B.B. King. That is who you can say kicked off a lifelong love of the blues for Slash, best known as the lead guitarist for Gun N’ Roses. It’s a passion that led the Brit-born Rock & Hall of Famer to release Orgy of the Damned, his sophomore solo bow that features a dozen mostly cover songs sung by an array of famed guest vocalists.
(Photo by Gene Kirkland)
For this project, Slash enlisted producer Mike Clink, who helmed GNR’s 1987 debut Appetite For Destruction. The itch to do this kind of project can be traced back to Slash’s Blues Ball, a mid-‘90s side gig Slash dabbled in, but never left behind any kind of recorded legacy of as he was figuring out his musical situation having just quit GN’R and seen his first line-up of The Snakepit tour together before disbanding.
“There was a crazy frenzy of stuff going on in my life at that time,” he explained. “While putting together another Snakepit, I was simultaneously hanging out with all these blues guys and sitting in at places like The Baked Potato. I was friends with this guy Teddy Andreadis, who is a touring and session guy and also this guy Johnny Griparic. We did a lot of jamming and we threw this band together called Slash’s Blues Ball, which was basically just a drunken cover band. I always thought it would have been great to record this, but because it wasn’t such a serious, focused thing, it just didn’t happen. Finally, it’s been creeping up on me that I really needed that outlet having been working so hard with Gun N’ Roses, The Conspirators and doing all this other stuff. I thought I’d really like to put that blues band back together and make a record.”
The end result was Slash recruiting Griparic and Andreadis to join him in the studio along with drummer Michael Jerome and singer/guitarist Tash Neal. The quintet spent a week last year recording basic tracks in-between the guitarist’s touring commitments to GN’R and the Conspirators. As for guest musicians, Slash called in a number of favors to recruit a wide array of contributors including AC/DC’s Brian Johnson, Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler, Iggy Pop, Gary Clark Jr., ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons, Chris Stapleton, Demi Lovato and Chris Robinson of The Black Crowes. The dozen songs include covers of artists ranging from Steppenwolf and Howlin’ Wolf to Fleetwood Mac, Stevie Wonder and The Temptations. Once again, all roads led back to the Blues Ball.
“Some of the songs were from the set list back in the ‘90s and some were some songs that we didn’t really do, but I’ve always wanted to do,” Slash said. “We put that together and went into the studio and jammed it out. At the same time, I came up with the idea of doing this with all the different singers to make it a little more eclectic than a straightforward blues record. It was a fun project—very spontaneous and recorded live, so it had that real sort of greasy, fun feel to it. Some of the vocals we did live in that week we were doing the record. And the other ones, I had to take the tapes and fly here and there to meet up with the artists doing the vocals. It was real cool and a real honor to get to work with all these people.”
Slash’s passion for the blues was stoked by his grandmother on his mother’s side shortly after the six-year-old then known as Saul Hudson relocated with his family from England to California.
“My first real blues memory was when I first moved to Los Angeles from Stoke-on-Trent in ’71, I had really been steeped in British rock and roll up to that point,” he recalled. “My grandmother on my mom’s side is Black and said that’s all fine with the Beatles, Stones and all that you’re listening to, but you know where it all comes from? And she turned me onto B.B. King. My grandmother and cousins on my mom’s side introduced me to all kinds of blues, funk and R&B. When I did start playing guitar in earnest and was into all the blues-influenced rock and roll guys like Clapton, Jimmy Page and Hendrix, it all went straight back to all those records my grandmother turned me onto. It’s really a big part of my whole DNA.”
Inspired by the music festivals of his youth and in keeping with the ambitious nature of Orgy of the Damned, Slash decided to take his new album on the road via the S.E.R.P.E.N.T. Tour. This array of dates features an all-star lineup of guest blues artists featuring the Warren Haynes Band, Keb’ Mo’, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, Robert Randolph, Samantha Fish, Eric Gales, ZZ Ward, Jackie Venson and Larkin Poe. It all promises to be quite the experience for anyone attending any of these shows.
“Teddy and Tash are doing the vocals and so we have a pretty cool set that’s a mixture of blues, some old school rock and roll and some old school R&B, so it’s not strictly a blues set,” Slash said. “But it’s all very bluesy and a really fun bunch of songs. There are a couple of surprises in there. We’ll play stuff from [Orgy of the Damned], but there is going to be some stuff that’s not on the record. I don’t want to give out too many details. But the festival itself sort of lends itself to some jamming, so I’m sure that’s going to start coming together towards the end of the show. We’ll get artists up there to do a song. Also, in different cities, I’ll get people that were actually on the record to come in and be guests. But it’s all sort of making it up as we go along.”
S.E.R.P.E.N.T. is an acronym for Solidarity, Engagement, Restore, Peace, Equality N’ Tolerance. At the heart of this event is to provide a platform for unity at a time when a spirit of disharmony is in the midst of constricting the country.
“The concept for S.E.R.P.E.N.T. unto itself was trying to breach the divide that’s sort of widening between us at this moment and time,” he said. “I really wanted to have a sense of togetherness and inclusivity for anyone who was interested in coming down and not having this kind of divisive attitude that seems to be taking over.”
Slash’s sense of social justice also means a portion of the proceeds of each ticket sold will go to a string of non-profit organizations—The Equal Justice Initiative, Know Your Rights Camp, The Greenlining Institute and War Child charities.
“I wanted to get into some charities that were supporting people that were having a hard time with trying to keep up with how things are at the moment and are struggling with maybe racial injustice and that kind of a thing,” he added.
(Photo courtesy of Gibson Records)
With the blues tying both this album and tour together, the basic question comes down to what it is about this genre that’s had Slash temporarily step off the hard rock path. For him, it’s about never forgetting your first love.
“The blues and blues-related rock is what really turned me on to being a musician,” he said. “Music that has a lot of soul to it has always appealed to me and that’s really where the blues comes from and that’s what it delivers on high. When I picked up the guitar and first put together the succession of notes that sounded like a blues lick, it was a religious experience and a huge thing for me. But what I think turns me on about the blues is the honesty of it. It’s very sexy and it’s got a great, raw and primitive human thing to it. And it tells a story. Its people really expressing their innermost feelings and what they’re going through in any particular personal situation. I just always gravitated towards it.”
Slash’s S.E.R.P.E.N.T. Festival: A Celebration of the Blues will be appearing on August 4 at The Rooftop at Pier 17, 89 South St., NYC. For more information, visit www.rooftopatpier17.com or call 212-732-8257.
