Saul Hudson (born July 23, 1965), better known by his stage name Slash, is a British American musician and songwriter. He is the former lead guitarist of the American hard rock band Guns N’ Roses, with whom he performed and recorded from 1985 to 1996. He later formed Slash’s Snakepit and co-founded Velvet Revolver with his former bandmates Duff McKagan and Matt Sorum, and his debut solo album, Slash, was released in April 2010. He has been on tour with touring vocalist Myles Kennedy to promote the album since its release. A second solo album is due in 2012.<\/p>\n
Slash has received critical recognition as a guitarist. In August 2009, Time Magazine ranked him #2 on its list of the “10 Best Electric Guitar Players of All-Time”. He was also ranked #21 on Gigwise’s list of the “50 Greatest Guitarists Ever”.<\/p>\n
According to Slash, he was born in West Hampstead in West London, and raised in the city of Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire. His African-American and Nigerian mother, Ola Hudson, was born in Tennessee, and worked as a costume designer for David Bowie, among many other actors and musicians. His English father, Anthony Hudson, was an artist who created album covers for musicians such as Neil Young and Joni Mitchell.<\/p>\n
When Saul was eleven, his parents moved the family to Los Angeles, California. His parents separated and he lived primarily with his mother. He was given the nickname “Slash” by family friend Seymour Cassel because he was “always in a hurry, zipping around from one thing to another”.<\/p>\n
As a young boy, Slash was influenced by a musical school teacher:<\/p>\n
‘Tangerine’ from Led Zeppelin III was the very first song I mastered. I had a teacher at school who had a Les Paul and he was always playing Cream and Zeppelin licks and whatever. And when I heard him do that I said “That’s what I want to do”.<\/p>\n
After deciding to form a band with friend Steven Adler, Slash decided to pick up the bass guitar as Adler had declared himself lead guitarist. Slash stopped in at Fairfax Music School and told the receptionist he wanted to play the bass, and at that time met his teacher Robert Wolin. Wolin told him that in order to learn he would need a bass of his own. Slash went home and asked his grandmother and was given a worn-out, single stringed flamenco guitar. After hearing Wolin play “Brown Sugar” by ear, Slash realized that the guitar was his calling. He subsequently dropped out of high school to focus on music. In a Rolling Stone magazine article, he remarked:<\/p>\n
My big awakening happened when I was fourteen. I’d been trying to get into this older girl’s pants for a while, and she finally let me come over to her house. We hung out, smoked some pot and listened to Aerosmith’s Rocks. It hit me like a fucking ton of bricks. I sat there listening to it over and over, and totally blew off this girl. I remember riding my bike back to my grandma’s house knowing that my life had changed. Now I identified with something.<\/p>\n
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Saul Hudson (born July 23, 1965), better known by his stage name Slash, is a British American musician and songwriter. He is the former lead guitarist of the American hard rock band Guns N’ Roses, with whom he performed and recorded from 1985 to 1996. He later formed Slash’s Snakepit and co-founded Velvet Revolver with his former bandmates Duff McKagan and Matt Sorum, and his debut solo album, Slash, was released in April 2010. He has been on tour with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":3948,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n