SLASH, 'Reckless Road' Book Author Interviewed By SuicideGirls.com; Video Available

Erin Broadley from SuicideGirls.com sat down with VELVET REVOLVER/ex-GUNS N' ROSES guitarist Slash and "Reckless Road: Guns N' Roses and the Making of Appetite for Destruction" author Marc Canter at legendary rock and roll hangout Canter's Deli (which is owned by Marc) in Hollywood to talk about Canter's new book.

A couple of video clips from the first-ever joint interview the two have ever done can be viewed below.

An excerpt from the chat follows:

SuicideGirls.com: In "Reckless Road", Marc, you write, "My goal here is to let everybody that likes this band – or even if you don't like the band – see the making of one of the greatest records ever made."

Canter: It's interesting, I've met some people that when I told them that I did this book they take a look at it and they're the least likely GUNS N' ROSES fans just because they're into different kinds of music like jazz or whatever, but they respect what's there. They're glad it's there to be documented and to watch history in the making. It's the making of one of the greatest records ever made. I've met a couple people that really, not that they hate the band, they just don't like that kind of music at all. But they can appreciate that it's been documented. Like at Canter's, a lot of the employees got books and they have never even heard of GUNS N' ROSES. Some of the older waitresses, they're 65-years-old and how could they possibly know what this is? But because I'm involved in it, they're interested in it. I have a book all of a sudden and they want to read it. So they take it home to read it and they're sucked into it and can't stop.

SuicideGirls.com: The band is as seductive in this book as the band was on stage. The book also states, "Launching a successful rock band in the '80s required three ingredients: a dream, some talent, and die hard ambition." Were those really the three most important things back then?

Slash: Well, because of the climate of what was going on in Hollywood at the time, which was really excessive, commercial glam-metal kind of deal, everybody was getting signed. MÖTLEY CRÜE had already gotten big and famous and RATT was coming out and then there were all these fuckin' offshoots of that, cruising up and down Sunset Boulevard. We were sort of like the ugly ducklings of that whole thing. We didn't fit in with any of it. We were the black sheep and we enjoyed that; we loved the fact that we were the scary band out of the bunch. We hated the rest of them and we provided a kind of entertainment that was very seedy. If you asked us if we were extremely talented, [laughs] I don't think we would have looked at it that way. Really, when it comes down to it, I'd say blind ambition, desire, and the integrity and the passion for the music was probably the most important thing. There was a lot of integrity in the band and there was a lot of really focused passion for what every individual did… everything about the songs was really driven from the heart.

Looking back, there was definitely something unique going on which turned out to be a lot bigger than what most of our peers were doing. We were a gang of five that was a force to contend with. We were a 24/7 experience. We lived with each other and were together all that time. Everything we went through, which was a lot, we did together and that's what strengthened that bond. It was really important as to what the band sounded like… it was a collaborative effort, every single song. Then we became very successful at that time but we were this vagabond bunch of drunken gypsies that sort of stuck together. But we were still pretty naïve really in a lot of ways.

Read the entire interview at SuicideGirls.com.

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