Guns N’ Roses has become one of the biggest rock and roll bands of all time. They established the band in 1985 in Los Angeles by Axl Rose. Their first album “Appetite for Destruction” became a great hit and sold over 30 million copies worldwide.
The band had some of the best musicians and one of the world’s greatest guitarists, Slash. Their first encounter must’ve been legendary. Before joining Guns N Roses Slash worked with various bands for some time including Hollywood Rose and Road Crew, both projects had other members who would also join GN’R later on.
In 1985 when Guns N Roses went for a tour, their original members Ole Beich, Roc Grardener, and Tracii Guns split up, so they incited Slash, McKagan, and Adler to fill their shoes. The tour was surely ‘The Hell Tour’ for them but it opened multiple opportunities for the band and for Slash.
During an interview with Classic Rock back in 2016 he recalled the moment when he first met with Axl Rose and Duff McKagan. “I knew Steven (Adler) first. Originally he was a guitarist and I was going to play bass, but then he went to drums. He moved back home and learned to play drums, moved back and that’s when I met Izzy Stradlin,” Slash said.
He added, “And he came into the music store I worked in to see if I was the guy who’d drawn this picture of Aerosmith he’d seen. He played me a tape that had Axl on it. So Steven and I went along to see him play at Cazares one night.”
“We were trying to get Axl as I didn’t think we needed another guitar player at the time. Eventually, I got in a band with Axl and Steven while Izzy took off. That broke up and Duff (McKagan) answered an ad we placed for a bass player.”
The world can’t imagine the Guitar God being on bass. Their first encounter was truly legendary and during an episode of Revolver’s “Fan First” series, Slash also explained that Axl Rose was very different than other musicians.
“I’d worked with different singers on and off for a while, and then when I met Axl and we started jamming together, he was the only singer that ever brought an emotional content to it that affected me on an emotional level, on an energy level,” said Slash.
He added, “A song all of a sudden went to a whole new level, and I felt it. And that’s when I realized where music and vocals really meet. Because prior to that, everybody that I’d worked with sucked and I had no use for it, and I would just rather play instrumentally.
“But that’s when I first really arrived at that poignant feeling that you get when things connect on a lyrical and the vocal level and the music level.”
Slash and Duff left the group in October 1996 and Duff left in 1997, but both of these members reunited with the band in 2016. Till then, Axl Rose was the only original member of Guns N’ Roses