Slash: Track By Track

Slash says that when it came to thinking about making his first solo album, the idea of inviting a bunch of friends to help out was key to allowing him the freedom to, as he puts it, “really sort of put my best foot forward.”

As he explains: “I just wrote the music. In some cases, an arrangement; in some cases just a couple of chord ideas. I’d send it to the singer and they’d come up with whatever they wanted to lyric-wise. None of the songs outstay their welcome, either. There’s something to be said for having my own short attention span. I’m not overly indulgent, you know? Say what you gotta say and get out!” So now he’s breaking out with a vengeance. He laughs out loud. “It’s just me saying, ‘What would be fun?’. And having a really good time. That was the most important thing. Luckily for me, everyone I worked with on this album made it really easy. They were all so great to work with, I didn’t want to stop!” Now let’s hear from the various friends themselves. As you’ll see in the interviews that follow, they enjoyed being a part of this venture almost as much as Slash…

Ghost

with Ian Astbury

Ian Astbury and his band The Cult have made two small but significant interventions in the career of Slash and Guns N’ Roses. Firstly, they took a young and hungry GN’R out on the road as the opening act on their Electric tour in 1987. Secondly, joining The Cult on their Sonic Temple tour of 1989, was a powerhouse drummer named Matt Sorum – soon to be in position behind the GN’R kit after Slash watched him provide the motor for The Cult’s muscular rock’n’roll at a show in Los Angeles. Little surprise then, that the enigmatic Ian Astbury was foremost in Slash’s thoughts when he was considering vocalists who could handle titanic album opener Ghost. ‘‘It was originally going to be a Velvet Revolver song and it never happened,” explains Slash, “but I always really liked it. Then Ian came to mind…”It proved to be an inspired choice. Astbury was in his considerable pomp when Guns N’ Roses supported The Cult: a rampant, unapologetic rock’n’roll frontman who managed to combine a starry cool with his raw, heartfelt bellow. “Just to watch Ian in action on this track in the studio with me, like with all these guys, recording and seeing how great they are naturally, it’s amazing,” says Slash.

Crucify The Dead

with Ozzy Osbourne

Ozzy Osbourne is one artist who needs no introduction. With Black Sabbath he was one of the originators of what the world now calls heavy metal. He then went on to an even more successful solo career, before the unexpected globe-straddling success of what he calls his “accidental” TV stardom in The Osbournes. He has known Slash since Guns N’ Roses days and is a long-time friend. Says Ozzy, “Slash is one of those people who seems to be everywhere at fucking once. [But] he’s got himself together and I like that. He’s a great guy and a family man. My wife and his wife get on fine, which I don’t know if it’s a good thing or a bad thing, as long as they don’t go shopping together. I only wish he would learn to speak a bit louder because I can’t hear a word he’s talking about half the time. “I was talking to Elton John one day and he said ‘When we go who the fuck’s going to be left? Who’s going to be the next generation of celebrities and stars?’ And Slash is one of the new breed.” With Crucify The Dead, Ozzy reveals that he wrote the lyrics and melody for the song with the story of Guns N’ Roses in mind. “It’s kind of about what I think happened to Guns N’ Roses. I often said to Slash, ‘You know what? One day you guys are going to wake up and go ‘What the fuck did we have and why did we blow it?’ Velvet Revolver were good. Scott Weiland’s a great singer, but it ain’t Guns N’ Roses. There’s only one Guns N’ Roses. You could get The Beatles backing Axl Rose and it wouldn’t be the same. It’s kind of like taking Keith Richards out of the Stones. In fact for a while I thought GN’R were the next Rolling Stones! “I said to Slash, ‘Do you know what you guys had? Do you understand any of it?’ For first timers, I guess, it blew their tops. But Slash and Axl belong to each other. You ask me who else is in U2 apart from Bono and The Edge I wouldn’t have a clue. Aerosmith; Steve Tyler and Joe Perry. With Guns N’ Roses it was Slash and Axl. So this song is about what I’d be singing to Axl if I was Slash, you know: ‘They can’t crucify you when you’re dead.’”

Beautiful Dangerous

with Fergie

At first glance, netting the services of Black Eyed Peas pop princess Fergie for a solo album guestspot might seem like an unlikely move for Slash – the man who put the rock into roll, after all – but as our top-hatted hero discovered when he heard her singing some of the real thing at a charity show that the Black Eyed Peas play each year in LA, Fergie is about a lot more than just pure platinum pop music. “I went up there just so I could hang out with her while she was doing this rock thing,” Slash says with a smile. “Then one time she called me up and goes, ‘Listen, I do Barracuda [by Heart] and I’d love to do Sweet Child O’ Mine’. And I’ve never played Sweet Child O’Mine with anybody. It’s not so much I don’t like that song, there’s just certain Guns N’ Roses songs I don’t think are good jam songs, and that was one of them. But I went down to this gig, which was this outdoor thing. We did a rehearsal and she did Barracuda and it was like, serious. This girl’s for real! Then she did Sweet Child O’Mine and we performed it, and it was really great so we did it a bunch of times.” He’s right: there’s an edge to Fergie’s voice that can’t be faked, and you hear it on Beautiful Dangerous, her original contribution to the album. The song began life as a guitar part Slash wrote for the score to a yet-to-be-released movie called, somewhat counter-intuitively, This Is Not A Movie. “It’s basically for this stripper scene,” explains Slash. With the guitar line fleshed out, Slash knew that there was only one voice he wanted to hear over the top of it: Fergie’s. “Everybody thinks of her as this pop star, because of Black Eyed Peas,” he says, “but she’s really a rock’n’roller at heart. I’m proud I gave her the chance to just let rip.”

Back From Cali & Starlight

with Myles Kennedy

In the last few years Alter Bridge singer Myles Kennedy has garnered a reputation as one of rock’s greatest vocalists and the ‘go-to guy’ for artists seeking a replacement singer. When Velvet Revolver and Scott Weiland went their separate ways in 2008, Myles was one of the first names in the frame to replace him. That same year, he was invited to sing for Led Zeppelin – well, Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, and Jason Bonham. In both instances, however, he eventually decided to concentrate on his own burgeoning career – although he has agreed to front the touring band Slash will be taking out on the road to promote his album later this year. That said, at the time of our talk he admits he still hadn’t really heard any of the other tracks on the album yet. “When I was in LA recording. Slash picked me up in his car and he had the Fergie track playing. And it sounded huge! She’s such a great singer.” He adds: “I’m looking forward to hearing the Iggy track. I am such a big fan of Iggy.” Touring with Slash, he may even have to sing Iggy’s track, along with all the others. How’s his Lemmy impersonation? He laughs. “Uh, not so good. I tried singing Ace Of Spades once – I don’t think I quite got it.” While Back From Cali belongs in the long tradition of rock songs about the ‘delights’ of the City Of Angels, Starlight is about something more mystical. “I’ve always wondered what the rest of the universe might think if it were somehow observing the chaos we manage to create for ourselves here on Earth. The rest of the stars and planets might assume that we are pretty self-destructive. Starlight is basically a plea that eventually we will get our act together. It’s a pretty optimistic track.” Was he a Guns N’ Roses fan? “Oh, yeah. I consider Appetite For Destruction to be one of the greatest rock albums ever made, if not the greatest. I remember when I was about 16 seeing Welcome To The Jungle the first time on MTV, and being like ‘What is this?’ It was just so dangerous yet so catchy… such a great hook! For me, that record is timeless.” So how is it working with Slash? Sometimes working with someone you grew up admiring can be difficult. “That’s a good question. The thing about Slash is that he is so laidback and cool, which made the entire process very easy. There was definitely a good vibe at the studio when we tracked the song. At one point he did something that I thought was quite endearing. He smiled, looked over at me and asked something to the effect of ‘So… what was it like getting to jam with those guys [Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones and Jason Bonham]?’ “I thought that was cool, it really showed at the end of the day we’re all just fans.”

Promise

with Chris Cornell

Chris Cornell first sprang to fame in the early 90s with grunge titans, Soundgarden. Since then he has also fronted the excellent Audioslave and is now working as a solo artist. He first met Slash in 1992 when Soundgarden supported Guns N’ Roses on tour. “Slash was extremely gracious and always very supportive,” Chris recalls. “Often when you tour with a band that are that successful they treat you like shit. [But] Slash was always a very consistent and amiable person and he is now.” Over the years they have bumped into each other regularly. “Especially with Audioslave who frequently played festivals with Velvet Revolver.” he says. “About eight years ago I was living part-time in Los Angeles and would see Slash a lot. For this record, I think he just sent me an email. I’d already agreed that I’d do something or attempt to do it without even hearing the music because he’s always been so supportive of me.“Slash sent me two songs; one was really simple and the other was more fully-formed. It was really easy to write to. I got an idea immediately and within 24 hours I had a demo back to him. It’s pretty much the same on the album except we shortened the second verse. The cool part about doing this was writing with someone, because that always brings out something fresh. You’re responding to someone’s sensibilities that are new to you. It’s kind of common when a couple of musicians get together for the first time and jam in a room, there will be that spark of creativity where they write a whole bunch of songs and it seems really effortless. And then three albums later they wonder why they can’t do that anymore,” he laughs. Chris says that Promise is “a song that you would write to either a young friend or one of your children, in that you’re speaking to your child and you’re giving them advice – don’t let the world get you down because it’s going to try. It’s the nature of youth to have a rosy outlook and feel like you’re just going to be able to charge through life with a machete and make your own way. But the reality is that a lot of unexpected things are going to crash on you and the song deals with that. “Looking back from my perspective, when I was younger I suppose I believed that I could control my future and destiny completely. And two things happen; one, you find you can’t and also you can’t predict what interests and desires you are going to have in the future. So it’s a waste of time trying to focus on where you want to be 10 years from now, it’s better to just live your life. Promise sort of deals with that…”

By The Sword

with Andrew Stockdale

Andrew Stockdale is the singer and guitarist for heavyweight Aussie retro-rockers, Wolfmother. “I’d never met Slash up until sitting in a studio writing a song together on an acoustic in LA,” he says. “Though we played the Download festival together at Donington, three years ago. We were on after Dragonforce and before Velvet Revolver. I didn’t get a chance to meet Slash at the festival; they were the first band I’d seen that actually had wardrobe – road cases full of clothes. That was impressive. A rock band’s gotta have wardrobe.” Image was also very much what first drew Andrew’s attention to Guns N’ Roses. “I remember seeing a photo of Guns N’ Roses when I was a kid. I thought: these guys look pretty damn tough. Most of the time at school, I was trying to avoid dudes with Guns N’ Roses’ T-shirts , because generally those dudes wanted to kick my arse. So I sort of came back to Guns N’ Roses later in life. There’s a huge sense of danger and drama to the band. With Slash I guess he just had the ultimate antisocial presence, which I can relate to. A certain disregard for everything outside of a two-metre radius of himself. To me, I guess that’s the vibe a guitar player can set off, their own alternate reality.” It’s as a musician, though, that Andrew says he is most impressed by Slash. “He has a real presence. He’s an astute listener. He’s a very gentle sort of guy, very aware of what’s going on. I really enjoyed playing guitar with Slash. When I started playing the guitar I used to learn from playing with and watching flamenco guitarists. For the five years that I did this, I came across some of the most amazing guitarists. Slash’s playing reminded me of the flamenco guys I used to play with; the colour he could bring out in the chords and the expression in his playing was real. I’m glad we kept a bit of the acoustic vibe to the song.” For the lyrics to the song, Andrew “just started singing and then sort of worked out the words as we went. That’s the way I usually write lyrics, I just ramble out random words and the lyrics sort of write themselves. Slash sent through a few demo ideas for songs and I picked the one I liked the most. Then we sort of played the riff and added in parts, arranged it and worked it out until it became a song. It all happened really quickly. I really enjoyed collaborating with Slash.” As Andrew says, having two radically different styles fused together makes for interesting music. “Songs get taken in a path that you would never take them if you were writing it yourself. It sort of takes the weight off and leaves more things up to chance. So, yeah, I’d be keen to see what else we could do in the future if the opportunity arises.”

Gotten

with Adam Levine

Adam Levine has sold over 15 million records worldwide with his band Maroon 5, but before hooking up with Slash to write and record Gotten for the album, his previous collaborations were at the other end of the musical scale, with the likes of R&B illuminati Kanye West and Alicia Keys. “The first time I met Slash, I had to try and play it cool. I mean, he’s Slash, you know? It was at some Grammy party a few years back. He’s probably the sweetest guy in the universe, but if you’re going to meet Slash, you gotta be cool. I bummed a cigarette off of him. I remember someone saying, ‘You don’t want one of those’. I was like, ‘It’s no big deal,’ but it was an industrial strength cigarette and I immediately began coughing and was extremely uncool for several minutes. But that kind of broke the ice. “I must have been 10 years old when I heard Appetite For Destruction, and that was it. I took my first guitar lesson when I was the same age and I had this very cool guitar teacher who really wanted me to have fun. He was like, ‘Hey, you got any songs you like, any songs you wanna learn?’ And then he’d make the chord charts for the ones I picked, which was brilliant because it really made me want to play. With classical training I probably would have gotten bored very quickly. “I remember that I wanted to learn Patience on guitar. And that came right back to me when Slash called about this record. It was one of these things where he called and I thought, wow, this is one of the first guitar players I really loved. It was beyond cool. “Slash had come up with this chord progression that I thought was great for me to write with. He sent it over and we got together, sat on a couch and thrashed it out. It was actually very easy. I heard the chord progression and it was really kind of amazing, very strange and cool. It was a ballad, and I thought, ‘Okay, I can write ballads.’ “The idea came from the music. I just heard it and started writing right there. I don’t really know how or why I do what I do, but it happens when it happens. It doesn’t ever really feel like a job, and this was a lot of fun, one of the coolest things I’ve done in a long while.”

Doctor Alibi

with Lemmy

One of the most iconic rock and metal names, legendary Motörhead frontman Lemmy is constantly in demand to guest on various projects. But his involvement on Slash’s album, as lyricist and vocalist on the track Doctor Alibi, is particularly special. Says Lemmy: “Firstly, I have to say that I believe Slash to be a very good musician. Someone who deserves a lot of respect. You only have to listen to what he did with Guns N’ Roses to appreciate his talent. Can you imagine something like Sweet Child O’Mine without his guitar? I can’t.“He’s also a great guy, someone who does what he wants in his own way – I can appreciate that, because it’s what I do. So I had no doubts about being on this album. What Slash did was send through the music, which apparently had been composed and played with me in mind, which is flattering. I was then asked to write the lyrics. There were no instructions given to me. It’s not as if this even had a title at the time, nor did Slash have any subject in mind. This was a blank sheet of paper, and I could write anything I liked. “I’m used to this way of working, because I did it with Ozzy [on the song Mama I’m Coming Home, from the 1991 album No More Tears] and also with Dave Grohl [for the 2004 Probot record, on the song Shake Your Blood]. How long did it take me to come up with the lyrics? Oh, I agonised over it – no, seriously, it took me all of about 20 minutes! It’s all about ‘fuck you-ness’! What I mean by that is that my lyrics deal with the idea of, ‘Don’t tell me what to do’. It’s what I’ve been writing about for years, the idea of being true to yourself, and not slavishly giving in to the way others expect you to behave. “I sent them through to Slash, and he seemed to be happy enough with what I’d done. They fit in with his way of life as well…”

Watch This

with Dave Grohl & Duff McKagan

“Very heavy,” is how Slash describes the only instrumental track on the album, Watch This, which also features friends Dave Grohl on drums and Duff McKagan on bass. And heavy it is, although Watch This is also extremely tuneful. For as Slash reveals, “Originally, I had seen it as a track for Dave to sing on, but he really wanted to concentrate on his drums instead.” Dave Grohl, of course, originally found fame as the drummer of Nirvana. It wasn’t until he went on to form the Foo Fighters that he stepped out from behind his kit to prove himself as a great singer and guitarist too. Recently, though, he has returned to the drum stool with the formation of his supergroup Them Crooked Vultures (also featuring former Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones and Queens Of The Stone Age frontman Josh Homme). As Slash explains, “I’ve known Dave Grohl since about 2002. He’s not only one of the greatest singers and guitarists but he’s also one of the greatest drummers, which is something people kind of forget sometimes now.” It was through Dave’s reticence to leave the drums behind again and become a singer – albeit temporarily – that Slash conceived of making Watch This an instrumental. “We did this right when his Them Crooked Vultures thing was happening,” explains Slash, “and Dave’s, like, an amazing drummer! So it was very spontaneous.” Interestingly, although Dave Grohl will always be associated with the Seattle grunge scene of the early 90s, it was Slash’s old pal from GN’R and Velvet Revolver, Duff McKagan, who was actually born there (Dave was born in Ohio and grew up in Virginia). Indeed, had Duff stayed in Seattle, where he played in numerous punk bands in the early 80s, he may well have ended up in one of the grunge bands that were so influenced by punk in the early 90s. You can certainly hear the full-on rock sound on Watch This. As Slash says: “Duff had to be on there, he’s not only a great player but he’s like one of my oldest friends. We’ve been through stuff that I haven’t shared with anyone else. Not just in Guns and Velvet Revolver and stuff, but away from music too, in our personal lives. He’s always been there for me and it was great having him on this one too.”

I Hold On

with Kid Rock

Kid Rock is the multi-million-selling rock-rapper who sprang to fame with the 1998 hit album, Devil Without A Cause. As he says, “I’ve known Slash for years. Shit… probably nine or 10 years. How did we meet? Fuck, I don’t remember. I’m guessing that we started talking about doing a song together at [Black Eyed Peas singer] Fergie’s wedding [in January 2009]. That was where I first caught wind of it. We talked, and I said, ‘Come over to Detroit and we’ll do something’. “A lot of these collaborations nowadays, they just want to send you a track, and I don’t do that. I’m not into it at all. If somebody says they want to work together, I like to get some people together in a room and play, like a band does. Slash was all for that, so that was great. We called up some players and got it together and just, you know, wrote a song. We spent a few days together, it was cool.” The way they worked together, notes Rock, was interesting. “Slash sent me an idea and I was like, ‘Cool, let’s start with that’ and then we worked out a bridge with a few changes that we thought would work melodically, and we got together with a drummer and a few other people and laid it down. Slash obviously played all the guitars. There’s a phenomenal solo in it. I’ve got some really cool old lap-steel guitars from the 1940s, some of the first lap-steels that Fender ever made, so we pulled them out and he played a little slide part. I wrote all the lyrics and did the vocals, and bingo!” The song was inspired by some tragic, true-life events, as Rock explains. “I don’t know if you caught wind of the story over the pond there, but when I was writing the song there was these three guys who went out on a boat, and I think two of ’em were pro football players, or pro athletes, and one other guy. And the boat capsized. They were on this boat for like three days. Only one guy survived. He had to watch the other two guys die and let go. Just think, this guy sat there for two days watching his friends die – and he held on to this fuckin’ boat for life. That kinda motivated me to write the song. It’s very deep.”

Nothing To Say

with M Shadows

M Shadows is an icon of modern metal and not least because his band Avenged Sevenfold – equal parts Pantera and Guns N’ Roses – have taken the rock and metal world by storm in the last 10 years. What Slash didn’t know when he reached out to M Shadows was just what a big GN’R fan the singer is. “We were in the middle of touring and I heard that he was doing a record and that he had a bunch of songs and had ideas for people. I got a call from our management – who also manage Slash – asking how I would feel singing on a song for Slash. I was like, ‘Cool, tell him to send me whatever he’s got’. Slash sent me a riff – a kind of chugging riff and a chorus – and we wrote a song off the riff. We just went for it. It was more off of his head than mine. We went in there, I showed it to him, and he was like, ‘Wow, this is great, it’s just what I’m looking for, it’s perfect’. From then on we just started collaborating on the track itself. It all came from that call because he was looking for a metal singer to make a heavier track on the record.” But M says he kept quiet about being in awe. “You’ve just got to keep it professional. I respect Slash as a musician and as a person and I just hate it when people let on too much. It just changes things if you sit there and say, ‘Dude, you’re the best! You’re the greatest! You’re the best!’ all the time, it just gets really weird. I was there to make the best song possible and I was fortunate enough to play with someone who I feel is one of the greatest guitar players of all time and definitely one of my favourite guitar players. There’s no reason to sit there and go crazy and make him feel uncomfortable.” Once they started work, everything just flowed, he says. “By the time we’d got in the studio we’d met up a few times because I kept reworking the chorus and I knew Slash had a lot of stuff on his plate with all these other songs, so I wanted to take the reins with my song and not have to make him stress about it. We had some great players down there: Josh Freese was doing drums. I think I made him go crazy by making him do so much double-bass drumming. He had to keep doing it over and over. He was like, ‘I’m not playing double-bass, I’m not a fucking metal drummer’ – fucking around, you know, because of course, the song has double-bass in it! It was cool, though.” The experience of collaborating with his hero had turned out every bit as good as he’d hoped. “Slash is such a musical person that he just plays through tracks a few times and they take all the good stuff and they kind of arrange it like that. It’s a really good way of doing it because it’s all feel. It’s very driven by feel, and Slash is a total feel player: he just makes those perfects notes at the right time.”

Saint Is A Sinner Too

with Rocco DeLuca

Signed to Kiefer Sutherland’s Ironworks label and hailed as America’s new folk-rock sensation, Rocco DeLuca – who leads a band, The Burden – contributes lyrics and vocals to Saint Is A Sinner Too, one of the more reflective moments on the album. “I got a phone call after Slash had heard a couple of tracks that I’d done with the producer Daniel Lanois for our second album, Mercy,” says Rocco. “There are a couple of rock songs on the album that I think he gravitated towards. He called me and asked me if I would work on a couple of pieces of music that he had done for a soundtrack that hadn’t gotten used yet, and if I’d like to maybe come up with some lyrics to help them reach their potential.” Hearing the music for the first time in demo form, Rocco became even more inspired. “I heard the music and I thought it was beautiful, with acoustic guitars that felt very open. It had this landscape feel, which sounded to me as if there could be a chorus in there.” From there the song developed quite quickly. “I wrote a melody around what Slash already had there,” says Rocco, “and then I went through my notebook and put down some words that I thought maybe matched the weight of the song and that Slash might find interesting. The title of the song fits Slash’s identity as well. We recorded it, and over the course of time I discovered what a cool guy I was dealing with – he was a lot of fun. Slash is a class act on all levels. You know, I’m from Southern California, and it’s a rare thing that you meet someone in the music industry who’s as cool as that – it was a very positive experience for me. He was totally open to having me just be myself, which I felt was a very nice thing to do.”

We’re All Gonna Die

with Iggy Pop

Iggy Pop first sprang to fame – or should that be infamy? – in the late 1960s and early 70s with his legendary Detroit band The Stooges, who influenced everybody from David Bowie and the Sex Pistols to Guns N’ Roses. Says Iggy: “I got an email, a text and a call from Slash asking me if I wanted to do something with him for his record. It was a few weeks after [Stooges guitarist] Ron Asheton passed away. Slash said he knew it was a sensitive time but, ‘Hey, I’m doing this and do you wanna sing?’ So when he sent me the track I kinda had that subject in mind, and you know, even death needs cheerleaders!” Iggy explains that the track We’re All Gonna Die is “kind of a tribute to Ron, but I didn’t wanna spell it out. I didn’t wanna make reality TV out of it. And it’s kind of a message to myself too. You start thinking, ‘Oh shit, I’m gonna die too! Hey, wait a minute!’ At some point it kicks in to the comic.” He goes on: “Musically, I’d call this song a good slab of Slash. He has a certain style and you find yourself bobbing your head and stomping your foot. I was playing the guitar track loud around the house and in came my beautiful wife and she started dancing – it had a good effect. “I had a little idea and I started yelling that for the chorus. It took an afternoon to write the structure and the words. Slash gave me a proper demo but I don’t do things that way. I have one of these little voice recorders, about four inches by two inches. I played his track on my CD player loud and turned on this recorder and sang along – it sounds really cool that way, super-distorted! I sent that back to him, and he had enough to go on.“It’s really something, making music with Slash. He and Duff [McKagan] really saved my butt on the album Brick By Brick in 1990. The hit single was with session guys – very good ones – but I needed some stuff on there to kinda shake things up, right? I couldn’t get that out of that band, but Slash and Duff did it for me. I’m a very conservative person since I decided I didn’t feel like dying just yet, but they insisted if they were gonna track with me that I had to go out for a night with them. They pulled up in a white stretch limo, picked me up at my hotel at about midnight, which is fairly early for them. They had my demo CD and a gallon of vodka!” What about Slash today? “Slash, I would venture, has a fairly high athletic ability. He has a pretty highly developed sense of timing and rhythm. He’s a talented cat. He knows his way around the song form, so that helps. And he had access to a lot of good records as a kid – that really shows up in his playing. He also had very cool parents. His dad knew the music business, and his mom, who I knew, was a really groovy chick, one of the most beautiful people in Los Angeles in the late 60s, early 70s. “I haven’t heard the whole of his album. I just went out one weekend and went in the studio with him. It was just me, him and the producer. and we had a good session. I was hot to do it. Slash is a guy I would never turn down.”