“I’ll play drums”: The Slash song he wanted Jack White to sing on
When people in popular bands break up, they start to believe that it could be one of the worst things to happen to them and that it could mark the end of their careers. Given the success that Slash saw in Guns N’ Roses, you would forgive him for believing that the band splitting up could be a significant setback; however, the innovative guitarists saw the positives in the break as opposed to the negatives.
Slash had already proven himself a versatile guitarist in Guns N’ Roses. Granted, their debut album, Appetite For Destruction, may have been relatively one-note, but those that followed flaunted the different aspects of the band. Tracks like ‘Don’t Cry’, ‘Coma’, ‘November Rain’ and ‘Estranged’ that flooded Use Your Illusion I and II showed that the band weren’t just hard rock and they could play emotive and moving music too.
All of the band contributed to these various styles throughout these albums, but Slash’s guitar playing helped define a song’s tone. He steadily cemented himself not only as a guitarist who could shred but also as one who could dance around genre seamlessly, which was something he was excited to explore more when he launched his solo career after Guns N’ Roses split.
Slash’s first solo album was him flexing his musical muscles. He reached out to musical moguls across style and genre in order to create a record that appealed to the young and old, working with legends of rock and modern pop stars. Making an appearance on the album included the likes of Ozzy Osbourne, Iggy Pop, Adam Levine and Fergie.
There is one artist missing, however. On the track ‘Starlight’, Slash admitted that he was keen on having Jack White sing on it. Though the song is slightly higher than White’s usual offerings, it is a track that would suit his musical style beautifully, and it would have been great to see the two rock Godfathers work together. Jack White wasn’t keen, though.
“I wanted to get Jack White, but he didn’t want to sing. He said, ‘I’ll play drums, I’ll play guitar, but I don’t wanna sing’. He was one guy that I wanted to work with,” said Slash, “Pretty much everyone else that I went after I managed to get.”
Given White’s reluctance, Slash ended up asking Myles Kennedy to sing on the track. Kennedy had already performed on the album on the song ‘Back From Cali’, so Slash knew that his voice would work well on the song. The two ended up forming such a good connection on the album that Kennedy ended up touring with Slash and recording more albums with him.
“It turned out to probably be a blessing because Myles really fit that song,” he said, “Jack would’ve fit it too, but it would have been a different kind of trip.”
