Guns N' Roses :: Biografije izvodjaca i bendova

Slash

Saul Hudson, poznatiji svijetu kao Slash, je bivši gitarista hard rock benda Guns N' Roses. Trenutno je lead gitarista rock benda Velvet Revolver. Prepoznatljiv je po svojoj dugoj kovrčavoj kosi, velikom šeširu, njegovoj ljubavi prema Jack Danielsu, i, naravno, cigareti u ustima. Trenutno živi na Beverly Hills sa svojom ženom Perlom, i dva sina, London Emilio i Cash Anthony.

Biografija

Rani život

Slash je rođen 23. srpnja, 1965. u Hampsteadu, Engleska od Židova Engleza oca i Afro-američke majke, od kojih su se oboje bavili šoubiznisom (majka je dizajnirala kostim Davidu Bowieju za "The Man Who Fell To Earth").

U srednjim 70-ima, njegovi roditelji su se razveli i Slash se preselio svojoj baki. He was raised in Stoke-on-Trent until the age of 11 when he and his mother moved to Los Angeles, California in the United States. His father remained in England. In the U.S., Slash attended Beverly Hills High School along with other future stars including Lenny Kravitz and Nicolas Cage.

At about age 15, Slash was given a one string acoustic guitar with which he was able to learn to play. Slash's early influences include Led Zeppelin, Rory Gallagher, Eric Clapton, the Rolling Stones, Queen, Aerosmith, Jimi Hendrix, AC/DC and Jeff Beck. The first song he learned to play was "Smoke on the Water" by Deep Purple. He went to lessons but he wanted to learn things himself. Slash began to devote up to 12 hours a day to playing guitar, which evidently affected his school work. Eventually, Slash gave up on school, dropping out in eleventh grade. While a part of the Los Angeles band scene he auditioned for the Glam Metal band Poison and was a finalist until ultimately losing out the unique looks of C.C. DeVille. He then met drummer Steven Adler and the two formed the "band" Road Crew (which generally had trouble retaining any members besides themselves).

Guns N' Roses

Slash and Adler later met future Guns N' Roses rhythm guitarist Izzy Stradlin who played them a tape of Axl Rose singing. Slash and Adler met Axl shortly thereafter. Later, when guitarist Tracii Guns and drummer Rob Gardner of Axl's new band, Hollywood Rose, could not make the band's first few shows in Seattle, Slash and Adler volunteered and quickly joined as full time members. The band became Guns N' Roses shortly thereafter. With the 1988 release of the album G N' R Lies, which, upon Rose's insistance and despite Slash's objections, included the controversial song "One in a Million" (whose lyrics include the word "niggers"), Slash began early on to be alienated by Rose. After Guns N' Roses' Use Your Illusion Tour, Slash became an American citizen.

While serving as GN'R's guitar player, Slash was involved in many projects with artists as varied as Lenny Kravitz, BLACKstreet, Michael Jackson and Queen. Slash is also more notoriously known for his alcohol induced acceptance speech at the 1989 American Music Awards. Upon receipt of GNR's second award at the 1989 American Music Awards, he and Duff McKagan stumbled to the stage appearing very drunk, holding drinks and smoking cigarettes. Within a span of 20 seconds, Slash managed to curse twice in his slurred speech before being interrupted by a music overdub and positioning of a camera on a curtain with the AMA logo. After the first f-word, an audible gasp was heard from the crowd, prompting Slash to cover his mouth, cigarette in hand, and laughingly utter "oops".

In 1991, Guns N' Roses embarked on the 28-month long Use Your Illusion Tour, coinciding with the release of their new albums, Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II. The albums indicated a change in musical direction for Guns N' Roses, including more artistic and dramatic songs like "November Rain" and "Estranged". These kinds of songs, along with ballads like "Don't Cry", contributed to tensions that tore the band apart just a few years later. Slash would later cite this issue as a key component to his inability to work with Axl Rose.

He is also known to be a fan of the Godfather films, and played the Godfather theme during every live show.

At the end of the tour, after the release of The Spaghetti Incident?, GN'R's final studio album to feature Slash, he began to drift in and out of the band. In 1994 and 1995, he started a side project called Slash's Snakepit (which included GN'R guitarist Gilby Clarke and drummer Matt Sorum) that released its debut album, It's Five O'Clock Somewhere.

In addition, Slash performed alongside Michael Jackson at the 1995 MTV Video Music Awards. Slash played guitar in the Black Or White segment of the performance, which included a seemingly unplanned 90 second solo, during which Jackson had undergone a costume change for the next song, Billie Jean. Slash would later perform alongside Michael Jackson again on September 10, 2001, at Jackson's 30th Anniversary Celebration at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

Poslije Guns N' Roses

Slash officially quit GN'R in 1996 after he declared that he could not work with Rose. Allegedly, he and Axl had several disagreements regarding the band's musical direction, and Slash was infuriated when Axl replaced Gilby's guitar track with Paul Tobias's on the song "Sympathy for the Devil". He then focused on Slash's Snakepit, playing a few tour dates before disbanding the group later that year. He re-formed Snakepit in 1998, only to disband it again in July 2001 after releasing a second album, Ain't Life Grand, the year before.

In 2003, he participated in the Yardbirds' comeback record "Birdland" (which consisted mostly of re-recordings of some of their greatest hits, with guest appearances by former members Jeff Beck, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Brian May, Steve Lukather, Jeff "Skunk" Baxter, Johnny Rzeznik, Martin Ditchum and Simon McCarty), released on the Favored Nations label. He played lead guitar in the track "Over, Under, Sideways, Down".

From the mid-90s into the early 2000s, Slash spent his time playing with many different bands, often as a guest on many different albums and tours including all different kinds of music. However, he was not truly in a band again until 2002, when he reunited with Duff McKagan and Matt Sorum for a benefit/tribute concert for Randy Castillo which starred Gunn Atkinson aside him. Realizing they still had a lot of chemistry, they decided to form a new band together.

Velvet Revolver i nadalje

Velvet Revolver began as "The Project", a venture by Slash, McKagan, and Sorum to find a new lead singer. To play rhythm guitar, they initially sought out Izzy Stradlin, but it did not work out for either party due to his aversion to touring and working with a lead singer. They eventually settled on Dave Kushner, from a band Duff had been in before reuniting with Slash. For many months, the four of them listened to demo tapes of potential lead singers, a monotonous process documented by VH1. After many months, Slash and the others were almost ready to give up. However, Stone Temple Pilots was on an extended break, and lead singer Scott Weiland was encouraged to try out for "The Project". Slash, Duff, and Matt worked well with him immediately, and so Velvet Revolver was formed.

The band played several concerts in the summer of 2003 and released their first single, "Set Me Free" as part of the soundtrack for The Hulk. In June 2004, they released their first studio album, Contraband. A 19-month long tour ensued, as the album went platinum and re-established Slash among the masses who had forgotten him over the years. The tour finally ended in January 2006, and Slash and his bandmates took a well-deserved break before beginning work on their second album. The band recorded a new song for Steven Spielberg's latest film Monster House in May 2006.

Kontroverzija

In March 2006 Axl Rose's lawyer released the following statement: "In October of 2005 Slash made an unannounced 5:30 AM visit to Axl Rose's house. Not appearing to be under the influence, Slash came to inform Axl that: 'Duff was spineless,' 'Scott Weiland was a fraud,' that he 'hates Matt Sorum' and that in this ongoing war, contest or whatever anyone wants to call it that Slash has waged against Axl for the better part of 20 years, that Axl has proven himself 'the stronger.' Based on his conduct in showing up at Rose's home, Axl was hopeful that Slash would live up to his pronouncements that he wanted to end the war and move on with life. Unfortunately that did not prove to be the case."

Slash didn't comment on Axl's press release - but a Velvet Revolver spokeswoman did promise we would hear from Slash "within days" - Slash's press release never came however Scott Weiland (of Velvet Revolver) posted this on their website:

Go to the gym motherfucker, or if you prefer, get a new wig motherfucker. I think I’ll resist the urge to “stoop” to your level. Oh shit, here it comes, you fat, botox faced, wig wearin’ fuck! O.K. I feel better now. Don’t think for a second we don’t know where those words came from. Your unoriginal, uncreative little mind, the same mind that had to rely on its bandmates to write melodies and lyrics. Who’s the fraud now bitch? Damn, I couldn’t imagine people writing for me. How many albums have you put out man and how long did it take the current configuration of this so-called “band” to make this album? How long? And without the only guys that validated the name. How dare you! Shame on you! How dare you call our bass player “spineless”. We toured our album over a year and a half. How many shows have you played over the last ten years? Oh, that’s right - you bailed out on your long awaited comeback tour, leaving your remaining fans feeling shall we say a trifle miffed?! I won’t even list what I’ve accomplished because I don’t need to. What we’re talking about here is a frightened little man who once thought he was king, but unfortunately this king without his court is nothing but a memory of the asshole he once was.

It was removed two days later.

On April 25, 2006, Duff McKagan appeared on Opie & Anthony on XM radio. He shot down all rumors of Slash leaving Velvet Revolver saying that they were just "Bullshit". Two days later, Slash and his wife Perla filed for divorce in Los Angeles. It is believed that Perla, who is also the manager of Velvet Revolver, may have been the source of the false rumors regarding Velvet Revolver's supposed breakup as well as those regarding Slash rejoining Axl Rose. This however was false (the divorce allegation, Slash said this on Camp Freddy on May 13 and said that he was still in Velvet Revolver and hadn't spoken to Axl since 1996.)

On May 13, 2006, Slash appeared on the Camp Freddy Show on Indie 1031 FM and denied having visited Axl's house or saying anything that Axl claimed. Slash said: "I'm not gonna go into the whole long thing. It was just something that he [Axl] decided he was going to… It was a lot of this stuff was built to promote the next Guns record and the tour and all that kind of stuff, 'cause there was this blatantly fabricated thing in there that I'd gone to his house and that he and I had a conversation in which I said all this stuff about my bandmates. And it's just blatantly untrue. For one, I have not talked to the guy in any way, shape or form since 1996, so it's going on 11 years. [Laughs] So that's basically it. There's just no truth to it. And all things considered, it put lot of whatever in people's minds that I was that kind of a guy, so it's… there you have it. So it's not true."

On May 31st, 2006, he was joined by Rob Zombie on vocals, another former GNR axeman Gilby Clarke on rhythm guitar, Scott Ian of Anthrax on bass, Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee on drums, and surprise guest Ace Frehley of KISS for a rendition of God of Thunder. The occasion was a one-time supergroup tribute to KISS for the VH1 Rock Honors Award Show.

Gitare

Slash posjeduje preko 100 gitara među kojima su sljedeće.
Gibson
1958 Les Paul Replica Built By: Kris Derrig (Slash's Main Guitar On Most Recordings)
Standard and Custom Les Pauls
1950s Standard
1956 Gold Top
1959 Standard (Copy)
1969 Custom
1987 Standard
1996 Signature (Slash's Snakepit)
2004 Signature (Velvet Revolver)
1963 & 1965 Melody Makers
1960s SG
EDS-1275
1959 Flying V
1958 Explorer
J-100
Skylark Lap Steel
Fender
1952 Telecaster
1965 Stratocaster
Ernie Ball/Musicman
Silhouette
Guild
1999 Crossroads Doubleneck ("Godzilla")
12-string Acoustic Guitar
B.C. Rich
Mockingbird
Martin
D-28 Acoustic Guitar
Ramirez
Classical Guitar
Travis Bean
Travis Bean Electric

Pojačala

Slash is the first musician to have a signature amplifier created by Marshall for him.
Marshall
JCM-800 Head
JCM 900 Head
JCM Silver Jubilee (original 2555 JS, white/silver marshall head)
2555SL Signature Head
1960BV 4x12 Cabinet
70 Watt Celestion "Vintage 30" Speakers

Efekti
Dunlop DCR-1SR Cry Baby Rackmount Wah Wah
Rocktron Hush II CX
DBX 166 Compressor
Yamaha SPX 900 Multieffect
Boss DD-3 Delay
MXR 10-band graphic EQ
Heil Talkbox

Drugo
Žice
Ernie Ball Slinky R.P.S gauge 0.11, 0.14, 0.18, 0.28, 0.38, 0.48 (Tuned to 1/2 down from standard -[From low to high :: Eb, Ab, Db, Gb, Bb, Eb]
Pickups
Seymour Duncan Alnico II Pro
Trzalice
Dunlop Purple Tortex (1.14 mm)
Miscellaneous
Shure Wireless Guitar Kit
CAE custom switcher/router
Peterson Strobe tuner (used by Adam Day)
Marlboro Red Cigarettes
Jack Daniels
Top Hat

Trivia
Slash was voted in at number 12 on Chez 106's list of the 40 Most Influential Guitarists of all time.
Slash is referenced in the video game Chrono Trigger as the bumbling, "tone deaf" member of a musician-based trio of villains (also included are Flea and Ozzy).
He is the only long-term member of Guns N' Roses who was not born in the United States (original bassist Ole Beich was born in Denmark, but was in the band for a very short period of time

Izvor: Wikipedia