SLASH: 'SCOTT WEILAND Is Like GEORGE BUSH To Me – I Like Him Now That He's Gone'

July 16, 2009

Scott Rowley of Classic Rock magazine recently conducted an interview with VELVET REVOLVER/ex-GUNS N' ROSES guitarist Slash. An excerpt from the chat follows below.

On VELVET REVOLVER's split with singer Scott Weiland and Slash's decision to record a solo album:

Slash: "Now at this point I can talk about it. I always support whatever group I'm playing with — I'll never say anything bad about them while I'm in it. But fuckin' VELVET REVOLVER — that was the toughest five years, dealing with that band, just because of the obvious [Weiland], and really, really bad management. Joke management for the entire time.

"For some reason, in that entire five years, I could never be happy. I could never get comfortable and happy with it because it was such a fucking mess. That last tour in the U.K. was the first time I ever had any fun in that band — because I knew that Scott was leaving and it was a huge relief.

"But, all things considered, Scott to me is now like George Bush — y'know, I like him now that he's not here. I have nothing bad to say about Scott, but he doesn't work well with others in a group situation. So towards the end I had written a bunch of music and there were a lot of restrictions because of him writing in VELVET and a lot of stuff that I wanted to do was just sort of squelched. Y'know, 'Slither' happened and 'Fall To Pieces' and a couple of other songs I wrote, but it didn't have the direction that the group — especially before Scott came into it — really set off in. Especially on that last record — which I still think is a good record, but was a lot mellower than [I would have liked].

"Anyway, so I was writing a lot of material and on that last U.K. tour I started taping a lot of stuff and when I got home I was like, 'I need to get away from this group situation — I just need to be in control of something and do things my own way.' So it was a relief. And we'll see — it's not really about trying to make the biggest record in the world, but I will support it. I'll go out there and do what I have to do to make sure that people go out there and listen to it 'cos I think it's a cool record."

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