Slash Quotes

When that band started out, I was 18 years old. So that was my reality all the way up until I quit the band. And even then, you know, Guns N' Roses has a nasty way of sticking around.

That's a wonderful side effect of leather pants: when you pee yourself in them, they're more forgiving than jeans.

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.

I once asked Axl why he left the 'E' off his name. He started crying and said he thought he'd spelled it right.

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.

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.

What does surprise me, though, is the amount of attention this band [Guns'n'Roses] has garnered 11 years after the original lineup broke up. That's an interesting phenomenon. It was even interesting back in the day. I mean, [we were] this glorified garage band. It was a great band, but it was not the kind of band you expected to become what it has.

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.

I've always had to do things my way; I play guitar my way; I've taken myself to the edges of life my way; I've gotten clean my way; And I'm still here. Whether or not I deserve to be is another story.

Notes and chords have become my second language and, more often than not, that vocabulary expresses what I feel when language fails me.

If I ever go bald, I'll kill myself.

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.

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.

I've been on the road for so long that it's a part of my being. Even after all these years, I love playing. I love recording. I love writing. I love rehearsing. I love touring. I love all that stuff.

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.

I'm not ridiculously wealthy, but I don't squander money either.

The era itself has nothing to do with anything. We weren't really attached to that at all. I just saw this thing where they had a Poison concert on VH1, and to me, that is being attached to an era.

When it comes to actually writing, I like to write in a full room with the amps blasting, and a big drum set.

I love classical music. It has left a major mark on my playing.

That's one of the cool things about going to local bars: seeing what people are doing and jamming with them. I'm a huge advocate of jamming with others; you learn a lot. So I love to go and do that - even if people wipe the stage up with you.

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.

Axl and I came from completely different backgrounds. Because of that we made an interesting pair trying to figure each other out.

When I see footage of Guns N' Roses, I see that fu**ing hunger and attitude. You could not f**k with those five guys. It was just raw. It was this lean, hungry thing on its way up. It was as sincere as any rock 'n' roll that I've ever heard, and I'm proud of that.

I had no aspirations to be a musician, but I picked up a guitar for two seconds and haven't put it down since.

Rock n' roll is about attitude and rebellion. It's supposed to be fun and spontaneous.

Being a rockstar is the intersection of who you are and who you want to be.

For me, the original Guns N' Roses is the embodiment of a certain kind of chemistry that really couldn't be duplicated.

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.

My mom did costumes for the Pointer Sisters.

It's not so much about how good a player you are, its how cool you are.

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.

If you were a kid and you wanted to come out and make a statement now, you'd have to really dig deep to find something that no one has exposed already.

But if I was still trying to be in Guns N' Roses while I wasn't in the band... I wouldn't want to maintain an image like that.

One time we played a concert in Antwerp, Belgium. At least I thought it was Antwerp, Belgium. Turns out it was a Stop 'n Shop in Wisconsin somewhere, but it was fun man.

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.

Axl [Rose] is not the type of person to make something up. So I was sort of shocked that he went that direction. That caused me a lot of problems.

Restlessness is a fickle catalyst; it can drive you to achieve or it can coax your demise, and sometimes the choice isn't yours

I don't think there's anything better than hearing your favorite band live.

A day doesn't go by where I don't get surprised by something.

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.

It seems like a lot of what was going on when I quit is still going on.

I was never into hanging out on the Sunset Strip. When it came to Guns N' Roses and the scene that was going on then, that was something we pretty much hated. That was what we had to scratch and claw through, and as soon as we got established enough to leave, we never went back.

I am married and I have two kids now, and I love them all to death. So I am trying to put all that together and maintain the same pace I've been keeping. But really, I relish what we do. A year and a half sounds like a cakewalk to me.

Originally, I wanted to call the band 'Guns 'n Robots.' I still believe that if we had just called ourselves 'Guns 'n Robots' we'd still be together.

Whenever society gets too stifling and the rules too complex, there's some sort of musical explosion.

Experiencing yourself out of context, divorced from your usual point of view, skews your perspective – it’s like hearing your voice on an answering machine. It’s almost like meeting a stranger; or discovering a talent you never knew you had.

I always loved rock guitar. I just never put it together that that's what I'd end up doing.

I do all my interviews on the toilet.