DUFF MCKAGAN: "SLASH's Dance Moves Will Shred You To Pieces"
September 30, 2010, 14 years ago
DUFF MCKAGAN reveals a previously well kept secret about his VELVET REVOLVER bandmate SLASH in his latest blog for Seattle Weekly:
"The first time I heard Slash play guitar was in 1984 in the basement of the Los Angeles townhome belonging to his mother, Ola, a woman who would later become like a surrogate mother to me during my early years in L.A. Slash didn't have to try to impress - he just picked up an acoustic guitar and started to play.Through the years, he's been asked to play guitar with everyone from Michael Jackson to Rihanna, but it was sometime in late 1988 - the year after our first band, GUNS N' ROSES, had released its debut, Appetite For Destruction - that I knew Slash had transcended anything like flash-in-the-pan or local-hero status. It wasn't due to the growing press he received, or some other outside force. It was from an Irishman - a call from guitar legend Rory Gallagher.
Rory asked our manager if Slash would like to come down and play on 'Whipping Post', the Allman Brothers Band's rolling blues-rock anthem that Rory was well-known for playing live. It was, for sure, just a small gig at the Roxy, but from where I stood, I was proud that my friend and bandmate had stood his ground that night in the company of a legend.
Slash has been through the fucking ringer of rock-and-roll excess - blistering highs and soul-crushing lows - and has come through it all with a grin. And there are always plenty of grins to be had when Slash is in the room. I'm pretty sure that most of you don't know that Slash is also a world-class Russian crouch-down-and-kick-your-legs-out dancer. OK, perhaps not technically world-class, but he has been known to bust it out from time to time when a comical moment is needed."
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