“Completely”: Slash on the moment he split from Axl Rose
Every band usually has to learn to work with some level of democracy. While there’s usually no question over who steers the ship whenever a group gets onstage, it’s important to make sure that everyone can share their opinions, or it starts to become more than a little bit tense during each rehearsal. Although Axl Rose had a firm grip on what he wanted Guns N’ Roses to be at all times, Slash remembered that one specific incident caused the group to officially fracture in the 1990s.
When they started out, though, no one in the group seemed more important than the other. They carried themselves like a street gang, the same way the New York Dolls had a few years before, and even when Slash took a solo or Rose screamed into the microphone, it was up to the entire band to fill in the cracks behind them so everything didn’t fall apart.
While Slash and Rose got the reputation as the dual faces of the group, that was far from the truth offstage. While they were both respectful of each other’s talents, the common bond Rose had was with Izzy Stradlin, whom he followed to Los Angeles from Indiana before landing on Slash, Duff McKagan, and Steven Adler for the core lineup. Once Use Your Illusion began, though, there was a clear dividing line happening.
Despite Slash still having an affinity for their massive double album, there were other ideas for what they would do to promote it. They still had street-level anthems like ‘Don’t Damn Me’ and ‘Right Next Door to Hell’, but Rose convinced everyone that the future for the band was to make big-budget videos like the massive wedding for ‘November Rain’ and getting an aircraft carrier to fill Rose jumping off of a boat and swimming with dolphins.
There were still pieces that managed to work, but it wasn’t necessarily what Slash signed up for. He was still interested in being the kind of band that left their biggest mark onstage as Aerosmith had done, and yet he still had to be in a leather jacket in the middle of the desert, ripping through his guitar solo.
The album may have sold in droves because of these massive shoots, but Slash remembered the entire band distancing themselves from what Rose was doing, saying, “That’s when we sort-of completely separated. These guys are over here, and this other guy [Rose] is over on this page.” At that point, it had become a circus, and it eventually became too much for Stradlin to take anymore.
Despite being one of Rose’s close friends, the rhythm guitarist knew there was no point in trying to be a flashy rockstar, eventually quitting the band midway through the accompanying tour after getting sober. And considering how much carnage happened on the road, Stradlin couldn’t have picked a better time to jump off.
From riots happening in the crowd to shows where Rose decided not to show up, Guns N’ Roses had become a massive rock band that was far too big for anyone to control, and when they finally made it back to Los Angeles, there was no real choice other than to break up once Rose decided to make things bigger and better than anyone could have imagined.
