1996.11.DD - Finnish TV - Interview with Slash

Transcript:
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[Live footage from Slash’s Blues Ball at the House Of Blues, Los Angeles]

Interviewer: (talks in Finnish) [GnR music is played in the background]

[Live footage from Slash’s Blues Ball at the House Of Blues, Los Angeles]

Slash: We are Slash’s Blues Ball, which I put together to go to Hungary and do the 7-day festival they have in Budapest. I had this idea to put together a sort of – I hate to use the expression, but like a retro 70s cover band, that does really cool material. And we do one Snakepit song, we do Heaven’s Door, but all the rest of it is anything from John Lee Hooker to Alice Cooper, it’s like this, you know... And we went to rehearsal for two days and said, “Okay, we’ll do it.”

Slash: We all got together and just had a really good time. We drive around in a van and it’s like, you know, there’s McDonalds bags and candy wrappers all over the van, and we all joke about the girls we slept with, and this and that and the other. You know, it’s like high school (laughs). I can’t knock the stadium, you know, high status kind of elite traveling kind of thing. But when we were doing that, if Guns had a day off, I would always go find a club somewhere close to the hotel where there was a band that was jamming that I could go up and play with, to always retain that sort of humble composure and to also just – you know, just to stay grounded, basically.

That’s why I love doing what I’m doing. And it’s like, we don’t spend a lot of money, we don’t make a lot of money, it’s not the issue. It’s to go out there and play, and have the crowd come up and stand up against the stage, and everyoby’s sort of connecting in some way, and it’s just... I fucking love it, you know? (laughs)

Interviewer: So now that you don’t have to worry about money anymore, is it the first in your life that you can do what (?)?

Slash: The more money you make, the worse it is (laughs).

[Clip from Beggars and Hangers-On video]

Interviewer: I would like you to meet Jacob again. Jacob, is one of my best friends. He’s a great fan of yours. And Jacob, actually, started playing guitar because of you. Exactly nine years ago.

Slash: Really?

Interviewer: How do you feel about that? You have, like, such an influence on people’s lives.

Slash: See, you know, now you’re putting me on the spot.

Interviewer (laughing): Exactly.

Slash: Some people have told me that, and all I can do is relate it to when I was first starting out and the guitar players that I was influenced by, who I’ve been fortunate enough to go and play with over the years as I got older, and so on. That’s the biggest compliment in the world, and so, just, you know, that’s gonna make me blush or something (chuckles).

Before I started playing guitar I was an illustrator. When I started playing guitar, then all the drawing stuff sort of went out of the window, but then what happened was, because we didn’t have any money and we needed, you know, artwork for advertising, and so on and so forth – you know, flyers or t-shirts or the Guns N’ Roses logo with the two guns and the flowers – then I was called upon to do the art, and so that’s what... I only use it when it’s totally necessary.

It’s like, no matter what it is that you do and no matter how successful you get, you can’t take yourself too seriously, you know? (chuckles) Because it’s really just – I mean, in the general scheme of things, you’re just a rock ‘n’ roll guitar player, it’s not that big a fucking deal, you know (laughs).