The 1960s band Slash would love to jam with: “I would love to take that further”
There aren’t many pieces of rock history that Slash needs to be deified for at this point.
He is still the blueprint in Hollywood for what a lead guitarist is supposed to be, and even if his moves can be considered a little bit more of a caricature these days, the fact that he could fit his way into virtually any jam session and hold his own is the kind of chops that most people strive for when they are jamming in their bedroom. But even after checking many legends off of his bucket list, there are some bands that seem to understand what he is going for better than others.
Because as much as he is considered a guitar hero, Slash never wanted to get in the way of the song whenever he worked on a tune. Even though many people would claim that his guitar is the reason why those Guns N’ Roses records sound so great, he figured that it was all about finding the right sound that made the entire group sound good. And even when they were making drastic changes, Slash was still paying attention to the rhythm section before anything else when he played.
Any rock and roll band needs that bottom end to really ground everything, and when you look through all of Slash’s greatest moments, a lot of his playing is more rhythmic than you realise. It takes a lot for someone to lock in with a drummer whenever they play, but even when the band were flying by the seat of their pants whenever they performed, everything seemed rooted down during the breakdown of ‘Paradise City’ where the band kicked things up a notch during the final minute of the tune.
A lot of that kind of music comes from Slash trying to make as much noise as he can, but even though Guns had a punk edge to them, the guitarist knew that The Rolling Stones fit a lot better with what he was trying to do. Keith Richards wasn’t someone trying to wow everyone with his superior technique, but, as opposed to being put to shame by Jeff Beck, Slash had a better idea of where he could fit into a Stones groove.
Richards was all about jamming, and even if Charlie Watts isn’t here anymore, Slash felt that getting the chance to jam with a band like that was something he wouldn’t trade for the world, saying, “I’ve played with Keith Richards and would love to take that further. But when I think of people I would love to jam with, I usually think of great rhythm sections rather than guitar players.” That might sound crazy coming from Slash, but it’s not that hard to figure out, looking at how Guns was originally constructed.
Izzy Stradlin wasn’t meant to be one of the greatest lead players of all time, but the way that he worked off Slash was the perfect compliment to him. They already had a Stonesy swagger when they first came together in LA, but if we’re going to keep the comparison going, Stradlin’s quiet demeanour and way of serving the song is the exact kind of musical mojo that Ronnie Wood was used to having every time he played.
And the idea of working off of someone else did come in handy more than a few times when Slash was working on other side projects. The most important part of working with someone like Ray Charles is to have an idea of where the charts were going, and as long as he was able to have other musicians working with him, he could usually find his way out of mistakes or have a better sense of where any tune was going.
That didn’t mean everyone was going to like his playing every single time he cranked up his Les Paul, but Slash at least knew he had people like The Stones as the benchmark for what a good rock and roll band was supposed to sound like. They were making the best out of what they had to work with, and as long as you had that steady pulse behind you, you were bound to create something spectacular.
