Slash on the best live rock ‘n’ roll album ever made: “It’s amazing”
A guitarist like Slash is probably more comfortable shredding his guitar onstage than doing just about anything else. Although he probably has a lot of downtime to do whatever he’d like, the thought of him just lounging at home without a top hat or a guitar in his hand is borderline insane to think about. For Slash, the whole essence of a band comes from seeing them live, and when they were in their prime, he believed that Aerosmith could not be touched by anyone.
Granted, that is if you caught them on a good night. As Aerosmith tore through the 1970s, they already looked like one of the most dangerous bands to come from America since the British invasion. Sure, they looked like the Americanised version of The Rolling Stones, but so what? They could still rock, and the fact that they created songs like ‘Dream On’ and ‘Walk This Way’ etched them into rock and roll history.
While Toys in the Attic remained their definitive statement of the decade, Rocks was what got Slash hooked. After hearing those first notes from ‘Back in the Saddle’, Slash was on a course to learn guitar so he could hope to be as badass as Joe Perry looked. That was just the studio, though. Wait until he heard the real deal.
Throughout their glory years, Aerosmith’s shows were the stuff of rock legend, featuring Tyler screaming until his throat was raw and Perry laying into some of the meanest grooves known to man. This felt like the version of The Yardbirds that we all wanted but never got, and Slash believed the best showcase for that version of Aerosmith was Live! Bootleg.
While you were only getting their live cuts, Slash thought this was a one-stop shop for why Aerosmith was so badass, telling Classic Rock, “I got Live! Bootleg because it had all their big songs. I love that record. That, to me, is the quintessential live rock ‘n’ roll album of all time. It’s amazing. From there, I got every single Aerosmith record.”
Young Slash may have had a treasure trove waiting for him in the backlog, but that version of Aerosmith was about to come to an abrupt end. While making Draw the Line, the band would become the worst versions of themselves, usually involving firearms, boozed-up recording sessions, and a pile of cocaine that would leave Tony Montana red-faced.
By the time Slash actually saw them playing live, he remembered them being virtually unrecognisable. The songs may have all been the same, but ‘The Bad Boys From Boston’ had become virtually incoherent, with Tyler refusing to speak to the audience on tour and even a handful of shows where he would pass out in the middle of the stage.
Although Aerosmith were able to turn themselves around in the 1980s for their comeback on Permanent Vacation, Slash was already starting to pick up where they left off with Guns N’ Roses, serving up the straight-ahead rock and roll that carried the legacy of everyone from Led Zeppelin to The Stones to Cream. The studio may be one thing, but if you listen to Live! Bootleg from front to back, it’s practically the building blocks for what Slash would end up doing once he got his guns cocked and loaded.
