The LA Times: Slash Persona Non Grata at GUNS N' ROSES Concert

The following item originally appeared in the daily newspaper The Los Angeles Times: “Former GUNS N' ROSES guitarist Slash's plan to check out his estranged bandmate Axl Rose on stage last weekend was scrapped by Rose's representatives, who informed him that he wouldn't be allowed into the Las Vegas concert hall. Slash, who officially left GNR in 1996 and has remained alienated from the temperamental Rose, had arranged through a friend to attend Saturday's show at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, where Rose was playing with his new GUNS N' ROSES lineup for only the second time. That didn't seem like a good idea to Rose's manager, Doug Goldstein. 'We didn't know what his intentions were,' Goldstein told The Times this week. 'If nothing else, it would have been a distraction. Axl was really nervous about these shows. We decided on our own not to take any risk.' Goldstein sent an assistant to discuss the issue with Slash, who agreed to cancel his reservation. Slash told The Times on Thursday that four hotel security guards accompanied the representative to his room and made it clear that he wouldn't be admitted to the show. 'They said no way. I knew things were being blown way out of proportion. It was like being grabbed by my hair and being ripped back into the days of when I was in GUNS N' ROSES.... I was going to see the show just like anybody else, and to be supportive, for what that's worth. I spent the last six years trying to stay out of the nastiness that does go on. If Axl had heard I was there and sent somebody down to go, 'You want to come up and jam on 'Paradise City' or 'Welcome to the Jungle'?' I would have done it.'”

The following quotes from Slash were taken from MTV.com:

"I've never actually seen GUNS N' ROSES from that perspective, and I was curious. And I wanted to go in a supportive capacity as well. ... I was trying to be discreet about it, but apparently GUNS N' ROSES' management found out and it was major pandemonium. It was like they sent out an all-points bulletin."

"Really, I just wanted to go to the show, not cause a scene. If I had wanted to cause a scene," Slash said, "I could have called the head of security on my cell phone and said I was in the middle of the venue and to come and get me, just to f.ck with him. I even thought about doing that, but that's just my mischievous side. It shouldn't have been a big deal. And if, even after all this time, if Axl had wanted to do a song, any number of our old GNR songs, it would have been way cool."

In related news, it appears that the “new” GUNS N' ROSES had re-recorded the GNR classic “Welcome To The Jungle” for inclusion in the upcoming movie Black Hawk Down (in theatres January 18th),but that it was eventually excluded from the movie and the accompanying soundtrack due to legal issues stemming from the fact that old band members (and in particular Slash) would have had to sign off on it, which is something that vocalist Axl Rose has implied the axeman wasn't willing to do. The revamped band have also reportedly recorded four new versions of the BOB DYLAN classic and GNR live staple “Knockin' On Heavens Door”, including a reggae version, an "eclectic" rendition, and the version they played in concert at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, which is said to be “a much more slowed down version” than the one that appears on Use Your Illusion II.