Musicians - Slash

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	Musicians - Slash

Saul Hudson, better known to the world as Slash, was the chain-smoking, hard-drinking (yet technically proficient) lead guitarist of the hard rock band Guns N' Roses, and is currently the lead guitarist of rock band Velvet Revolver. He is noted for his long curly black hair, his signature top hat, and his ever-present cigarette. He currently resides in Beverly Hills with his wife Perla and his two sons London Emilio and Cash Anthony.

Biography

Early Life

Hudson was born July 23, 1965 in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire to a white English father and black mother, both of whom were involved with show business. Although he is mentioned in the book 100 Jews Who Rock by Gary Oseary, possibly because of his Old Testament first name, he is not Jewish. In the mid-1970s, his parents split up and he moved in with his grandmother. He was raised in Stoke-on-Trent until the age of 11 when he and his mother moved to Los Angeles, California in the United States. His father remained in England. In the U.S., Hudson attended Beverly Hills High School along with other future stars including Lenny Kravitz and Nicolas Cage.

At about age 15, Hudson was given a one string acoustic guitar with which he was able to learn to play. Slash's early influences include Led Zeppelin, Rory Gallagher, Eric Clapton, the Rolling Stones, Queen, Aerosmith, Jimi Hendrix, AC/DC and Jeff Beck. The first song he learned to play was "Smoke on the Water" by Deep Purple. Hudson began to devote at least 12 hours a day to playing guitar, which evidently affected his school work. Eventually, Hudson gave up on school, dropping out in eleventh grade. While a part of the Los Angeles band scene, he met drummer Steven Adler and the two formed the "band" Road Crew (which generally had trouble retaining any members besides themselves).

Guns N' Roses

Hudson and Adler later met future Guns N' Roses rhythm guitarist Izzy Stradlin who played them a tape of Axl Rose singing. Hudson and Adler met Axl shortly thereafter. Later, when guitarist Tracii Guns and drummer Rob Gardner of Axl's new band, Hollywood Rose, could not make the band's first few shows in Seattle, Slash and Adler volunteered and quickly joined as full time members. The band became Guns N' Roses shortly thereafter. After Guns N' Roses' Use Your Illusion Tour, Slash became an American citizen.

While serving as GN'R's guitar player, Slash was involved in many projects with artists as varied as Lenny Kravitz, BLACKstreet, Michael Jackson and Queen. Slash is also more ominously known for his alcohol induced acceptance speech at the 1989 American Music Awards. Upon receipt of GNR's award at the 1989 American Music Awards, he and Duff McKagan stumbled to the stage appearing very drunk, holding drinks and smoking cigarettes. Within a span of 20 seconds, Slash managed to curse twice in his slurred speech before being interrupted by a music overdub and positioning of a camera on a curtain with the AMA logo. After the first f-word, an audible gasp was heard from the crowd, prompting Slash to cover his mouth and laughingly utter an, "Oops". Since then, many live shows are delayed a few seconds to prevent a similar incident.

In addition, Slash performed alongside Michael Jackson at the 1995 MTV Video Music Awards. Slash played guitar in the Black Or White segment of the performance, which included a seemingly unplanned 90 second solo, during which Jackson had undergone a costume change for the next song, Billie Jean. Slash would later perform alongside Michael Jackson again in 2001, at Jackson's 30th Anniversary Celebration at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

After Guns N' Roses

Slash quit GN'R in 1996 after he declared that he could not work with Rose. Allegedly, he and Axl had several disagreements over the material the band was playing. He then focused on a group he had formed in 1994 called Slash's Snakepit, the band disbanded later that year however. He re-formed Snakepit in 1998, only to disband it again in July 2001 after releasing two albums.

Velvet Revolver and Beyond

Slash is currently embarking on a musical endeavour with old Guns N' Roses musicians Duff McKagan and Matt Sorum, former Stone Temple Pilots frontman Scott Weiland and former Wasted Youth guitarist Dave Kushner, called Velvet Revolver. In 2003, he participated in the Yardbirds' comeback record "Birdland" (which consisted mostly of re-recordings of some of their greatest hits, with guest appearances by former member Jeff Beck, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Brian May, Steve Lukather, Jeff "Skunk" Baxter, Johnny Rzeznik, Martin Ditchum and Simon McCarty), released on the Favored Nations label. He played lead guitar in the track "Over, Under, Sideways, Down".

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