SLASH: 'Chinese Democracy' Was 'Exactly What I Thought It Would Sound Like'

March 12, 2010

Jane Stevenson of the QMI Agency conducted an interview with former GUNS N' ROSES and current VELVET REVOLVER guitarist Slash earlier today (Friday, March 12) in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

On the reports about his former bandmate Axl Rose banning fans wearing Slash-related T-shirts and top hats from the current GUNS N' ROSES tour:

"I give him the benefit of the doubt.

"I hate to think someone would be that petty, so it might be more of a rumor.

"There is a little bit of infighting between fans now, too. There's like GUNS fans who support the Axl thing and then there's GUNS fans who support the Slash thing. And God knows where it originated.

"We (Slash and Rose) obviously haven't actually sat together and talked so there's definitely some bad blood there but at the same time it's been, you know, 15 years and I don't like to perpetuate the negative stuff because I don't really have the kind of harsh feelings for him that the media exaggerates."

On the sound of GUNS N' ROSES' long-awaited release, "Chinese Democracy", released after a near 15-year wait:

"I thought it was exactly what I thought it would sound like.

"It was very indicative of what I thought he would do. So it was absolutely no surprise. 'Cause we had sort of like the GUNS N' ROSES sound, which was just a straight-ahead rock band, and along the way Axl started to get very sort of techno, or had a lot of techno influences. And when I say that I mean like synthesizers and a lot of digital influence. And, of course, we sort of kept an old-school approach, and I think besides everything else musically, we sort of went off in different directions. And this record of Axl's is definitely very digital and very Pro Tools and very synthesized — whatever sounds are augmented by outside sources."

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