“We’re really getting the muscle memory going again,” says iconic guitarist Slash. After the many delays and hazards of the COVID-19 shutdown, he’s currently on the road in support of 4, the latest album from the band officially known as Slash Featuring Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators. A member of the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame, along with his bandmates in Guns N’ Roses, the hirsute guitar hero is happy to be playing the new songs the way they were originally recorded, live and of the moment.
Tracked last April in Nashville under the laid-back guidance of Dave Cobb, the five-day session was planned to capture the band in its element. The Georgia-born producer, best-known for collaborations with Americana artists including Chris Stapleton and Brandi Carlile, says the only goal was to “just go for it. What surprised me the most is the sound Slash gets when he plays a Les Paul. I mean, the Les Paul is an incredible guitar, but in his hands, it sounds like a chainsaw.”
Credit: Austin Nelson
Credit: Austin Nelson
The Gibson-made instrument is Slash’s weapon of choice and the top-hatted musician has partnered with the company for more than 30 years, producing a number of signature-line guitars and a record label deal. So it was fitting the project was recorded at the historic RCA Studios, not far from the company’s Nashville headquarters.
As the Conspirators barnstorm down the east coast on their River Is Rising tour, en route to a Friday night show in Atlanta, the AJC caught up with Slash by phone before a recent show in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Q: As you approach the final week of the tour, can you sense the audiences are ready to rock? Is there a sort of pent-up energy release about seeing live music again?
A: Yeah, there’s definitely a feeling of people getting the lead out, being able to get out and let their hair down finally. We’re really getting our muscle memory going again, too, so it’s pretty exciting. So you’re right, there’s a sort of culmination of all this pent-up energy being released.
Credit: Courtesy of Gibson Records
Credit: Courtesy of Gibson Records
Q: Besides working on this album, how was the pandemic downtime for you?
A: Well, it came right on the very top of a Guns N’ Roses tour. We actually played one show of that tour in Mexico and then turned around and came home. It was a whole world tour that would’ve ended in 2021. That was the first sort of shock. Once it really sunk in that nothing was going to be happening for a while, I just went straight to work. That’s the only way for me because I’m not really good with downtime historically. I went straight to work and started recording stuff with Guns. I started working on the demos for the Conspirators record, I did some outside sessions. I also scored a movie that I produced [a horror film called “The Breach”].
Q: Every track of 4 seems well-suited for the live setting because that’s the way it was recorded.
A: Yeah. I’ve always strived for live recordings, since the very first record I ever did. One of the questions I always asked is ‘Why can’t we put all the gear in the room and just play it live?’ That was exactly how Dave wanted to record us. He’d done some great records obviously, but that was really the clincher.
Credit: Austin Nelson
Credit: Austin Nelson
Q: Was recording in Nashville a different vibe than doing it somewhere like Los Angeles or New York?
A: You know, that’s a good question. If you’re hanging out in Nashville, there’s definitely a certain vibe. This particular studio we were in has an aura about it from all the iconic artists that have been there. The walls are covered with black and white shots of all the artists that have worked in there over the years — from Waylon Jennings and Elvis Presley to Johnny Cash, Chet Atkins, Charley Pride, Dolly Parton and Porter Waggoner. The halls — and even the bathrooms — are covered with the actual record covers. So you’re constantly in this creative environment, looking at people that have done some really amazing things.
Q: There’s a big Guns N’ Roses makeup tour coming up after the Conspirators wraps. Do you have to shift your mindset when you move from this band and mid-size venues to that other band with the arenas and stadiums?
A: It’s not like a conscious thing where you have to mentally reprogram. When we finish this leg with the Conspirators, I’ll go home and then we’ll start rehearsals. You just go in there in that mindset. It’s not really all that complicated. Guns is doing makeup tours for 2020 all the way through the end of the year. Then I’ll start up with The Conspirators again at the top of 2023 and do all the international stuff. Schedules, because of the pandemic, have been really sort of tossed around and mixed up. We had a good formula for how this all sort of worked together, the different things between myself and Conspirators, Myles and Alter Bridge — and then Guns N’ Roses. We had it all sort of going, but now we’re spending all this year doing makeup tours.
Q: We’re looking forward to finally seeing you again in Atlanta.
A: I’m looking forward to it, too. I’m excited to talk to you because it’s been a while since I was there. I’ve got a lot of friends in Atlanta.
Q: Do you remember the first time you played here?
A: Oh yeah. It goes back to like 1988, I think. That’s when I discovered that, I hate to say it, but a couple of the best ‘gentlemen’s clubs’ we’ll call it … were in Atlanta, it was probably the most exciting bar destination. But it was also just a killer crowd. There’s a sort of abandon the Atlanta crowd has that you don’t really find in too many other places.
CONCERT PREVIEW
Slash Featuring Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators
8 p.m. March 18. $39.50. Coca-Cola Roxy, 800 Battery Ave. SE, Suite 500, Atlanta. 470-351- 3866, Ext. 38186; cocacolaroxy.com.
About the Author
