(Credits: Far Out / Tidal)
Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash has dedicated his life to the pursuit of rock ‘n’ roll. To him, it transcends mere music—it’s a religion, a passion he has faithfully embraced since childhood. Even before co-founding Guns N’ Roses, it was evident that Slash was destined to follow this path, wholeheartedly committing himself to it in every way possible.
As he spent the early years of his life in England, Slash’s first musical memories revolved around artists from his homeland. Despite only living in the United Kingdom until he was 11 when he swapped the grey skies of Stoke-on-Trent for the sun-soaked Los Angeles, he still has fond memories of being enchanted by the sounds of Pete Townshend’s guitar licks with The Who, which never fails to transport him back to his childhood.
Once Slash started playing the instrument, there was no looking back. The Guns N’ Roses axeman has previously revealed that he’d often spend 12 hours a day meticulously devoting himself to improving his craft and putting all his eggs into one basket. Additionally, he absorbed as much material as possible from across the rock ‘n’ roll spectrum over the decades.
While Slash holds tremendous reverence towards undisputed greats such as Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page and Jimi Hendrix, whom he considers heroes, there are also other figures he greatly admires whom people are unlikely to suspect.
During an interview with Guitar World, Slash was asked to name a selection of his more obscure inspirations and spoke particularly fondly of Joe Walsh, best known for his work with the Eagles and The James Gang.
Slash remarked: “I like the Pretenders’ James Honeyman-Scott; the Cars’ Elliot Easton, who is one of the best lead players of the last 25 years; Joe Walsh, who’s one of the best rock and roll guitar players of all time; and the Sex Pistols’ Steve Jones. I’m also a fan of Elvis Presley’s guitarist Scotty Moore and [surf-rock guitarist] Dick Dale-to this day, I haven’t had the balls to sit down and learn one of his songs.”
Furthermore, during the same interview, Slash expressed his desire to work in a professional capacity with Walsh, noting: “I’ve played with Keith Richards and would love to take that further. And I would love to jam with Joe Walsh.”
Slash also described the Eagles guitarist as “one of the tastiest lead guitar players around” to Esquire in 2014, highlighting his work with the James Gang as an underrated aspect of Walsh’s career. He concluded, “He’s just got such an understated but great, nasty way of playing“.
While Slash’s love of Walsh isn’t an overbearing influence on his sound, and the Guns N’ Roses guitarist could never be considered an “understated” player, he holds him in the highest esteem. The two figures are authentic originals, rarely mentioned in the same sentence, but their contribution to music is undeniable.
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