Slash picks his favourite songs of all time
The Guns N’ Roses guitarist Saul Hudson, better known as Slash, was immersed in the rock ‘n’ roll world from a tender age. Born in Stoke-on-Trent, England, Slash was raised by parents who were deeply entrenched in the music industry. His mother, Ola J. Hudson, was a renowned African-American fashion designer, boasting an impressive clientele that included Ringo Starr, Janis Joplin, and David Bowie, whom she briefly dated.
Meanwhile, Slash’s father, a white English artist, also contributed to the music world, crafting album artwork for acclaimed musicians like Neil Young and Joni Mitchell. Consequentially, a young Slash was steeped in the 1960s and ’70s music, whether he liked it or not. As he once recalled, “My dad especially raised me on British rock music – you know, The Kinks, Cream, The Yardbirds, The Stones and The Beatles.”
Although he didn’t name the band in the above quote, Slash was inspired dramatically by Led Zeppelin and the band’s eminent guitarist, Jimmy Page. “There were a few guys who influenced me when it came to playing Les Pauls… I’d seen Eric Clapton holding one, as well as Jimmy Page, Keith Richards, Billy Gibbons,” Slash once told Total Guitarist. “A lot of players who had a great sound using those guitars.”
Continuing, Slash picked out a particular favourite by Led Zeppelin. “I specifically remember hearing ‘Whole Lotta Love’ from Led Zeppelin II when I was seven years old,” he tells the magazine, explaining: “I attributed that sound – from what I felt was the coolest record I’d ever heard at that point in my life – to the Les Paul…I knew it was a Les Paul making those guitar tones because I saw pictures of Jimmy Page holding one – so that’s what made me associate the Les Paul with that kind of sound.”
Slash felt that his long-lived love affair with the Gibson Les Paul was tightly bound to Led Zeppelin. “Looking back now, I think that connection was pretty accurate! So I knew I was attracted to the sound of a Les Paul. I had that copy for a while, and eventually, it broke. I went through a myriad of different guitars to see what they sounded like, just exploring when it came to my tone. I ended up going back to the Les Paul, and I’ve been with that ever since.”
In 2010, Slash joined iTunes to speak on the Celebrity Playlist Podcast. During the episode, he was challenged to pick out 15 of his all-time favourite songs. Naturally, Led Zeppelin took up a healthy portion of that quota, but Queen, The Roling Stones and Metallica boast similar degrees of representation.
See the full list of Slash’s selections below. If you like what you see, you can follow our Spotify playlist.
Slash’s favourite songs:
- Queen – ‘Tie Your Mother Down’
- Led Zeppelin – ‘Black Dog’
- Metallica – ‘Master of Puppets’
- Megadeth – ‘Peace Sells’
- Led Zeppelin – ‘Whole Lotta Love’
- Ted Nugent – ‘Stranglehold’
- Cheap Trick – ‘Gonna Raise Hell’
- Deep Purple – ‘Space Truckin”
- The Rolling Stones – ‘Gimme Shelter’
- Wolfmother – ‘Woman”
- Metallica – ‘Disposable Heroes’
- The Rolling Stones – ‘Rip This Joint’
- Queen – ‘Fat Bottomed Girls’
- Led Zeppelin – ‘Kashmir’
- Thin Lizzy – ‘Thunder and Lightning’
