Saul Hudson a.k.a Slash Biography

Slash was born in Stoke-on-Trent, England. He came to the world on July 23, 1965. His real name is Saul Hudson. His dad, Antonhy Hudson, was a succesful album cover designer (among his credits are a Neil Young album and Joni Mitchell's ´Court and Spark´). Ola Hudson (his mom) designed clothing for rock's glitterati, including David Bowie's outfit for The Man Who Fell To Earth. "My mom and dad were both in the music business very major. We used to be, like, really rich, as far as that goes..." Rich or not, when Slash's family moved to Los Angeles from England. the young man had to make many cultural adjustments.

"Growing up in Stoke-on-Trent was great," Slash recalls fondly, "an entirely different atmosphere, a different set of morals as far as things considering important. In Northern England, there'sa difference in what's held in high regard. It's a lot tougher there; school is different. I fought a lot when I was real young; I'm usually calm now."

While Slash found British schooling a trifle on the violent side, his opinion of US educational standards was even lower: "The public school system sucks! If there was nothing I hold up my attention I was off. The older I got, the less willing I was to put up with being told what to do in school-having to do paper or this or that. The older I got the less I did it. And then I started to play guitar... that was the beginning of the end."

At the age of 14, Slash was still without a guitar; but a chance encouter in a playground with a reckless skateboarder changed his life. "I was hanging out at this elementary school because they had these half-pipe banks -I used to be into freestyle on bikecycles- and there was this kid who had fallen off his skateboard. I thought he had killed him self. I went over to see if he was alright, and we started hanging out after that." The accident-prone sidewalks surfer was none other than ex. Guns drummer Steve "Popcorn" Adler. Steve had a guitar at his grandmother's place in Hollywood where he was staying. "He used to play KISS songs. Actually he couldn't play anything but it was a huge turn for him," as it was for Slash, who was soon logging in up to twelve hours a day on the fretboard.

Slash never really benefited from any formal music training as such; although he attended music school, the instructions he recieved didn't quite provide him with the ammo to achieve the sound he aimed for. "There was a teacher at school, Robert, and

he started showing me the total rudiments of guitar, like ´Mary had a little lamb´ and all that sh*t, and that didn't sound like anything what I wanted to learn. I wanted to be playing ´Smoke On The Water´ and such." Eventually Slash developed a more practical approach; Robert let him hang out and observe his technique and Slash just took it from there.

"I started from the get go. As soon as I could play a bar chord, I started playing in bands. I don't remember a space in time when I was learning to play and not playing with somebody else. I was so focused -even in junior high - knowing that this was the only thing I ever wanted to do that I went through a lot of people because they were not willing to give up everything -school, home - just to jam. Steve is the only guy I stuck with, because he was as into it as I was."

Togheter with Steve Adler and Duff McKagan, Slash had a band called ´Road Crew´, it became a short-lived career with this band. And before Guns N' Roses became Guns N' Roses, they played together in L.A.GUNS. After a while W.Axl Rose left his band ´Hollywood Rose´ for L.A. GUNS. This created some problems cause in the meantime Izzy (who played in the same band as Axl) had booked a gig for Hollywood Rose, and there was no band left, then Tracii booked a gig for L.A. GUNS and there was no band there either. The problems in those 2 bands was the begining of a new band, they mixed what was left of them and Guns N' Roses was born. The new line-up was finalized on June 6th, 1985. Slash (who became the lead-guitarist) was quickly assimilated into the new line up, and after two days of rehearsal Slash &Co. played their debut gig with GN'R on a Thursday night at ´L.A.'s Troubadour´.

Since that day Slash has been playin' lots of gigs. 1996 he had been playin' around 400 gigs all over the world in the last three years!

In October (the 30th, I think) 1996, Slash n' his Gibson Les Paul left GN'R. The reason is said to be that he n' Axl couldn't agree on what the new Guns album was supposed to sound like. The way they wanted to do the record were obviously very different. But anyway Slash said (in sept. 1997) to ´Expressen´ a Swedish magazine that he wasn't reluctant to join GN'R again.

Even if he isn't a member of GN'R at the moment he has been doing a lot sideprojects, the latest project is the ´Slash's Blues Ball´, a cover band, that he's been touring together with during 1997. But his first try on a sideproject was when he together with this line-up; Eric Dover (from Jellyfish), Mike Inez (Alice in Chains) and his mates from GN'R, Gilby n' Matt started the band ´Slash's Snakepit´. In 1995 he realesed a record with the ´Snakepit´, and followed this up with a World Tour (the same year).

Today Slash has been has been voted to the Best Guitarist of the World several times, by lots of various magazines etc. This is what Slash thinks 'bout it: "It doesn't mean I'm the best in the world. It's simply that my band is really popular".

-But if I'll say what I think... "I simply have to say- Slash is the Best Guitarist of the Whole f@*!in' World!..." Or else, how does it come that he has been playing together with so many other bands like; Alice Cooper, Michael Jackson, Iggy Pop, Lenny Kravitz, Motorhead, Blackstreet. (I better stop here... Just to make a pretty long n' heavy list short).

Sources: *Guns N' Roses "Low Life In The Fast Line", *Kerrang (september 21 1996) *Metal Hammer (November 1995

- Axl Rose - Slash - Duff - Izzy - Dizzy - Gilby - Steven - Matt