Matthew Flamm of Crain's New York Business reports that former GUNS N' ROSES and current VELVET REVOLVER guitarist Slash just sold his autobiography to HarperCollins. The British born, California-raised axeman will work with writer Anthony Bozza, who helped MÖTLEY CRÜE drummer Tommy Lee pen his memoir, "Tommyland". The manuscript is due to be delivered in the fall.
A HarperCollins spokeswoman confirmed Slash's deal, according to Crain's New York Business.
Slash, born Saul Hudson, left GUNS N' ROSES in 1996 following a rift with frontman Axl Rose. He went on to form the band VELVET REVOLVER with fellow ex-GN'R members Duff McKagan (bass) and Matt Sorum (drums).
Also in the works is "W.A.R.: The Unauthorized Biography of W. Axl Rose", by British rock writer Mick Wall. The book is due out in Britain in the fall and is currently making the rounds of New York publishers.
"[GUNS N' ROSES] is a great story, and it's not finished yet,'' says Wall's U.S. agent, Barbara Zitwer, referring to the unfinished album, entitled "Chinese Democracy", that Rose has been working on for years.
Slash is not the first member of VELVET REVOLVER to land a publishing deal for his memoir. A year ago, it was announced that the group's lead singer, Scott Weiland (ex-STONE TEMPLE PILOTS) had inked a deal with Scribner to release his autobiography, which will include stories about his rise to rock stardom, his battles with drugs, and his life now that he's sober.
The Norwegian web site of VELVET REVOLVER's record label is now listing June 4 as the international release date for the band's second album, "Libertad", which would make the North American arrival date June 5. The site previously listed a mid-May release date for the disc. The label has not yet announced any official release date for "Libertad".
VELVET REVOLVER has been recording "Libertad" since the beginning of 2007 in a Los Angeles studio.
The group is tentatively scheduled to visit South America in April with AEROSMITH, followed by a U.S. theatre tour in May.
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COMMENT | cool posted by : cirkis 2/20/2007 11:16:35 AM
hope this is as good as The Dirt
COMMENT | posted by : music is good 2/20/2007 11:39:17 AM
Buckethead>Slash
white scum around corner of my mouth when Im thirsty>T-boner
COMMENT | IM LATE , NOT MUCH TO SAY BUT MAKE MY NAME KNOWN posted by : T-Boner.com 2/20/2007 12:46:29 PM
!
COMMENT | YEAH MAYBE I WILL COMMENT posted by : T-Boner.com 2/20/2007 12:49:38 PM
F*KK BOOKS
GIVE ME MUSIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!IN FORM OF A CD!!!!
COMMENT | What are the odds posted by : hurricane hugo 2/20/2007 1:17:15 PM
that Slash even REMEMBERS the GnR days?
I'd guess pretty fucking low.
plur
COMMENT | . posted by : Basajaun 2/20/2007 1:43:08 PM
Slash is the last guitar hero to appear on Earth.
COMMENT | Cool posted by : RiotAct666 2/20/2007 1:45:32 PM
I will check it out when it is released. Slash rocks!!!
COMMENT | from www.dinosaurrockguitar.com posted by : Basajaun 2/20/2007 1:48:39 PM
"Famous for: Being a true rock icon in the way Sting, Bono, Cher, and Madonna are icons. Slash is one of the charmed few who's celebrity status is so accepted and secure that having a last name is unnecessary. The name Slash instantly conjures up his image of top hats, cowboy boots, and leather chaps. His silhouette is more recognizable than his face — which always seemed to be obscured by his long hair. In addition to the image, he's penned some of the most successful riffs and memorable solos in rock history. He's famous for the session work he's done. Never mind that Slash can really play — his name alone brings instant cache and "rock cred" to any recording he guests on. No one is calling Zakk Wylde for these sessions. They're not calling Van Halen. And they're not even calling Jeff Beck as much as they used to. They call Slash. From a guitar perspective, Slash is also the last true Guitar God. The last major influence on a generation of young players who still cared about playing lead guitar. Slash is also famous for re popularizing Les Pauls during the age of superstrats and Floyd Roses.
Attitude, image, and swagger. Slash realized that you didn't need to be the most technically proficient player to make your mark. He made Richards, Page, and Perry his personal templates for his image and guitar style. He used booze and heroin to fuel the wasted bad-boy image. Slash is sex personified, both as a sex symbol and in his guitar style. Shirtless, Les Paul slung low, cigarette hanging from his lip, sweaty curls obscuring his face, Slash churned out dirty, sexy, raunchy, rude, riffy rock. It was blatantly derivative to anyone who had experienced 70s hard rock firsthand, but it sure hit home on a younger audience that was tiring of spandex, Aqua Net, and pretty boy shredders. Guns N' Roses became the Rocks -era Aerosmith of their generation.
Distinctiveness. Image aside, this is really the key to Slash's popularity and success as a guitarist. He doesn't bring anything particularly new to the table as a guitarist, yet you can always recognize Slash when you hear him. Like all great guitarists, Slash has carved out a unique, instantly recognizable style for himself. And he's done it using rock's most fundamental building blocks. There are silly Internet rumors going around suggesting that he didn't actually play on this or that. Anyone buying into that nonsense must not have ears. Slash is one of the easiest players to identify on any recording.
Versatility. Aside from his bands and projects, Slash is the session player to the stars, similar to the way Jeff Beck has been throughout his career. You could argue that it's due to Slash's name cache. Clearly that factors into things. But hire Slash, and you know he'll deliver a wonderful rock guitar sound and performance that's always recognizable. But we'd argue that Slash also gets hired for his surprising versatility in many genres. Slash has played on blues albums, jazz albums, funk albums and punk albums. He has lent his skills to artists as diverse as Lenny Kravitz, Mick Jagger, Michael Jackson, Chic, PFUNK, Fishbone, Bob Dylan, Alice Cooper, and more. If Slash weren't the bad ass, authentic rock stylist he is, he wouldn't get these gigs. He'd just be Dave Navarro — rock star for hire.
COMMENT | - posted by : awolcfh5150 2/20/2007 2:05:36 PM
Totally agree ^^^^^^^
COMMENT | http://www.dinosaurrockguitar.com/bios/Slash.shtml posted by : Basajaun 2/20/2007 2:22:08 PM
Tone
Everyone knows Slash is a Les Paul - Marshall guy. In our opinion, he has one of the best Les Paul tones in rock history. It's pretty darn recognizable too. Nasty, unrefined, greasy — it growls like a bitch. Appetite For Destruction was so effective, in part, because those alley cat songs were accompanied by some great alley cat guitar sound. Slash's classic Guns N' Roses sound features far more distortion and sustain than the Les Paul tones of Joe Perry and Jimmy Page, but is rawer, thinner, and less processed than the Les Paul tones of Zakk Wylde and John Sykes. You don't hear much of the string or pick attack. It's very buzzy and almost ratty sounding at times but somehow Slash seems to make it work.
Whether by design or by accident, in Guns N' Roses, Slash achieved a sound that was both distinctive and complementary to Izzy's sound. When he started Snakepit, he went for a much tighter, double-tracked Les Paul sound that is far fatter and browner than his sound on Appetite for Destruction.
With Velvet Revolver, Slash's lead tone changed again. It's more nasal and trebly and definitely shows off his Schenker influence. He also seems to be borrowing a page from Dean Deleo, by using a very trebly guitar sound to cut through the very thick de tuned rhythm guitars.
To produce his tones, Slash uses Marshall Slash Signature Model half-stacks exclusively. These amps are based on the Marshall Jubilee Anniversary series, a high gain Marshall that most tone freaks despise.
His favorite guitar is still his handmade 59 yellow flame top non-Gibson replica Les Paul built by Max Guitars in Los Angeles. This is the guitar featured in the opening lick of Sweet Child of Mine. As of 1994 Slash was reported to own 81 guitars. Roughly half of them were Les Pauls, and a large percentage of those are vintage ones. For example, his axe lineup for Use Your Illusion included a Tobacco 59 Les Paul (formerly owned by Joe Perry), a 58 Les Paul Standard sunburst with stock pickups, a 59 Flying V, a 59 Les Paul with original pickups a 65 Strat, the Max Guitars 59 replica, and a 58 Explorer. His main guitar for live work is an 87 Gibson Les Paul standard, however he sometimes uses a B.C. Rich Mockingbird on stage. Most of Slash's guitars are kept stock.
As with Marshall did with their Slash Amp, several guitar companies produced Slash signature guitars to cash in on the guitarist's popularity. The Gibson Custom shop created Slash Model Les Paul Classic model with an inlayed and painted Snakepit insignia. They listed for $8000. 75 were made between 1996 and 1998, and Slash owns two of them. Epiphone produced a less expensive version of the guitar featuring a snake logo sticker. Slash had to approve them, and proclaimed the Epiphone Slash, "a good guitar." Slash's other signature guitar is the Crossroads (6/12) Double Neck manufactured by Guild.
Also of note, Slash is great at using the volume knob and pickup selector in a very musical way. He probably picked this up from Jeff Beck. Slash is also famous for using feedback to increase his sustain, much like Hendrix and Carlos Santana. One of Slash's favorite settings for lead is the neck pickup with tone control rolled back. This setting produces what is known as woman tone, and was made famous Eric Clapton with Cream. Slash also likes to use feedback to sustain notes on solos and intros.
The main effect Slash is really known for, is the wah, which you can hear in the solo on Sweet Child of Mine. Like Michael Schenker, Slash sets the wah to various points to enhance different frequencies of his tone. On occasion, Slash uses a talkbox.
Guitar Style
Slash is an anomaly in that he was a 70s stylist who made his name in the 80s. In a time when music was becoming utterly technique driven, he was a throwback to a time when you had to actually have attitude and sense of what the hell you were playing. Yet growing up in the era of Van Halen, he acquired some of the 80s idioms in his bag of tricks. It doesn't affect his basic style, but it gives him more options. That said, he doesn't have the technique of a Warren DeMartini or a Jake E. Lee, but he's got significantly more modern chops than Page and Perry.
Guns N' Roses was sort of a combination of Aerosmith and punk rock, a la Dead Boys, the New York Dolls, or Sex Pistols. And as a rhythm player, Slash brings punk and funk to the table. There is a good amount of Johnny Thunders in his style, as well as Joe Perry. You can hear Slash's punk influence in his rhythm styles's sloppy choppiness, and in his I don't give a fuck attitude. Slash's funkier rhythm style probably came from Aerosmith and Hendrix. It's evident in his rhythm work on Lenny Kravitz's Always On The Run, or Fishbone's Fix. Still, for the most part, Slash relies primarily on power chord riffs played on the lower strings, or arpeggiated figures.
As a soloist, Slash has recently tried to incorporate his Michael Schenker influence into his lead style, but he is really not a technique driven soloist. He's much more of a feel player who emphasizes tone, feel, and great attitude. Rather than running scale patterns, he likes to play melodies, and often links a series of melodic phrases together to keep the listener enthralled. Slash plays for the song, not to show off. He once said: "I don't practice technique, but I play all the time, but whatever I play has to be a song with a groove, to which I can apply the right kind of riff or solo. I'm kind of single-minded that way."
Slash relies on the Pentatonic scales for many of his solos. As such, it would be very easy to write him off as a one trick pony, but that's not the whole story. Along with the pentatonic minor in blues box positions, he also sometimes uses the Aeolian and Dorian modes, the Mixolydian scale and pentatonic major scale. Slash often plays pedal-steel bends and uses the pentatonic major scale to create leads that have a country sound. You can hear this in Paradise City and Coma. Look no further than Sweet Child Of Mine to hear Slash's use of the Harmonic Minor scale. Slash is a great playing great melodies over a song's chord changes, especially during ballads. If you think about it, a good portion of Guns N' Roses' most successful tunes were ballads and Slash's playing was a huge part of their success.
On Velvet Revolver's Contraband, Slash's playing is much different than it was in Guns N' Roses. He's less melodic, less bluesy, and more Metal. He plays more runs based on diatonic scale shapes — apparently because he'd been listening to a lot of UFO during the making of the album. He also does more un-Slashlike things like the cliche, 80s-style pinch harmonics, dive bombs, and whammy abuse on the opening cut Sucker Train Blues. This is the very stuff Slash stayed away from and made fun of when he was in Guns N' Roses. But when Contraband's big power ballad, Fall To Pieces kicks in, there's the old Slash. Playing melodies and hooks that enhance the song, and a solo reminiscent of the Sweet Child solo — played over an identical ascending chord progression.
Of his picking style, Slash says: "I'm heavy handed in my strumming, I hit the guitar really fucking hard." It should come as no surprise to learn that Slash is not a pure alternate picker. Like Angus Young, he mainly uses his left hand for speed, often using pull-offs and hammer-ons to sound notes. He does a good amount of right hand muting on the bridge to make notes sound more percussive in both his rhythm and lead playing. A good example of this technique is the intro to Welcome to the Jungle.
COMMENT | T-Bone is right for once. posted by : MoltenLavaStudios 2/20/2007 2:50:31 PM
But I have more to add:
Fuck books, fuck clothing lines, fuck coffe shops, fuck reality TV, fuck doing commercials, fuck sending letters to football coaches for publicity...and on and on and on...
Record, tour, record, tour, record, tour, put out a DVD, and repeat.
COMMENT | MoltenLavaStudios posted by : T-Boner.com 2/20/2007 5:26:29 PM
WELL SAID^
;-)
COMMENT | omg posted by : Pisdrunk 2/21/2007 1:02:59 AM
guess what you guys well we went out to a movie right and twords the middle-end part he put his arm around me slowly our lips moved closer and closer soon we had a total lip lock toung action you know. the way he held me was so wonderful i felt so safe and had butterflys in my stomach, then after that weekend he never called never even tried to get ahold of me, AND HE WAS SO GORGEOUS! talk about feeling used.
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