"The first time we heard it we just stared at each other with our mouths open": Slash teaming up with The Dandy Warhols for 'Vietnam-era acid rock' is the collaboration we never knew we needed

Slash and The Dandy Warhols
(Image credit: Randy Holmes/ABC via Getty Images | Press)

While collaborations between musical artists from different genres are very much a feature of the modern era, it's rare to see genuine hard rock legends join forces with indie rock bands. So the news that Slash has paired up with Portland, Oregon's The Dandy Warhols for what the band call "the Vietnam-era acid rock sound" of new single I’d Like To Help You With Your Problem took us very much by surprise. Even more surprising, with all due respect to everyone involved, is just how well said collaboration works.

“The first time we heard it back in our studio we just stared at each other with our mouths open,” admits The Dandy Warhols frontman Courney Taylor-Taylor, saluting Slash's performance. “What he played on the track is amazing. I’ve never heard him play quite like that, but what is so fascinating to me is that it is clearly him playing. As recognizable as a familiar human voice.”

“The song has a real Vietnam-era acid rock sound,” Taylor-Taylor adds. “We wanted that kind of guitar playing on it, but we don’t have anyone in the band who can do it. Once we began discussing it, it became apparent that there wasn’t really anyone else whose hands we could put it in, so thus the Hail Mary to try and get Slash to play on it.”

Watch the AI-produced video for the song below:


I’d Like To Help You With Your Problem is the third single to be released from The Dandy Warhols' forthcoming Rockmaker album, following on from the fabulously-titled Danzig With Myself, which featured Pixies leader Frank Black, and 2023's Summer Of Hate.

The band's 12th album, Rockmaker will be available on March 15 via Sunset Blvd.

Paul Brannigan
Contributing Editor, Louder

A music writer since 1993, formerly Editor of Kerrang! and Planet Rock magazine (RIP), Paul Brannigan is a Contributing Editor to Louder. Having previously written books on Lemmy, Dave Grohl (the Sunday Times best-seller This Is A Call) and Metallica (Birth School Metallica Death, co-authored with Ian Winwood), his Eddie Van Halen biography (Eruption in the UK, Unchained in the US) emerged in 2021. He has written for Rolling Stone, Mojo and Q, hung out with Fugazi at Dischord House, flown on Ozzy Osbourne's private jet, played Angus Young's Gibson SG, and interviewed everyone from Aerosmith and Beastie Boys to Young Gods and ZZ Top. Born in the North of Ireland, Brannigan lives in North London and supports The Arsenal.