00:00Well, I mean, it really came to me in earnest in 2007 and I was writing an autobiography and in
00:08there I started saying that I would like to do a record where I had everybody come and guest on
00:15my album as opposed to me guesting on everybody else's album.
00:18And apparently I've said that before over the years to people, but in 2007 was the first time I really
00:24took it seriously. And in 2008 at the end of the Revolver tour, not too long after that is when
00:32I decided I really needed to do something on my own. So I decided to embark on that journey and
00:37put that record together.
00:38Basically what I did was, you know, sort of in a casual kind of way, I wasn't really sort of
00:45focused on making the record at this point. I just started writing material and sort of accumulating different ideas.
00:52And once I had sort of put together a reasonable body of work, then I started thinking about what singers
00:59would sound good on every sort of instrumental track, you know, potential song.
01:05And that's where the ideas for singers came from. Really the music sort of dictated who should sing on each
01:12song, would be a good vocalist.
01:13And once I'd established who those singers were, then I would put together a demo, call them up and present
01:20them with the music and see what they thought and take it from there.
01:23And it was really something where I think I did a good job in picking what singers would go with
01:31the music, like the proper singer for the right music.
01:35Well, no one said no. I mean, I got pretty much everybody I wanted, but there was a couple people
01:40that, for whatever technical reasons, schedule or some record company glitches, there was a couple people I didn't get.
01:48But really, the stars seemed to have lined up, and I managed to get pretty much 90% of everybody
01:53I was looking for.
01:54Well, Iggy's somebody that I've known for a pretty long time and been friends with him for a while.
02:02And, you know, I've worked with him together on a couple different things.
02:07And he's just, you know, I mean, Iggy, to me, is the embodiment of rock and roll and somebody who,
02:14you know, whose music has had a huge influence.
02:17Just his whole attitude has had a huge influence on me as a performer, as a songwriter, and as an
02:25artist.
02:25And I had this one piece of music that had come to me, funnily enough, woke me up in my
02:33sleep, right?
02:34And it was supposed to be a Velvet Revolver song, but we never came up with anything for it when
02:41we were working with Scott Weiland.
02:43And so it just sort of sat there.
02:45And when I was thinking, you know, I wanted to resurrect that song, I started playing it.
02:51And I thought, you know who would sound great on this song is Iggy Pop, right?
02:54So I sent it to him.
02:55And this is actually one of the cool little sort of rock and roll antidotes about the making of the
02:59record.
03:00Because I had the demo, and I sent it to Iggy.
03:04And about a week later, he called me up.
03:06And he's like, you know, he says, hey, Slash.
03:09And he goes, what do you think of this?
03:11And he puts the phone down on the table, and I can hear him walk all the way across the
03:15room, turn on a ghetto blaster, and put the CD in.
03:19And then I hear, in the background, I hear my demo.
03:22And then he moves into the middle of the room, and he just sings me the entire song from one
03:27end to the other.
03:27Then he goes back to the stereo, turns it off, walks all the way back across the room, picks up
03:31the phone, and goes, hey, what do you think?
03:33And that was basically how I heard Iggy's version of, we're all going to die for the first time.
03:42And he flew in from, I think it was Florida, and flew down to L.A.
03:49He asked me if I'd get him a convertible Mustang.
03:51And he came down to the session, and he was at the studio for all of about two and a
03:56half, three hours.
03:57And that was the first session that we did for this album.
04:00So that sort of set the pace for the whole record.
04:02I figured it never has to be any more complicated than that, you know.
04:07Well, let's see.
04:08Yeah, a lot of people were sort of, you know, raised eyebrows when they heard that I was doing a
04:13track with Fergie.
04:14And it wasn't until the record came out that anybody actually got it, you know, understood what, the reason why
04:22I would work with Fergie.
04:23And I heard Fergie sing, I did this impromptu gig at the Palace, or what's it called, the Avalon Theater
04:33in Los Angeles.
04:34And it was, the Black Eyed Peas were doing this fundraiser, and they asked me to do a guest guitar
04:39spot along with all these other musicians,
04:41Herbie Hancock and Snoop Dogg and Teddy Riley, all these different cats.
04:47And so I went down there for soundcheck, and they said, okay, so we're going to do this rock medley
04:52in the set,
04:52and Fergie's going to sing, and do you want to play guitar?
04:55So I said, cool.
04:56At that point in time, I didn't know what a Fergie was.
04:59I just knew that the Black Eyed Peas had a female in the entourage.
05:05So, you know, I learned, you know, we did Black Dog and Live and Let Die and Barracuda.
05:12So we soundchecked those songs, and then Fergie showed up, and in walks this sort of cute little blonde chick,
05:19which, from the sound of the Black Eyed Peas, I thought she'd be like Puerto Rican or black or something.
05:23So she gets up, and we roll into Black Dog, and she starts singing, and I was like, wow.
05:28Wow. That was, I was never, would never have expected that voice from that girl,
05:34not to mention from somebody that sang in the Black Eyed Peas.
05:38So, you know, after soundcheck, we started talking, and it turns out that she's got a,
05:44her whole sort of musical upbringing is rock and roll, and that's what started her in singing,
05:50and got her started in this business, and she sort of morphed into pop,
05:55but she's always wanted an outlet for sort of these rock shops that she has.
05:59So I did a bunch of impromptu gigs with her, like, guest appearances over the last three years,
06:05doing Sweet Child of Mine and Barracuda with her and the Black Eyed Peas,
06:08you know, Orange County, and one other time in Detroit, and whatever.
06:12So when I was making the, making my record, I had this one song that called for a female rock
06:18vocalist,
06:18and so I called Fergie. She's probably the best female rock singer I've heard come out in the last,
06:24I don't know, 10, 15 years.
06:26So I gave her the music, and she came back with Beautiful Dangerous, and that's how that happened.
06:30So when people were going, oh, Slash is working with Fergie,
06:33they were, like, probably expecting some sort of hip-hop this or hip-hop that.
06:37But, you know, when you hear the song, she just belts it out.
06:40Oh, the video, yeah, yeah.
06:42And, no, that was Fergie's idea.
06:43I told her that, you know, we're going to make a single out of the song,
06:47and we need to shoot a video, and she goes,
06:50I want to play an obsessed groupie stalker.
06:54And so I was like, that sounds great.
06:56You know, because I know her at this point,
06:58and so I can only imagine what that's going to be like.
07:00So we put together a pretty sort of loose treatment
07:04and scheduled a couple days to shoot,
07:07which we actually ended up shooting the whole video in one day.
07:11I mean, the thing about when Fergie decided she was going to play this character,
07:15because she's been acting a lot lately,
07:17she really went into full character.
07:20So, I mean, I went in as myself,
07:22and I was just sort of kicked back and whatever,
07:24whereas she became this obsessed, sexy, groupie stalker chick.
07:29So, yeah, it was very distracting.
07:31You know, and it's funny,
07:32and my wife had suggested that, you know,
07:35told her that you should tie him up and do all this stuff.
07:38And so she took her at my wife's word,
07:40and, you know, next thing you know, I'm tied to the bed.
07:43And it was an interesting time, but it was a lot of fun.
07:46Yeah, it was, she's really great to hang out with,
07:50and, you know, I could think of worse things I could be doing
07:53than being tied down and straddled by Fergie.
07:55Yeah.
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