As the guitarist for Guns N’ Roses, Slash left his mark on rock music. But in a recent interview, he shared which record redefined his thinking about music as an art form and set him on the path to becoming a rock musician. The album: “Rocks” by Aerosmith.
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He came across the record through “the hottest chick in school,” who showed him “Rocks” while they “smoked a lot of weed together.” According to the musician, they listened to the full LP several times before he jumped on his bike and headed home drove to give shape to his thoughts about the music. “I never had sex with her,” says Slash. “But a short time later I picked up my guitar and I’ve been doing it ever since.”
Slash was particularly drawn to the Aerosmith record because he could see himself in it. “’Rocks’ was also perfect for me because I was one of those kids,” the musician tells Guitar World. “I was bad at school. I had long hair and wore jeans. I’ve smoked. I didn’t fit into the yuppie clique. I was basically just a punk who didn’t belong anywhere. I didn’t know anything about playing the guitar back then either.”
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Aerosmith’s “drunken, chemically induced powerhouse sound just won me over and changed me forever,” the guitarist adds. “‘Rocks’ was aggressive, loud and swaggering. It suited my personality.”
The band’s guitarists, Joe Perry and Brad Whitford, also had a big influence on Slash. He told Esquire: “Joe and Brad, those two guys have always embodied rock guitar to me, and the kind of phrasing, attitude and aggression that appealed to me when I was just starting out on guitar. I heard the Aerosmith ‘Rocks’ record and that was the catalyst for the direction I took as a musician.”
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He continues: “That kind of slippery, barely holding it together, loud, boisterous, frenetic sound. That was the biggest influence on me at the time. And it’s still a big influence on me. And I played with these guys every night and they are such fucking great musicians and they have such a groove in the band.”
2023-10-02 11:36:16
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