Shy Slash won’t look at crowd

Slash has revealed he wears sunglasses to hide the fact that he’s too shy to look at the audience when he plays.

And the guitarist says he usually has his eyes shut while he’s on stage.

Slash tells the New Zealand Herald: “I rarely look out at the crowd. It makes me very uncomfortable to look directly into the face of the crowd.

“I’m in my own little world, playing my guitar. I play from the heart – but it’s very insular.”

Reflecting on how he started wearing shades, he says: “I think it was just a hangover thing that turns into an everyday thing. Now, wherever you go, everybody’s got camera phones, taking your picture, and you just end up never taking the shades off.”

The former Guns N’ Roses axeman is in the process of getting divorced from wife Perla, but says: “I can’t be bothered to fucking explain myself to people. It’s hard for me because I don’t like to talk. In general I don’t express a lot of things to a lot of people, so they don’t know where I’m coming from.”

He adds: “I’ve got stuff to deal with, just like anybody else. I have to look at myself and how I’m dealing with that – navigate is the world I’m looking for. It’s pretty good.”

Meanwhile, ex GNR drummer Steven Adler insists the classic lineup would make a world-class album if they ever reunited.

Adler tells Mitch Lafon: “If we did do a reunion, or if we made a record together, I think it would blow Appetite For Destruction away. All of us are such better players. Being adults now and knowing what we know, I think we could make an even bigger kickass record.”

Not only is one-time online news editor Martin an established rock journalist and drummer, but he’s also penned several books on music history, including SAHB Story: The Tale of the Sensational Alex Harvey Band, a band he once managed, and the best-selling Apollo Memories about the history of the legendary and infamous Glasgow Apollo. Martin has written for Classic Rock and Prog and at one time had written more articles for Louder than anyone else (we think he's second now). He’s appeared on TV and when not delving intro all things music, can be found travelling along the UK’s vast canal network.