STEVEN ADLER To Perform With SLASH At 'LAYN Rocks' Benefit Concert

Erin Broadley of L.A. Weekly recently conducted an interview with Slash (VELVET REVOLVER, GUNS N' ROSES) about his upcoming concert on November 22 at the Avalon in Hollywood, California. The show, billed "Slash & Friends", will be a fundraiser for the Los Angeles Youth Network (LAYN) is a non-profit organization providing services to homeless and runaway youth. An excerpt from the chat follows below.

L.A. Weekly: Do you find that these kids relate to you because of how open you've been about the shit you've gone through?

Slash: Yeah, I definitely feel a bond with these kids. Even though I wasn't abused or anything, I chose to hang out on the streets from a very young age so I've seen a lot of the same stuff they're going through first hand. I've been through it and can just totally relate. So, yeah, I hadn't even really thought about that ... [laughs] that's probably why I was so attracted to the [organization]. I can understand how violated some of them feel because I've seen kids go down the same paths who weren't lucky enough to have an organization like this to help them get out. When I was in junior high school, in seventh grade, we had girls that were prostitutes in Hollywood. I remember running in to one of them in Griffith Park doing these three guys in a burned out old car and it turned out she was turning tricks for money because she didn't have any parents. She was lucky to be in school. I saw all sorts of weird shit like that.

L.A. Weekly: The LAYN Rocks benefit has a pretty big lineup.

Slash: Yeah, this will be the first "Slash & Friends" gig I've ever done in L.A. We did one in Vegas recently and I did one in Norway a while back. I try and get as many cool people as possible but this is unique because I've [performed] with Ozzy before, Ozzy's great, but then all these other cats I haven't really worked with in this capacity: Andrew Stockdale from WOLFMOTHER; Billy Idol who I'm friends with but have never done one of these gigs with; Chester [Bennington] and Perry Farrell I have; Dave Navarro which is great; and Travis Barker who I've never jammed with before either. Then there's Chris Chaney who played bass on my record which is coming out next year ... and Frankie Perez who's the house band vocalist. He's fuckin' killer. It's just going to be one of these rocking gigs. Steve Adler's coming up for one song. Tom Morello's coming up as well. It's going to be rad. We've managed to sell a lot of tickets so I'm glad we've been able to come through for LAYN. We want to sell it out.

Read the entire interview from L.A. Weekly.