Slash
So when I got to be about 13 or 14, I started listening - even though my parents music was way cool - to contemporary hard rock at that time, which was Aerosmith, Cheap Trick, Black Sabbath, AC/DC, Ted Nugent and all that, and that's just where I came from.Collection: Cool
Guitars are like women. You'll never get them totally right.Collection: Women
A lot of vices that I've had over the years were always to make up for some sort of character deficiency, one of them being shyness.
Guitar is the best form of self-expression I know. Everything else, and I'm just sort of tripping around, trying to figure my way through life.
I never want to draw attention to myself, but that's all I do.
As for Guns N' Roses, I don't think there's ever a chance of a reunion.
I had no aspirations to be a musician, but I picked up a guitar for two seconds and haven't put it down since.
Risk isn't a word in my vocabulary. It's my very existence.
I allow myself one nice car.
My dad is a huge rock n' roll lead guitar fan.
You know, when you really connect with the instrument and everything just comes out on an emotional level very naturally through your playing. That's, you know, a great night. And I think the reason I love touring so much is you're chasing that high around all the time, trying to have another good night.
I still party all the time and hang out with everyone who drinks, but I just don't personally, and don't really have the desire to get blitzed drunk any more.
And, so, when I picked up the guitar, suddenly, just playing a couple of notes really, really spoke to me. It was almost like I should have been doing it prior to that. You know, it was something that just felt really natural.
I'm not overly greedy.
The only time I think I've ever gotten sick of playing Guns and Roses songs really was during - after having played them in Guns and Roses, and then in Snakepit, and then playing 'It's So Easy' and 'Brownstone' in Velvet Revolver.
I always loved rock guitar. I just never put it together that that's what I'd end up doing. I had no aspirations to be a musician, but I picked up a guitar for two seconds and haven't put it down since.
I think when I was a kid, and I was in England and it was all about The Stones, The Who, The Kinks and The Beatles and that's what my dad was into.
We had a really vast music collection and I was raised around rock'n'roll, it's just the way it was.
My dad is a huge rock and roll lead guitar fan. I didn't even really know that until recently. Everything has to have a guitar solo in it.
And, as soon as I could put together the, you know, three or four notes that made up, like, sort of a rock and roll lick, you know, like a Chuck Berry kind of thing, I was off and running. Just completely taken over.
I do consider myself British. I have very strong feelings about my British heritage.
I think that was the whole idea behind doing the solo record was to be able to do musically whatever I wanted to do.
I always loved rock guitar. I just never put it together that that's what I'd end up doing.
I'm not ridiculously wealthy, but I don't squander money either.
My mom did costumes for the Pointer Sisters.
You can't wait around for destiny to give you what you think you deserve, you have to earn it, even if you think you've paid your dues.Collection: Destiny
It's not so much about how good a player you are, its how cool you are.Collection: Player
Rock n' roll is about attitude and rebellion. It's supposed to be fun and spontaneous.Collection: Fun
I once asked Axl why he left the 'E' off his name. He started crying and said he thought he'd spelled it right.Collection: Names
I dont believe in having regrets.Collection: Regret
If I ever go bald, I'll kill myself.Collection: Ifs
Being a rockstar is the intersection of who you are and who you want to be.Collection: Want
GET YOURSELF TOGETHER DRINK TILL YOU DROP FORGET ABOUT TOMORROW AND HAVE ANOTHER SHOTCollection: Together
Once you’ve lived a little you will find that whatever you send out into the world comes back to you in one way or another. It may be today, tomorrow, or years from now, but it happens; usually when you least expect it, usually in a form that’s pretty different from the original. Those coincidental moments that change your life seem random at the time but I don’t think they are. At least that’s how it’s worked out in my life. And I know I’m not the only one.Collection: Thinking
Notes and chords have become my second language and, more often than not, that vocabulary expresses what I feel when language fails me.Collection: Vocabulary
I guess you could say there are two Slashes. There's the crazy, rock-and-roll Slash, he's wild. And then there's the real Slash- he collects miniature soaps and treats his hookers real nice.Collection: Crazy
If it had been any different, if I had been born just one minute later, or been in the wrong pace at the right time or vice versa, the life that I've lived and come to love would not exist. And that is a situation that I would not want to consider in the slightest.Collection: Vices
No one expects the rug to be yanked out from underneath them; life-changing events usually don’t announce themselves. While instinct and intuition can help provide some warning signs, they can do little to prepare you for the feeling of rootlessness that follows when fate flips your world upside down. Anger, confusion, sadness, and frustration are shaken up together inside you like a snow globe. It takes years for the emotional dust to settle as you do your best to see through the storm.Collection: Life Changing
Whenever society gets too stifling and the rules too complex, there's some sort of musical explosion.Collection: Music
I don't think there's anything better than hearing your favorite band live.Collection: Thinking
Restlessness is a fickle catalyst; it can drive you to achieve or it can coax your demise, and sometimes the choice isn't yoursCollection: Choices
For me, the original Guns N' Roses is the embodiment of a certain kind of chemistry that really couldn't be duplicated.Collection: Gun
That's a wonderful side effect of leather pants: when you pee yourself in them, they're more forgiving than jeans.Collection: Leather Pants
I got the name Slash because I used to work in a grocery store and I was in charge of reducing prices for really big sales.Collection: Names
I got into rock-and-roll because I wanted the chicks. The Dixie Chicks.Collection: Rocks
I love playing music as much as if not more so than I did when I was 19; that compared to most of my peers is pretty surprising. I wake up every day and get really excited about doing stuff that I have been doing for the last 30 years. I just love it.Collection: Years
It's not something you can find. There's a moment you arrive at --- there's no words for it. A bunch of people come together at this place where a note hits your heart and your brain tells your finger where to go. It's an otherworldly thing, like when a painter gets the right combination of colors together.Collection: Heart
I just play, just you know, If i just sit down with the guitar and just do whatever for, you know, an half an hour or an hour whatever. That's pretty much, that should do it for me.Collection: Player
The last time I talked to Axl was in 1996. That was the last time we exchanged any sort of words. There was a rumor that I talked to him a while back [and asked to rejoin the band]. I did go to his house one night, and I talked to his assistant about something that had to do with this lawsuit that we were involved in. But it got turned into something else. He went out and made a press release that said I actually spoke to him, which was all bullshit. I was really shocked.Collection: Night
I love classical music. It has left a major mark on my playing.Collection: Music