He began life as Saul Hudson but found fame and fortune as Slash of Guns N’ Roses. Alongside Axl Rose, the guitarist created some of the most iconic rock songs of the late 1980s and early ’90s, including ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’, Paradise City’ and ‘November Rain’. While the band receives plenty of flack for a derivative classic rock aesthetic, few can fault Slash’s passion and eye for a killer riff.
Although he wouldn’t be deemed a nepo-baby in the traditional sense, Slash’s passion for music and show business was initiated by his parents. He was born in the UK to an American mother, Ola J. Hudson, and a British father. Slash’s father worked as a visual artist, with notable work on album covers for Neil Young and Joni Mitchell. His mother, meanwhile, was a popular fashion designer whose clients included Ringo Starr, Janis Joplin, and David Bowie.
With parents within touching distance of the stars, Slash became enamoured by the rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle. During his early childhood, his father ensured he was brought up on a strong diet of British rock music. “My dad especially raised me on British rock music – you know, The Kinks, Cream, The Yardbirds, The Stones and The Beatles,” the guitarist once told Colin McKean.
Slash’s parents separated when he was 11 years old, and he moved with his mother to live in LA. The move could do little to disenfranchise the youngster with bands like Led Zeppelin, The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. Still, as he began to mingle with American schoolmates, a more transatlantic rock vocabulary began to develop.
When Slash moved to the West Coast, Jimi Hendrix had been dead for five years. Still, time doesn’t seem to be a diminishing factor when it comes to the ‘Purple Haze’ singer’s legacy. “I actually didn’t become conscious of Jimi really until I moved to LA, and all of a sudden it was Hendrix, and The Doors and The Mamas and the Papas, Starship,” Slash told McKean, “That whole thing that was going on, and Jimi was just, you know, he was exciting. He was the embodiment of that wild electric guitarist.”
Born in 1965, Slash was too young to remember the psychedelic era of the late 1960s but felt a strong connection to the heroes of this period. “When I think about Jimi now, I start to relate to what it must have been like to be a rock star in 1967-68,” he continued. “That must have been such a wild time because it was all so new and primitive, and everybody was coming from such a different place mentally.”
Like any young musician hoping to make a mark of their own, Slash understood that he had to find a contemporary sound with which he identified. Fortunately, Led Zeppelin and The Rolling Stones bridged the late 1960s to the ’70s with a brand of punchy rock music. Concurrently, the Boston group Aerosmith lit a path for Slash in the US. Punk and prog-rock reigned at the extremes during the mid-1970s, but Aerosmith offered something in between that Slash could get on board with.
On several occasions, Slash has professed his deep adoration for Aerosmith. The 1976 album Rocks remains one of his all-time favourites. “There’s an Aerosmith song called ‘Nobody’s Fault’ off the Rocks record. It was one of the songs that when I first picked up the guitar, that was the record, that particular album, the timing of me hearing that record at the time when I heard it had a lot to do with how I ended up where I am,” Slash told WMSC. “And was probably one of the most heavy hard rock songs — very indicative of the ’70s and very indicative of Aerosmith at this certain time.”
What drew Slash to the song and Aerosmith, generally, was an embrace of the fine line between heavy metal and hard rock. “It wasn’t Black Sabbath heavy – It wasn’t ‘heavy metal, heavy metal,’ but it was still this really hardcore hard rock song. And so I always loved it.”
Speaking to Rolling Stone in 2004, Slash once again discussed Rocks as one of his all-time favourite records. He listed his top ten songs of the 20th century and placed the classic single ‘Back in the Saddle’ at the top just above Led Zeppelin’s ‘The Ocean’ and The Beatles’ ‘Helter Skelter’ in second and third, respectively. As the riotous and explosive opener to Rocks, the song lives long in Slash’s memory for a similar convergence of classic rock and heavy metal sensibilities.