Slash

I've mentioned my crush on Slash before and my love for Guns n' Roses. Obviously I am reading Slash's autobiography. Its tagline is: "It seems excessive but that doesn't mean it didn't happen." Yeah, yeah you might think, all rock n' roll biographies claim to be wild and over the top. However, this one is absolutely hilarious. A four-day heroin and coke binge at a golf resort which culminates with Slash running round the course naked. David Bowie telling him his hallucinations mean he's in a dark place man. Axl Rose telling Slash's grandmother to fuck off when she wants to watch her afternoon telly. Threesomes. Snakes and an earthquake! It's a wonder they ever managed to get a band together and make any music at all.

I am nearly at the end of this momentous book and I can heartily recommend it. There's never a dull moment and Slash sounds like a very cool guy. He just picked the guitar up and that was that. No formal lessons. Reading about his life so far makes mine feel extremely dull and yet again my alternative life of being a rock chick in LA seems like it could have been a viable option. Not that I want to be a heroin addict, high functioning alcoholic and get involved with Axl Rose. Rose sounds like a total nightmare, it would be interesting to read his side of the story but what is interesting is that Slash never says anything really bad about him. He just calmly says what happened and you think WTF?

Anyway, it's made me rediscover Guns n' Roses (not that I needed to as such) and I really do believe they were the greatest over the top rock band. They burned brightly and faded fast but they gave us some proper rock that still makes me want to jump about and behave irresponsibly. Read this book, you won't regret it. Slash forever man.