“It’s always some fabricated, over-exaggerated bulls**t”: Why Slash doesn’t want a Guns N’ Roses biopic (yet)

Slash performing on-stage with Guns N Roses
(Image credit: Kate Green/Getty)

Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash has stated in no uncertain terms that he has no desire to see a biopic about the legendary hard rock band in the near future.

Talking to Yahoo Entertainment, the musician says (as transcribed by Loudwire), “I just don’t see it happening anytime in the foreseeable future.”

He then added: “It doesn’t mean that it won’t happen ever, because who knows? I can only think down the line so far. But I’ve never been able to envision how you’re gonna get… I mean it’s one thing to try and find actors to represent the people in the band, but the other thing is all sort of theatrical depictions of life in the music scene and the everyday life of musicians and all that kinda stuff.

The guitarist then strengthened his stance further by saying, “It’s always some fabricated, over-exaggerated bullshit, and it’s very rare that you see a movie that actually feels genuine. And so I don’t even want to be a part of all that. I just don’t think that it would be done a real justice. I’ve seen a lot of bad ones, and they freak me out.”

Slash has found himself in headlines recently by appearing in the soundtrack for the Greta Gerwig-directed blockbuster Barbie, where he plays guitar on a track that also features Mammoth WVH man Wolfgang Van Halen.

The guitarist has also unwittingly been at the centre of an online conversation between his Guns N’ Roses bandmate Richard Fortus and Extreme’s Nuno Bettencourt.

Bettencourt, who also plays for pop superstar Rihanna, recently stated that “most of the guitar players who I admire” wouldn’t have the musical diversity required to perform onstage with Rihanna and singled out Slash by name. Fortus later countered on Instagram: “There is very little [Slash] couldn’t do on guitar.”

Matt Mills
Contributing Editor, Metal Hammer

Louder’s resident Gojira obsessive was still at uni when he joined the team in 2017. Since then, Matt’s become a regular in Prog and Metal Hammer, at his happiest when interviewing the most forward-thinking artists heavy music can muster. He’s got bylines in The Guardian, The Telegraph, NME, Guitar and many others, too. When he’s not writing, you’ll probably find him skydiving, scuba diving or coasteering.