Over the past few years, when he hasn’t been working with Myles Kennedy & The Conspirators, popping onstage with various artists, and working his day job with Guns N’ Roses, Slash has become entrenched in the blues. This should come as no surprise to those familiar with the guitarist. He incorporated this blues influence in many of GNR’s biggest songs.
Lately, Slash has taken his love of the blues to another level. Reuniting with pals Teddy Andreadis and John Griparic, with whom he first played covers in the mid-90s as part of Slash’s Blues Ball, the guitarist released Orgy of the Damned last year through Gibson. That album featured covers of songs that influenced the guitarist. It also included a who’s who of guests, including ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons, Chris Stapleton, Iggy Pop, Demi Lovato, AC/DC’s Brian Johnson, and the Black Crowes’ Chris Robinson, among others.
Nearly 18 months later, a live version of that album from the subsequent tour is on the way. Aptly titled Live at the S.E.R.P.E.N.T. Festival (after the guitarist’s love of those slithery repartees), Slash and company show off their passion for classic blues songs in this 15-song live collection. Orgy of the Damned appears in full, including “Crossroads,” “Shake Your Money Maker,” “Stone Free,” and “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone.”
This isn’t a vanity project either. Slash has entrenched himself not just in blues songs but also actively partaking in the scene, which is how the S.E.R.P.E.N.T. Festival tour was born. He’s also branched out beyond his hard rock roots to jam with the Allman Betts Band. “That was a cool thing to do for me,” he says. “Playing with Allman Betts, that’s something where you can take a song and as long as you’ve got something to say [with your instrument], you can speak as long as you want.”
Speaking from his hotel room in Peru ahead of a Guns N’ Roses show in Lima, the guitarist broke down his love of the blues, tapped his favorite players in the genre, and shared some memories about the late KISS guitarist Ace Frehley.
VICE: What was the impetus for diving deep into the blues and releasing a studio and live covers album?
Slash: It actually goes back to the early or mid-90s when I met Teddy Andreadis and John Griparic, the singer, keyboard player, and bass player, respectively, of the blues band on this S.E.R.P.E.N.T. record. At the time, I might have gone into one of these local blues clubs. I would get up and jam with people, because I just needed that outlet to play. As much blues as there is in the framework of Guns N’ Roses, it’s not what you call a blues band (Laughs).
I was finding an outlet and just getting up to jam on whatever blues standards with whoever at these local dives. I met Johnny and Teddy—they had a band called The Screaming Cocktail Hour—and they were great. They just had this great catalog of blues stuff that they were really good at. And I would get up very drunk in the middle of the night and shut the place down with them. We got to be friends. During the time that I was out of Guns N’ Roses in between solo projects, we put together a very tongue-in-cheek kind of touring blues cover band that we just played our favorite songs, went out there, and got drunk and played every night. And we actually managed to tour the country and go to Europe.
So the project’s roots are very deep.
Yes. After that, Teddy and I kept in touch. But I went on to do a bunch of other s— after that. What happened was, during, I guess it was either 2023 or 2024, between legs of the Guns N’ Roses tours, I thought I’d really love to get together with Teddy and finally record some of those songs that we used to do. So I called him up when we went into the studio, we got Michael Jerome Moore on drums and Tash Neal on vocals, went through an old set list from the 90s, picked a handful of songs, and then I came up with a couple of other new songs that we didn’t cover before. And we put together this record. So it was a fun outlet for me to do what I do naturally anyway.
How does it compare to other projects?
My contribution to Guns N’ Roses is very blues-based, but I’m a rock-and-roll guy. Even with the Blues Ball, those guys are the traditional guys. I’m a guy with blues roots who still plays everything on 10, with a lot of energy.
What was it like playing live with it?
The crowds were completely different. The whole thing was very laid back. And it was a festival, so we had a lot of great, different artists like Eric Gales, Samantha Fish, Warren Haynes, and Keb’ Mo’ on it. It was great to be around these really great players playing this kind of music. I want to do another one. But right now I’m just trying to juggle my Guns N’ Roses commitments, and I’ve got a Conspirators record coming out. So this is a new thing for me that I want to continue doing.
Who are some of your current favorite guitarists in the genre?
Chris “Kingfish” Ingram. He is one of the most powerful blues guitar players to come along in a long time. He is actually jaw-dropping. He’s got such a huge presence in his sound. It’s such a fluid, organic thing that he’s got going on. Derek Trucks is somebody who’s no longer really the new guy, but he’s still, to me, just like this beacon that came out of nowhere years ago, and he still blows my mind. Joe Bonamassa, who’s a good friend, is just a monster of a f—— guitar player.
So those are a handful of guys. Marcus King is great. I think he’s more of a Southern rock kind of guy, but it’s all very bluesy, and I love him. It seems like there’s a real sort of explosion of young blues guitar players that are really focused. Like, maybe take it too seriously. But there is a huge wave of interest in that genre coming out with all these young guys, which I think is really cool.
Speaking of guitar heroes, did you ever interact with the late Ace Frehley? Was he an influence of yours?
It’s so heartbreaking. This whole thing with Ace is something that he didn’t foresee happening. I got to be good friends with him and had been up until the very end. The funny thing about Ace is that when I was a kid coming up, I couldn’t stand KISS. The theatrics of it got in the way for me. I just couldn’t. I didn’t buy into it. But later, I started really liking some of their old-school songs and riffs. Ace always stood out to me as being a genuine, through-and-through rock and roll guy that really had that real-deal feel.
As I came to appreciate KISS’s music later, I really came to appreciate Ace. Then I got to meet him and play with him in the early millennium, and we’ve been friends ever since. I’ve recorded with him a couple of times, and I’ve gotten on stage with him a couple of times. He’s the real deal, one of the great ’70s rock guitar heroes, one of the last of them, anyway. It’s sad that he isn’t here. I haven’t even fully digested that yet.
So, are there any more blues albums in the cards any time soon?
Yes, this really wet my beak. I want to do another record, probably in the same fashion, but we covered all the obvious standards that, in some cases, it was almost embarrassing to redo. But it was such an important influence on me that I wanted to do it anyway. On this next one, I want to cover some really cool songs that we didn’t do on this record, like “Big Legged Woman,” which is on the S.E.R.P.E.N.T. Festival record. It was one of those songs I want to cover properly in a recording studio. I’m just trying to juggle schedules and figure it out right now.
The post Slash Breaks Down His New Live Blues Album, Names His Favorite Guitarists (Exclusive) appeared first on VICE.
