Slash Interview

greetings NIC pocket with sweet water I'm here with this gentleman I think he recognized him I think you might recognize him I've had the honour of known this gentleman for know 24 years believable how you count it's a long time yeah it's what we did that first Martian lab that's still on the stage the 2555 yeah so they hold it yeah yeah actually I'm surprised that they sound as good now as they did way back when what a concept yeah so I'm the funny thing is the more things change the more things stay the same I mean your rig is still essentially it's what number one it's you then it's your Les Paul's the Duncans much of anything I just never liked there I mean I've been using basically I've been going after the same kind of thing out of a Marshall and over the years I found that there's certain things that work with Marshalls I get the sound that I want to get so I sort of stick with that and then you know I go through a lot of Les Paul's I always end up going back to certain ones you know that are tried-and-true or whatever like but there's not a lot else going on yes she's always a Duncan's pretty much always been consistent mmm how many of course your Wow which is part of your trademark but you sometimes use it very subtly it's not just it's not just it's not just the shaft theme you're doing something pretty right enjoy the show but yeah they say it's the only effect that I really like to use because it's manual right and I mean I I like the voice box too but that is such a specific sound but you shouldn't use it all the time so the wobble pedal is the one pedal that sort of consistently works in tandem with your emotional sort of ebb and flow right yeah it's pretty vocal uh but I like the way you sometimes would just leave it slightly caught there so yeah it's just it's it's great for sustain if you can find that right spot right you use pretty heavy strings 11 through 48 yeah a lot of people use every bottom but not heavy top when you were 11 14 18 you bend a lot do you have to keep your hand strength up to do that um well yeah I mean I play a lot yes that's the main thing you know I find that when as soon as we have a break and I'm off or you know any period of time I can play at home all the time even with those strings but when the way that you play live is so different than you play anywhere else well I start to work back up to that place where I can you know play for three hours straight and and not break a sweat as far as this you know hand strength is concerned now what makes the difference life is just adrenaline and feeding off the audience or feeling off the band I think the the the thing I don't know it when you're playing live for me is I'm just immersed in what I'm doing so you really you really sort of super involved with every chord change with every single note you know I mean you really change things around but it's also very much flying by the seat of your pants so there's a lot of improv going on and that's something that's so spontaneous and in the heat of the moment that it's exciting and you learn a lot of new every single night you come up with stuff you because you're thinking you know like you're hearing stuff in your head and you're moving really quickly and there's a lot going on and when you pull it off you might retain it for the next day or you might remember it for go well that was really cool I've never done that before or you just experiment whatever it doesn't have the same kind of urgency when you're at home or in the studio doing that it just does not work the same way so what you the studio how different is you shut up in the studio is the same kind of deal pretty much the same you know I have stack and I Les Paul Wow yeah for the most part the last album living the dream which is great by the way you recorded that kind of life didn't you always yeah you I mean the main thing is to capture that sort of feel of a band actually working you know the synergy of it working together is it and then you can go back and do whatever overdubs you want to do but the most important thing is to capture that sort of live integrity right you get that but people playing at the same time yeah okay with the advent of computer technology a lot of yeah I mean it is so convenient I can understand people going oh wow this is so exciting I can be here and he can be there and this and that and the other and and what it did if as far as rock and roll is concerned I can't say for pop music you know we can get away with it with it's all vocals and the stuff is usually uneven players anyway but for a rock band what happens is it gets so diluted and it loses any kind of sort of emotional impact or that that tension all that stuff and some people mourning why record sounds so bad but they're not recognizing that the recording technique has changed so much that's what's doing it I think kids are picking up on it now but there was a big period there was like oh this is just so easy and we tweaked everything with Pro Tools and we put it all together when we make it perfect and it doesn't have the same soul anywhere near the same soul as rock records that we sort of sort of cut our teeth on and everybody wonders why and that's it's as simple as that just people not you know sort of playing in the moment together playing in the same room at the stadium what a concept yeah bunch of guys or girls whatever you know playing together and and sort of working off each other and and there's a communicate you know unsaid communication going on and that spontaneity that happens sometimes you don't know it's not even though I content you can feel it you can feel it yeah but you can't get that from the tail a lot of time yeah it's not eye contact it's actually working with some people as a sense of familiarity and getting to know them and working with good musicians you start to sort of have this sight of silent communication that goes on that it can happen without by contact yeah so what drives you by the way cuz in the 23 years I've known you this is once again I'm not mean to be up secrets but every time I see you you seem to be playing better sorry obviously working really hard on your playing is that just an internal thing I would I appreciate you saying that I mean I I you know all things because I'm not totally aware of that but I am working at it all the time because you're the more you're out there playing and and sort of like not phoning it in when you're really going for it you just you just get better at it and I love what I do so hopefully I would I would like to think every few years I sort of pick up a little bit of a notch you know just from experience if anything the one thing I love about since I've known you I've watched you play you've done stuff with BB King you did stuff with Nile Rodgers and she does you pups to go out so did you comfort zone does help you well I mean whenever an opportunity arises to play with somebody that you have a huge amount of respect and you know and admire what it is that they do musically you know it's very easy to chicken it out of those offers you know out of those offers to actually go up and play so you have to sort of rise to the occasion and go for it because you don't get those opportunities to play with guys like that all the time so that's I've been fortunate enough to be able to you know be asked to work with BB or to be asked to work with Nile and other different people that are sort of out of my John Russo's view but more importantly you said yes I've had some sessions where I was I was in over my head a good one was I was working with Ray Charles on I think about this all time I was working with Ray Charles yeah I recorded on one of his records and we got to be I don't know we were just hanging out for a long time there and we're doing that Ray movie and he was working with his band in the studio and he had me come in and play right this is all like real standards you know jazz standards and at that point I was out of my depth because I didn't know the songs I didn't know any of the chords they gave me a chord chart and so I sort of learned the chord chart and tried to play along with that kind of a thing but there was it was not sort of my natural okay you know jazz has never been really my thing especially those kind of chords so it's like going okay all right so I winged it you know and I faked it through it but I'll never forget that experience of walking into something where you don't know where you're doing whatsoever now what would your advice be to someone who'd like to follow in some of your footsteps because you've had a remarkable career and part of it in my opinion is because you don't quit I don't do you ever take time off yeah you know I yeah but not big periods of time really you know a couple weeks here a couple of weeks there but you still play with you know yeah yeah very rarely do I go anywhere without taking a guitar with me but I mean I think the the the drive factor is just I really did I do and I constantly wanted to do it and the other the main thing is that it's a live thing you know like performing live is what I think is what means that most of me is a guitar player look what I get the most satisfaction out of and the challenge of it and all that and the excitement I remember when I first started playing or even before I first started playing when I was collecting records for all my favorite artists or learning about them or whatever I would always get their live records because that to me was what the essence of what it was all about so for me to be able to do what it is that I really want to do I have to be out touring making a record is a great creative outlet but it's really sort of a means to go out there and perform whatever your ideas are in front of an audience and sort of the heat of the moment yes what's the means to the ends the ends being live performance talking of live performances that you have Thin Lizzy acts life and dangerous water right there and that was one of those records I guess before I ever got any other Thin Lizzy record so less that if you if you could give the kids someone older if you could give them two or three sentences of advice with regards getting the most out of their playing what would that be if that's not a ridiculous question it's not a ridiculous question but it's a hard question to answer because everybody's different and I'm still trying to figure out what's the best way to get the most out of what it is that I do when I'm practicing or if I'm you know jamming in the studio or whatever it is like really sort of sort of get past a certain point so for other people it's like it's just perseverance if I know what you're good at and see what your weaknesses are work on your weaknesses he's striving on the things that you're good at and perfect that or however you want it however want to word it not necessarily perfected but you know keep doing what you're doing and then also add stuff in there that's not necessarily in your comfort zone or whatever just work really hard at it don't you lie to you I do have one more question you writes a lot of great riffs do you set time aside to write orders just happen when you're playing I just keep a guitar around if I sit down and go I need to write I won't be able to write anything so as long as I'm not as long as I keep it casual and I'm just playing my guitar or you know the when ideas come or whatever you just sort of let it happen it a lot more comes out of that and then I just always make sure because you're the one great thing about computer technology is I can record it on my phone pretty instantaneously right just so you've got that just in case yeah well listen thank you for taking the time right see my friend you

Channel: Sweetwater

Views: 202,049

Rating: 4.967103 out of 5

Keywords: cat:guitar, nick bowcott, slash, guns n roses, gnr, slash interview, slash guitar player, slash guitarist interview, slash interview 2019, slash 2019, slash interview 2020, slash 2020, sweetwater, slash rig rundown, interview slash, slash 2019 interview, slash rig, slash sweetwater, #sweetwater, interview with slash, slash gear, sweetwater slash, rig rundown slash

Id: 38F0FYorN98

Length: 11min 33sec (693 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 18 2019