Slash

BIOGRAPHY

Saul Hudson, famously known as Slash, was born on July 23, 1965 to a white English father, Anthony Hudson and an African American mother, Ola. Both parents were designers of costumes of famous artists like David Bowie, Neil Young and Joni Mitchell. Slash was raised in Stoke-on-Trent until the age of 11, when he moved to the United States with his mother. In the mid-70's, his father joined them in Los Angeles. At the age of 15, his grandmother gave him his first guitar which slash had spent most of his time with. And eventually, he dropped out of school and continued to pursue a career in the music industry. While a part of the Los Angeles band scene he auditioned for an opening in the glam metal band Poison that eventually went to C.C. DeVille. He and one of his childhood friends, Steven Adler, formed the band Road Crew. Eventually, Slash ended up in a band called Black Sheep, headed by Willie Basse, which had the same agent as another band called Hollywood Rose.

In 1984, Black Sheep and Hollywood Rose opened for Stryper where Slash and Axl Rose were originally introduced by their mutual agent, Vicky Hamilton. Several months later, Slash auditioned to play in a band with Rose and Izzy Stradlin, but other guitarists were chosen, such as Tracii Guns. After Guns was unable to make a concert in Seattle, Slash and Steven Adler joined Rose, Stradlin and Duff McKagan to form Guns N' Roses. In 1987, the band released it's debut album, Appetite for Destruction which included songs like Sweet Child O' Mine, Paradise City and Welcome to the Jungle. In 1988, Guns N Roses released it's second album, Lies.

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". Songs in this vein, along with ballads like "Don't Cry", contributed to tensions that tore the band apart just a few years later, because of Rose's desire to pursue more progressive types of rock, as opposed to the rest of the band's desire to continue playing 80's style hard rock. Slash later cited this issue as a key component to his inability to work with Axl Rose. After the release of The Spaghetti Incident?, an album for which he had strongly petitioned, Slash began to drift in and out of the band. However, he picked out three songs to be on the record. Slash presented Axl with new material intended to be Guns N' Roses' follow up album to Use Your Illusion 1 and 2. Rose rejected Slash's material leading Slash to form Slash's Snakepit with Matt Sorum, Gilby Clarke, Dizzy Reed, Mike Inez, and Eric Dover. The band recorded Slash's material and released It's Five O'Clock Somewhere in 1995.

Trying to salvage the wreck that Gn'R was becoming, Zakk Wylde, initially of Ozzy Osbourne fame in the late eighties and early nineties, was invited to jam with Gn'R, but both Slash and Wylde agreed that Gn'R did not have space for two of the world's pre-eminent lead guitarists, although they remain good friends to this day. Wylde went back to work with Rose in the studio in the late nineties, but was alleged to have a more efficient work-ethic than Rose, and no recordings transpired.

On October 30, 1996, it was discovered that Slash was officially no longer a part of the band, as lead singer Axl Rose sent a fax to MTV stating he and his former guitarist had had several disagreements regarding the band's musical direction, and had parted ways. Some events leading up to this included when Rose removed Slash's part of the guitar track and added Paul Tobias's work which was a mirror of Slash's track on the song "Sympathy for the Devil". Also, as revealed on a VH1 special, the guitarist stated that he never truly forgave Axl for his rant on some of his fellow band-mates doing drugs during a 1989 concert. Slash was eventually replaced by guitarist Robin Finck. After GNR, Slash went on and worked with different artists which included Michael Jackson, Insane Clown Posse, Marta Sanchez, Alice Cooper, Yarbird and more. In 2002, he reunited with Duff McKagan and Matt Sorum for a benefit/tribute concert for Randy Castillo which starred Gunn Atkinson aside him. Realizing that they still had a lot of chemistry, they decided to form a new band together. The band that featured Slash, McKagan, and Sorum also featured former Buckcherry members Keith Nelson and Josh Todd. Later Duff put out a statement that Josh and Keith didn't quite fit with the band, and they added Dave Kushner as rhythm guitar and, after a long search, Stone Temple Pilots singer Scott Weiland. In 2006, Slash guested on keyboardist Derek Sherinian's solo album Blood of the Snake covering the 1970 Mungo Jerry hit single "In the Summertime", also featuring Billy Idol on vocals. A video was also made featuring Slash, Billy, and Derek for this song.

Velvet Revolver began as "The Project", a venture by Slash, Duff McKagan and Matt Sorum to find a new lead singer. On rhythm guitar, they initially worked with Izzy Stradlin, and they were offered to open for The Rolling Stones but Slash, Duff and Matt wanted to have a lead singer; after this Izzy became less involved. They would find their second guitarist in the form of Dave Kushner, who had previously played with McKagan in "Loaded" prior to this project. 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 had recently imploded and lead singer Scott Weiland was encouraged to try out for "The Project". Scott had tried to join before but Duff was reluctant to allow him to split Stone Temple Pilots. The natural demise of that band afforded him the opportunity to join with Slash, Duff, and Matt, which worked well with him immediately, and so Velvet Revolver was formed. The band played concerts in 2003 and then released their debut album, Contraband, in June 2004 then went on a 19-month tour. On May 31, 2006, Slash 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. In 2006, Slash made an appearance on the first album of American Idol send-off Chris Daughtry, playing lead guitar in the song "What I Want". On July 3, 2007, Velvet Revolver released their latest album, Libertad.