Saul Hudson, born on July 23,1965, came to be known as Slash. Slash was the former lead guitarist for Guns N' Roses and the current guitarist for Velvet Revolver. Saul was originally raised in Stoke-On-Trent, Staffordshire. His mother was a costume designer for many famous musicians and his father designed album covers for many musicians. At age eleven Slash's parent's decided to move to Los Angeles, California. His parent's separated upon the move and Saul mostly stayed with his mother. He decided to start playing the guitar after he went to a music school, initially wanting to learn the bass. The teacher told him that he needed his own bass guitar if he wanted to learn, so he went to his grandmother. His grandmother gave him an old flamenco guitar and Saul took it back to his teacher Robert Wolin and after hearing Wolin play a song by ear, he decided guitar was his destiny. Eventually Slash dropped out of high school and only focused on music.
In 1983, Slash formed a Motorhead tribute band. He placed a add in the paper for a
bassist and found Duff McKagen. After the band broke up, Slash joined Black Sheep, that band shared an agent with Hollywood Rose. In 1984 Slash was introduced to Axl Rose and the two were quick to become friends. The classic lineup of Guns n Roses consisted of Axl Rose, Slash, Duff McKagan, Izzy Stradlin and Steven Adler.
Guns N' Roses started playing in bars and opening for big names and eventually the band was signed with Geffen Records. Their first album was "Appetite For Destruction", which has been a best selling album worldwide and in the United States. After "Appetite for Destruction", the band released "G N' R Lies", in 1988 this album sold five million copies. After four years the band released "Use Your Illusion 1" and "Use Your Illusion 2". Slash, while on the "Use Your Illusion" tour, became a American citizen. Eventually all original members of Guns n Roses, excluding Axl Rose, left the band, or were fired. Slash officially left G'N'R in 1996.
In the mid 90's, Slash wrote several songs for the bands next album. Axl Rose declined all of Slash's material, prompting Slash to form his side project, Slash's Snakepit. In 1995 the band released it's debut album "It's Five O' Clock Somewhere". The record sold 1.2 million copies with little promotion from Geffen Records. In 1988 the band Snakepit was torn apart after Slash quit. He then went on to become a studio musician playing with many famous artist's including Michael Jackson.
Slash is currently in the band known as Velvet Revolver. The group features members from Guns N' Roses and initially had Stone Temple Pilots vocalist, Scott Weiland, fronting the band. However in 2008, after releasing their second album, Weiland decided to quit (the band members seemed ready for the departure as well) and joined up for the Stone Temple Pilots reunion. Velvet Revolver is still making music and currently looking for a vocalist. The bands first album, "Contraband", went double platinum (2 million copies) in 2004, however, their sophomore effort did not even go gold (500,000 copies).
Video Interview w/ Slash Refers to Poison, Ratt and Warrant as "Gay Bands"
