Slash on What Makes Axl Rose Stand Out as a Vocalist

2021-12-29

Photo of Slash performing live at DTE Energy Music Theatre in Detroit, Michigan.

Slash – Story by Charles Ken, photo by Anne Erickson

Slash says he knew there was something different about Axl Rose the second he heard him sing

There’s no shortage of incredible singers out there, but it takes something extra special to take that talent to the next level and successfully front a band. Slash gets it, and when he first met Axl Rose, he could tell Rose had something that made him stand above other vocalists. That’s why Slash was so stoked to be part of Guns N’ Roses.

“I’d worked with different singers on and off for a while, and then when I met Axl and we started jamming together, he was the only singer that ever brought an emotional content to it that affected me on an emotional level, on an energy level,” Slash said during an interview on Revolver’s “Fan First” series.

“A song all of a sudden went to a whole new level, and I felt it,” the guitarist added. “And that’s when I realized where music and vocals really meet. Because prior to that, everybody that I’d worked with sucked and I had no use for it, and I would just rather play instrumentally. But that’s when I first really arrived at that poignant feeling that you get when things connect on a lyrical and the vocal level and the music level.”

Guns N’ Roses is just one of many bands for which Slash has held down lead guitar. Before he became a member of Guns N’ Roses in 1985, he was in the bands Hollywood Rose and Road Crew. Both bands included band members who would eventually be part of Guns N’ Roses, including Rose, Duff McKagan, Steven Adler and Izzy Stradlin. After Guns N’ Roses’ ’80s run, Slash also headed up Slash’s Snakepit and appeared in Velvet Revolver with the members of Guns N’ Roses, minus Rose, and Scott Weiland of Stone Temple Pilots.

Charles Ken
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