorke on the tune would have been either the most interesting part of the album or one of the strangest left turns that anyone had seen a member of Radiohead ever take on.
This may have been a fine launching pad for what would turn into Slash’s solo band with Myles Kennedy and The Conspirators backing him, but one band could never capture the same majesty as this album. Orgy of the Damned did at least give everyone a blues-flavoured version of this kind of record, but the best way for Slash to make a record like this is to forget about all the rules.
