“The last thing I ever do”: the Guns N’ Roses song Slash thought would be the end of him
Rock and roll isn’t nearly as dangerous as it’s cracked up to be. There are some people who like to take all of the old wise tales of the past to heart whenever they make it big, but it’s sometimes better to keep all of the nefarious sides of the business at a distance on your way up the mountain. Although Slash was on the verge of becoming a rock and roll casualty many times during Guns N’ Roses’ ascent, some of the most dangerous events he got involved in didn’t even involve having drugs in his system.
Granted, the band weren’t called ‘The World’s Most Dangerous Band’ by accident, either. As much as they prided themselves on being one of the most badass acts to come out of the Sunset Strip, some of their tour stops became the stuff of legend during their Use Your Illusion, including multiple shows that descended into riots when Axl Rose decided to walk off midway through some of his performances.
But can you really blame them for not being able to produce that kind of result live? Use Your Illusion was the kind of record so overblown Elton John would have asked them totone it down a little bit, and as much as Rose liked to break out the piano ballads, there were a few elements that were more than a little bit tricky to pull off.
As much as the band liked the idea of going back to their roots and making a badass rock and roll album, the entirety of the double record feels like it’s competing over what it wants to be half the time. No matter which side won out, though, it was clear that they hit on something magical with ‘November Rain’, unfolding over nine minutes and having the same majesty of the classic rock ballads of old. Like all great ballads, though, it would need a video, and that would be no small undertaking.
Being acknowledged as one of the most expensive videos ever made, the ‘November Rain’ seems less like a movie and more like Rose was trying to pitch an entire movie starring the band, complete with a lavish wedding and one of the most enthusiastic men ever to demolish a wedding cake.
Slash was never all too eager to get his closeup, but while he did look badass as hell in the middle of the desert, the situation was a lot hairier than he expected. Saying, “I just said, ‘OK, I’m going to do my guitar solo – out by the church.’ But then the director came up with this idea of flying at me with a helicopter, and as we were doing it, I thought, ‘Well, this will be the last thing I ever do.’”
While the guitarist made it out in one piece, that was far from the closest he came to dying on the accompanying tour. He had already been hitting the hard stuff backstage, but after collapsing in the middle of a hotel hallway, the paramedics thought he was dead before shooting him with adrenaline to bring him back to life.
Even if Slash had the ability to look like a gunslinger with a guitar in his hand, it’s easy to understand what was going through his mind. Guns N’ Roses were already known for their heavy alcohol intake, but if you were told to pretend to play guitar as a helicopter circled around you, chances are you would be asking for a couple of shots before the cameras started rolling, too.
