The performance Slash thought he completely butchered: “I’ve been playing the solo like I’m cool”
Slash always seems like the last person to get cold feet when performing live.
As much as he hates the fucking spotlight, performing is such an innate part of him that it seems weird for him to look like he’s struggling when playing any of his classic tunes. But underneath all of that hair is a musician who’s as fallible as anyone else in the band, and those moments of perfection have lived on for the world to see.
Granted, it’s almost a little bit comforting to see someone like Slash mess up every now and again. He always had a habit of making some of the craziest guitar runs in history look so easy, so the fact that he has a few songs that keep him on his toes is enough to have cover bands do some serious homework when they begin learning his tunes. But there’s also a certain amount of adrenaline that goes along with the best takes he’s ever done.
There’s clearly a lot of thought put into a solo like ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’, for instance, but listening back to tracks like ‘Paradise City’, that outro solo feels like him being allowed to let loose in the studio and play whatever comes to him at the time. He may have only had to play it once, but the intensity that he has on the finished version only happens when the rest of the band is grooving behind him and he can throw his magic chops on top of it.
When Use Your Illusion began, though, it became a lot harder for him to do that. Axl Rose had a very particular vision for what the album was meant to be, and even though Slash was more than happy to go down a few musical detours every now and again, there were bound to be a few moments like ‘My World’ and ‘Get In The Ring’ that didn’t work out that well. But when it shone, it was like that perfect marriage all over again.
‘November Rain’ had already been an idea that was being fleshed out in Appetite for Destruction, but once they had the budget behind it, Slash turned in two of the finest solos he would ever play. The middle solo is among the most tasty sections he ever penned, but the real magic is that outro solo, especially when the key changes and those bends sound like the entire song is being pulled back down to the gritty streets of Los Angeles.
It may seem like the coolest thing in the world when Slash is jamming in the music video atop a piano, but his performance with Elton John left a lot to be desired, saying, “I’m 20 feet in front of the stage and I can’t hear the band and I’m half a note under key. I’ve been playing the solo like I’m cool. And I talked to Kirk Hammett from Metallica, and he said, ‘I heard you play better,’ and I got to see it and was like ‘Oh God.’”
While most of us wouldn’t even think twice about it when listening to the broadcast, that kind of inaccuracy is enough to drive any musician up the wall. There’s a fine line between everything sounding smooth and turning into nails on a chalkboard, and if you play a half-step off from the rest of the group, that kind of dissonance is bound to be grating if you look back on what you were playing.
It’s easy to cut him some slack since he couldn’t hear the band, but the fact that Slash actually got away with it is part of what makes him a legend. Many artists have had their fair share of screwups, but only a few can manage to make a situation that should have sounded like a bunch of dying cats look cool.
