On Friday, Headbangers Ball Blog will feature a podcast with ex-Guns N’ Roses and current Velvet Revolver guitarist Slash about his self-titled autobiography, which was released October 30. The book was co-written with “Tommyland” author Anthony Bozza and features plenty of revealing material, including what really led to the breakup of Guns N’ Roses, Slash’s relationship with ex-porn star Traci Lords and, of course, the trail of booze, pills, coke and heroin that bounced him from rehab to rehab.
The following is a brief excerpt from the 30-minute podcast.
You’ve always been a private person. Why did you decide to write “Slash”?
Slash: [In the past,] I would never write a book. I don’t take myself that seriously, and the mention of a book brought to mind self-indulgence and self-importance. It’s been suggested that I write a book many times. I passed on the idea at least half a dozen times. But at one point there was so much attention directed towards Guns N’ Roses by the media and on the Internet, and there was so much false information and there were so many ungrounded rumors flying around that it sort of came to a head with me. And I found that the only way to set the record straight was to put a book out because no matter how many interviews I do, I always get misrepresented and all of the information that’s fit to print is inaccurate.
Did you set out write a tell-all book?
Slash: It’s a tell-all book in the sense that I explain what I was going through on an average day throughout all of that, but it’s not the kind of tell-all book where I wanted to reveal anybody else’s secrets or put anybody in a bad light, so to speak. I wasn’t out to use this as a forum to vent my frustrations on any particular individual, Axl [Rose] included.
Was it difficult to reveal intimate details about yourself?
Slash: No, not at all. The public’s perception of me is very one-dimensional. So the stuff that is in the book having to do with my own personal life, and some of my extracurricular activities at least give you a better idea of me as a person whether it be the drug side of thing or the more personal, human side of stuff. It sort of balances that image out. Because as much as I am the guy in the hat that plays the guitar and is sort of rambunctious in some ways, and has exorcised a lot of demons, there is a part of me that has always been the same, which is reasonably intelligent and sort of low-key and really not what people expect.
As with a lot of tales of turmoil, a lot of people are emphasizing the sections about your rampant heroin abuse?
Slash: It is sort of a cliché. My story is not unlike so many of the guys before and also a lot of my peers. I know Nikki [Sixx] just did “The Heroin Diaries.” And I actually tried to downplay some of that stuff. There were some funny stories that I thought were appropriate, but I didn’t put every single arrest and every single drug binge in there. There’s a point where it’s overkill. But it was such a big part of my life there’s no ignoring it.
The book is just called “Slash.” Why not title it “The Long Hard Road out of Guns N’ Roses?”
I didn’t want it to be perceived as, “Oh, Slash is whining about his hard life or shedding some light on the crazy stuff.” It hasn’t been a long or hard road or even such an eventful road. It’s really not that big a deal. It’s not really a book that’s supposed to make you go, “Wow, what a crazy life he’s had” – although that has been the reaction by a lot of people that have read it. But that wasn’t my focus.”
Come back Friday to hear the complete podcast interview with Slash.
And now, some vintage GNR:
