Guns N’ Roses’ Slash Says ‘Rock And Roll Books Were 75 Percent Bullshit’

Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash has revealed his honest thoughts about rock and roll biographies and admitted that he thinks that 75 percent of rock and roll books are “bullshit.”

Slash has been a member of Guns N’ Roses since the band’s early years. Although he parted ways and rejoined the band several times, Slash achieved international fame in the late 1980s and early 1990s as a member of the band. Debuted with the band’s first-ever studio album, named Appetite For Destruction, Slash performed in the band’s first five of six studio albums.

In addition to his GN’R career, Slash is a versatile musician. Since his career has begun, Slash has released only one studio album, which was his self-titled 2010 release. He also appeared in a lot of under the names of Slash featuring Myles Kennedy & The Conspirators, Slash’s Snakepit, and Velvet Revolver. Thanks to his contributions to rock music, Slash is considered one of the greatest guitarists in rock history.

Out of music, Slash was the co-writer of his self-titled memoir, Slash. Focusing on the musician’s years with Guns N’ Roses, Slash and Anthony Bozza had penned great moments, including drug abuse, rock star cliches, and many more weird things.

However, during a new appearance on Linea Rock, Slash made a chat with Barbara Caserta. During the interview, Slash answered the question that if there were any other rock autobiographies that he has been reading. Admitting that he doesn’t read rock and roll books, Slash said reading rockstars’ books is the same thing as following them on social media.

“To tell you the truth, I don’t read rock and roll books,” Slash admits. “I’ve read a book about national artists and I’ve read books about rock and roll, but I’ve never read anybody else’s…

“Well, I read the Jim Morrison one, and I read the most recent Joe Perry one, but for the most part, I stay away from autobiographies. A lot of it is because I know people — I know the people that wrote them — and it feels like spying on them. [Laughs] It’s like following people on their Instagram; if you know them, it feels like spying.”

Slash Claims He Thought ‘Rock And Roll Books Were 75 Percent Bullshit’

Later then, Slash continued by revealing his surprising thoughts about rock and roll books. According to him, those books were 75 percent bad. He also touched on his self-titled own book and disclosed where he was inspired while he was writing it.

“I also used to think that rock and roll books were 75 percent bullshit too, and I didn’t want to get into,” Slash continues. “‘Cause autobiographies are largely written by other people, or biographies are totally written by other people, so it’s their own fantasy that they’re sort of building up in these books.

“That sort of inspired me to write my book myself and not rely too much on a ghost writer — to be as honest as possible. So they inspired me in that way.”

Back in November 2021, Slash had recalled the time he worked with the late music legend Michael Jackson. During the interview, Slash revealed how Michael Jackson treated him when they were working together. Saying that it was great to play alongside such a legend, Michael Jackson, Slash had added that Jackson had left him in the studio while he was recording.

“It was cool but more than anything for me it was an opportunity to grow as a player and learn to adapt to other people’s situations,” Slash recalled.

“It was really humbling because I wanted to do a good job and work within the idiosyncrasies of the people you were working with.

“He just left me there. Which was actually really cool.

“We met at the Record Plant and he was with Brooke Shields. I was sort of freaked out…

“It’s Michael Jackson and there’s Brooke Shields, and it was sort of a whoa kind of thing.

“We met and exchanged niceties and he took off to dinner and left me with the producer and I just did my thing. That was it.

“That’s sort of what he was always like, just do your thing.”

Slash’s Guns N’ Roses Album Update

In October 2021, Slash had shared an update about the upcoming Guns N’ Roses album. The talented guitarist had also talked about the band’s two recent unreleased songs, Absurd and Hard Skool, saying those both songs have meaningful histories.

“As far as new Guns is concerned, we haven’t even gotten to that point of really in earnest sitting down and writing,” he said.

“We’ve been doing a lot of material that’s been sort of sitting around for a while. So that will be a whole focused endeavor unto itself.

“They both have a lot of history. What happened was Axl [Rose, the vocalist of the band] has all these songs that he recorded at some point along the way.

“And so Duff and I went in and re-did them, basically… Like, I wrote my own kind of parts to what else is going on, and [we] just sort of took the drums and re-did everything else.”