Guns N’ Roses were always relying on some degree of faith to get them through their greatest albums. No matter how much they carried themselves like a gang, there were bound to be times when they turned their guns on each other, and while Axl Rose held onto all the rights to the group, he did think that the interest was waning in Slash after a while.
It’s not like Rose was that far off, either. Most of the group signed up to be in a kickass rock and roll band, and when the piano was brought in, it was clear that everything was turning in a much different direction for them. Rose wanted to live out his fantasies of being his idols like Elton John, and while that was noble, that didn’t exactly suit a guitarist who listed people like Joe Perry and Eric Clapton as their main influences.
Which is a shame because listening to Appetite for Destruction, all the layers were there for the group to be the hard rock answer to The Rolling Stones. Every member of the band had the kind of chemistry that most other bands would die for, and in an era when all great hair metal bands were dominating the industry, this felt like everything Los Angeles was supposed to be, from the punk-like riffs to the filthy lyrics that most people would be afraid to have their parents catch them listening to.
And even when the band decided to have some fun between their albums, it’s not like anyone would have seen Use Your Illusion coming. If anything, GNR Lies felt like the step backward that they should have had as their debut in some respects. Rose’s lyrics may have been a lot more questionable this time around, but having them work on their songs as acoustic tracks let everyone see them in a new light.
But looking back on his broken-down friendship with Slash, Rose felt that Lies was the last good thing that he did for Guns N’ Roses, saying, “Slash either should not have been in Guns to begin with or should have left after Lies. In a nutshell, personally I consider him a cancer and better removed, avoided — and the less anyone heard of him or his supporters, the better.” Then again, Slash’s performances on the Illusion feature some of his best playing.
Say what you want to about his heart not being in it anymore, but not many guitarists have two guitar solos that many consider to be the finest of all time in the same song like ‘November Rain’. Even when he wasn’t working on the greatest rock and roll solo, hearing him break out the acoustics and make a more flamenco-style guitar solo halfway through everything was a great way to switch up the pace.
It’s not like Rose wasn’t looking for some fresh blood, but his definition of a new and innovative guitar player was a lot different from what we ended up with. Buckethead seemed like an odd choice to begin with for Guns N’ Roses, but even with his phenomenal chops, the idea of bringing him in to play on Chinese Democracy led to more than a few moments where it felt like an Axl Rose solo album.
Even if Rose considered Slash a hindrance to Guns N’ Roses’ development, it’s not like the rest of the world agreed with him, either. Because if we were taught anything listening to Velvet Revolver, it was that Slash could sprinkle his guitar acrobatics into nearly any scenario and still make it sound fantastic.