Slash picks his favourite Led Zeppelin songs: “The coolest record I’d ever heard”
Although Guns N’ Roses formed in California, with frontman Axl Rose’s pronunciation of “paradise city” taking a phonetic form closer to “paradas citeh,” they cultivated their sound from a foundation in British rock music. For starters, Slash was born in Hampstead, England, to an African-American mother, Ola J. Hudson, and an English father, Anthony Hudson.
From a young age, Anthony brought his son, Saul “Slash” Hudson, up on a healthy diet of British rock music. “My dad especially raised me on British rock music – you know, The Kinks, Cream, The Yardbirds, The Stones and The Beatles,” Slash once recalled. Meanwhile, his mother was a famous fashion designer famed for her intimate and celebrated work with Ringo Starr, John Lennon, Janis Joplin and David Bowie, whom she briefly dated in the 1970s.
With such a background, Slash seemed predestined for fame. Although he moved to Los Angeles at age six, Slash never forgot his British roots and remained fascinated by the bands his father introduced him to. Of course, as time went on, his pool of influence broadened, with American hard rock and metal bands entering play, too.
The guitarist remembered his “big awakening” occurring at age 14. “I’d been trying to get into this older girl’s pants for a while, and she finally let me come over to her house,” Slash recalled in a 2005 interview with Rolling Stone. “We hung out, smoked some pot and listened to Aerosmith’s Rocks. It hit me like a fucking ton of bricks. I sat there listening to it over and over and totally blew off this girl. […] Now I identified with something.”
The influence of Aerosmith’s music is immediately apparent when perusing the Guns N’ Roses discography, but also palpable is that of Led Zeppelin, another of Slash’s favourite bands. When he joined Guns N’ Roses with Rose in 1985, the pair bonded over a mutual admiration for bands like Led Zeppelin, Queen and Aerosmith.
If any band could be credited with bringing Led Zeppelin’s sound into the 1980s, Guns N’ Roses are at the top of the pile. Robert Plant’s dynamic projection is easily recognised in Rose’s vocal style, and since age seven, Slash has dreamt of playing the guitar like Jimmy Page. “I specifically remember hearing ‘Whole Lotta Love’ from Led Zeppelin II when I was seven years old,” Slash told Rolling Stone on another occasion.
Page was the main driver behind Slash’s axe of choice, the iconic Les Paul. “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,” he continued, in reference to ‘Whole Lotta Love’. “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.”
While Slash bought several different guitar brands and models, he always “ended up going back to the Les Paul.”
‘Whole Lotta Love’ is arguably Led Zeppelin’s most iconic track from their early albums. For Slash, it will always be a favourite as his first exposure to the bend. However, as he followed the British band through his childhood and early teens, several other tracks turned his head. In 2010, Slash joined Apple Music to pick out his 15 favourite songs of all time for the Celebrity Playlist Podcast. Of his selections, three were Led Zeppelin songs.
Shash’s favourite Led Zeppelin songs:
- ‘Black Dog’
- ‘Whole Lotta Love’
- ‘Kashmir’
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