Exploring the years-long feud between Slash and Paul Stanley
One of the most alluring parts of rock music is the persistent feuds, which seem unrelenting. There aren’t as many beefs in rock music these days, which is most likely because the rebellious image isn’t as cool. However, when Kiss and Guns N’ Roses were making music, the more outlandish you were, the better, and that led to an ongoing feud between Slash and Paul Stanley.
The first time the two met, it was a pleasant exchange. Kiss was looking for people to perform on their Creatures of the Night album, so they were meeting a few promising guitarists to see who might be a good fit. One guitarist they met was a young Slash, who introduced himself as Saul Hudson. “He told me his mom had been a seamstress for David Bowie and that his friends called him ‘Slash’,” recalled Paul Stanley.
He continued, “He was very well-spoken and engaging, but he seemed really young. Finally, I asked him how old he was. ‘I’ll be 17 next month’, he said.” Given that Paul Stanley was turning 30 and Gene Simmons was double the young guitarist’s age, they opted against using him for the album. “I said, ‘You sound like a great guy, but I think you’re too young for this.’ I wished him well and always remembered him because he was so nice and unaffected.”
The next time they met was after some Guns N’ Roses gigs, and Stanley was blown away by how good they sounded. He spoke to the band afterwards, and there was talk about him helping to produce their debut, Appetite for Destruction, which was still under construction at the time. Nothing came of it, though, once Stanley had heard rumours that Slash had been talking poorly about the frontman behind his back.
“He liked to pretend I had dared to meddle with their sound,” said Stanley, “He called me gay, made fun of my clothes, all sorts of things designed to give him some sort of rock credibility at my expense. This was years before his top hat, sunglasses, and dangling cigarette became a cartoon costume that he would continue to milk with the best of us for decades.”
When asked about the incident, Slash more or less confirmed the events. He said the band never had any intention of working with Stanley but kept him around because Guns N’ Roses drummer Steve Adler was a big fan. In an interview, Slash confirmed he had always hated Kiss’s music and said some derogatory things about Stanley.
“Months later, [I] realised that he had an arrangement with B.C. Rich, and I was looking to try and get a guitar to record the Appetite record, and asked him if he would hook me up with some B.C. Riches,” recalled Slash, “And he said something along the lines of, ‘You shouldn’t air your dirty laundry in public’.”
Stanley confirmed, “You want me to help you get guitars after you went around saying all that shit about me behind my back? You know, one thing you’re going to have to learn is not to air your dirty laundry in public. Nice knowing you. Go fuck yourself.”
The two didn’t speak for years after that and only rekindled their friendship in 2006 when Slash was working on the Kiss ‘Rock Honours’ for VH1. He confirmed, “We sort of let bygones be bygones. And so we’re more or less cool now.”
