- 2 days ago
Slash joins Abe Kanan to talk about the latest single from Slash Featuring Myles Kennedy & The Conspirators, "Flying Blind," and the collaboration's upcoming album, due out on February 26.
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00:00i gotta hear some of these songs slash like i can't i i have what five months with flying
00:04blind like can i get one more time well there might be one other release before the the actual
00:09album is released but i gotta wait till i gotta wait till the gun store is over so i can
00:14properly
00:15get behind this one you know
00:19it's a gannon it's an odyssey check-in and i'm here with slash slash uh flying blind i've listened
00:25to it uh i was i was working out believe it or not and uh i listened to it 22
00:30times in a row
00:31are you serious i swear to god i haven't even heard it that many times i i i was listening
00:37to
00:37it like sometimes when i when i hear a new song i like to just keep playing and i put
00:40it on repeat
00:41and i kept listening and i worked out for like over an hour like an hour and 20 minutes i
00:46listened
00:46to it the entire time what a song i i love i love this this this might be it might
00:53be my favorite
00:54song you've done with miles kennedy in general not just miles kenny the conspirator it's like
00:58anything you i i love i love this song well that's that's that's that's quite a statement um
01:03it's awesome i mean i'm i'm i'm flattered that you could actually listen to it that many times that's
01:09crazy but i i i listen to songs a lot but i i love it you know what i was
01:14thinking about you know
01:14your son uh cash he's like he's like a bodybuilder yeah i'm thinking you should give it to him be
01:20like
01:20hey this is a great song to work out for those who don't know slash his son is this badass
01:24he's
01:25like he's a bodybuilder uh and i i feel like you do you ever work out with your son uh
01:30slash no no no
01:32i mean he works out on a level that i couldn't even begin to imagine um i do an hour
01:37and i can't wait
01:38to get the fuck out of there and he lives in the gym it's a whole different whole different mindset
01:43so you never you never like uh have to like change the weights out like he has like 400 plates
01:48on
01:48each side and then you're like oh let me put these tens on yeah yeah i think i think all
01:52things
01:52considered that would be humiliating and it doesn't make you proud as a father that your son he took
01:58his own like he what you do with guitar because you're you're you still play all the time and you're
02:04so dedicated to your craft does it make you proud as a father to see your son doing something
02:09completely different than what you do but doing it to the same kind of excellence that you've done with
02:14guitar that's a great question i don't think anybody's asked me that yeah i mean uh he he
02:20he really takes it seriously and he's doing it you know to him it's in sort of an art form
02:26approach to
02:27it really committing to to the process and and focusing on the sculpting and all this kind of
02:34stuff which goes way over my head because that's a whole different world than anything i'm familiar with
02:39right yes yeah i'm proud of him because he did this totally all on his own and it was something
02:44that you know he he started getting into when he was really young and we didn't understand what his
02:50dedication to his diet and and physical whatever was all about at eight and nine years old because
02:57that's really sort of when this wow he started doing this at eight years old he didn't start the
03:01bodybuilding part but he started he started the commitment to where he was very conscious about
03:07what he was eating and going to the gym and just staying at a really young age and we you
03:12know
03:13we thought it was just obsessive you know and then a couple years ago all of a sudden he just
03:17went headfirst into to bodybuilding and we're like oh okay you know so is he is he doing like big
03:25competitions and everything i actually went to one in florida uh last year and and uh and he wins
03:31he does really well at these things and he's got a big national one coming up
03:35in texas and i think in december and uh yeah he's he's uh he's he's he's taken off on that
03:43and then return to dust your son london's band they're they're like you check out that band too
03:48like your other son is doing awesome things too we can't just talk about one son and not the other
03:54and the and and it's funny because london and i our relationship is hey so where are you
03:59oh you know like because he's on the road all the time and i'm on the road all the time
04:03so we always talk on you know we text each other and see what state they're you know the others
04:08in
04:08and or what part of the world the other one's in and what venues they're doing and all that kind
04:13of
04:13stuff it's cool so so speaking of touring massive tour with uh slash uh miles kenny the conspirators
04:19you're doing it starts in april south america north america europe like this this is a massive tour for
04:24you guys yeah yeah well i mean you know it's it's uh when we do a record we've always done
04:30a world
04:30tour but it's gotten more complicated because you know i got back into guns and roses and that
04:35sort of changed the whole sort of like the amount of time and and and all that that i could
04:41be able
04:42to do anything and same with miles doing altar bridge and everybody's doing all this different
04:46stuff so when we did this record we actually found a window to go into pre-production which was last
04:52year and then after that found another window to go in the studio and actually record everything
04:56and you know like we did this in segments where everybody was available and so we carved out
05:042027 for the year that we're going to tour so i told guns and roses i'm going to be gone
05:08uh miles
05:10from altar bridge and brent and todd told their respective gigs and and and so we carved out this
05:16year to be able to do this and and the album it doesn't come out till february 26th the album
05:23right i i gotta hear some of these songs slash like i can't i i have what five months with
05:28flying
05:28block like can i get one more time well there might be one other release before the the actual
05:33album is released but i gotta wait till i gotta wait till the guns tour is over so i can
05:38properly
05:39oh getting behind this one you know that's right and and guns and roses you guys are playing that
05:44aerosmith show yeah it's exciting i'm excited about that we're doing some cool songs is that is that
05:50going to be like the back to the beginning thing kind of i mean it's in in theory it's the
05:55same
05:55sort of basic idea so let's get back to the conspirators because like i said i love this
06:01song flying blind and it what else what are the whole the whole thing's done right so what else
06:06can we hear on this one we've been just sitting on it um it's a cool record i mean you
06:11know it's
06:11like it's it's i hate to talk about material that you're putting it out putting out but i feel you
06:17know i i always feel strongly about the material putting out personally but i don't like to advocate
06:22it um but it's it's cool it's a cool record i listened to it yesterday for a couple songs because
06:28i had not listened to the mastered cd yet you know and and i put it on i was like
06:36fuck this sounds
06:36really good elvis did a great job and and uh um ted jansen the mastering engineer did a great job
06:44and
06:44it just sounds really good but it's a cool record the material is good and flying blind's cool but
06:50there's some really cool other stuff on there what is the name of the album flying blind also oh it
06:55is
06:55okay it was a great it was a great a great title for the song and it was a great
07:01lyric but it's also
07:02one of those those those sort of uh statements almost that really relates to a lot of different
07:10things and it funnily enough it relates to the band as it's as it is of itself yeah you know
07:16it's
07:16so cool now that there's so many bands now that have like back in the day you could not go
07:21out and
07:22play with two three bands and you know i was just said we just had aftershock here a couple weeks
07:26ago
07:26and all these bands it's like uh they have two three four bands and everyone's cool like everyone
07:31seems cool with everyone doing all their side projects and i think that's really cool that now
07:36you could go out you just did that blues album you could do conspirator stuff you could do guns
07:41and roses stuff you like you do any like how freeing is it that you just do whatever you want
07:46now
07:46um i mean i've always done that i've always been um doing odd things here and there um yeah like
07:54michael jackson or whatever like you always appeared and i've had i've had another band for a long time
08:00you know uh you know like in the 90s i had snake pit and i had velvet revolver and and
08:06um but doing
08:08doing uh the conspirators you know that's been going on for almost a lot 15 years it's 15 years right
08:1415 yeah yeah yeah it's 16 actually so so i mean it's amazing it went by so quick and i
08:21when when i got
08:22back into guns and roses i was like well one thing i'm not going to do is i'm not going
08:26to disband
08:27the conspirators because that is something that we as a band established that we really love to do
08:32and so i keep that going but yeah i do other stuff too because you know guns is on the
08:37road for huge
08:38chunks of time and you're not doing anything else but that but then you come home for a couple months
08:43and i can't sit still so next thing you know i'm recording or we're doing whatever and uh like that
08:48yeah it's when you're when you're on tour are you like recording stuff for the conspirators are you
08:54just like always like putting together ideas for for your other band um i mean i'm doing stuff for
09:00a lot of times when i'm on the road with guns i'm thinking about guns so i'm writing material
09:04sort of geared towards that but i'm doing i'm also producing horror movies so i've got like a million
09:10different plates you know uh spinning what what horror movie are you making well i've got right now we
09:18just did one called sundown which is out actually in the festival so that's out i just saw it the
09:23other day
09:23and that's cool and then i've got another one called night house which is at the tail end of
09:29post-production so that should be out pretty soon um there's a bunch of different things going on
09:34right now for a while we should do a slash horror uh festival out here we should do a screening
09:41do
09:41all like do your new movie and then have a festival of a couple other movies like three films i'm
09:47i'm i'm
09:47down that would be awesome all right so you're you're uh you're on your bus or whatever like
09:53you can't you're i always look at you like you're like batman right like you can't just go out everyone
09:58sees slash there's a lot of rock stars they can do whatever they want but you see batman walking down
10:03the street like that's batman and then everyone swarms you like it has to be hard when you're like
10:08you can't you can't just walk around right uh i mean you know i'm really not the celebrity type
10:14right so um i mean i have i i don't go out that much i'm usually in my room working
10:20on something
10:21when i'm in on the road so i don't really go out but when i when i when i do
10:24go out i try to be as
10:26low-key as possible i don't like to draw attention to myself i'm not looking for that um but it
10:31happens
10:31sometimes where you'll go somewhere and people recognize it if you're if you go into a place where
10:37there's a lot of people and you're and you're you're uh static for a couple minutes then people start
10:42to come around but if you're just walking around no one really gives a shit but you but you always
10:47look cool like you don't just walk around like with sweatpants on like you're always slash oh you
10:53do oh i've never seen okay so maybe i've never seen i mean yeah i have some chrome heart sweatpants
10:58i
10:58wear religiously oh no okay i was gonna say you should get one of those masks they make really
11:03good masks now that look like you could walk around in a mask and a hat and do whatever you
11:07want
11:07you know what i'm only good for about five minutes in a mask it's very claustrophobic oh
11:12every halloween i put on a really cool mask and hang out for a minute we'll take some pictures
11:17and then maybe you know give some kids some candy and then that's it i gotta take it off
11:22you know halloween really is the greatest day ever for people like you right because you could
11:26you could really all the stuff you don't get to do during the year on halloween you get to do
11:30it
11:30well the only thing that does happen is that people think that you're an imposter at halloween
11:36time if i go if i if i go to the cvs or walgreens to go pick up some candy
11:42or whatever bullshit um
11:44people think oh yeah he's trying to look like slash that's just happened to me a bunch of times
11:50if like let's say you and i went to a costume contest and i was a really horrible axel rose
11:55and
11:55then you were yourself i wonder if they would think you were just some guy dressed like slash we're like
12:00oh we're guns and roses like i wonder i've told this story before i went to a party and of
12:06all
12:06people at paris hilton's house a long time ago where she used to live across the street and uh i
12:11went to
12:11a party at her house with my ex and uh and there was an axel and a slash there at
12:16halloween party and
12:17then and and it was the weirdest most bizarre thing to be in a party as myself with those two
12:23guys
12:24dressed as me and axel and this was before i'd rejoined way before i rejoined guns so it was even
12:29that
12:30much more awkward but i i did end up meeting them you know and they're just some guys and there's
12:34a
12:34lot of people that do this the slash and axle thing for halloween i don't know how that that
12:40transpired how that how that developed you know but it's you know it's for me i love anything that
12:46you know if you can be turned into a cartoon character i think that's the coolest thing so
12:51yeah it's actually sort of flattering so you just got the les paul foundation gave you an award i thought
12:57that was really awesome because you actually you actually were friends with les paul when he was
13:01alive yeah you had you had a real history with les paul well i mean you know i mean i
13:06i didn't get to
13:08know him long enough to say a real history i only knew him for about 20 years um but that's
13:13a long
13:14time yeah you know i mean from i guess i first met him in the uh late late you know
13:20eight 1989 i think
13:21it was or something like that so it's been a while it was a while before he passed away but
13:25he was he
13:26was just uh such a great human being he was uh i mean he was really supportive for one you
13:33know
13:33because i i didn't expect he would know me from adam when i first met him and he was really
13:38gracious
13:38and and very uh outgoing and and personable to me and and he you know we and we just sort
13:46of
13:46developed a relationship he and i and also his guitar player blue lou was i was pretty close with
13:51and uh and he was just great he was a lot of fun taught me a lot about guitar playing
13:56to tell you
13:56the truth but les paul like didn't he start multi-track recording like isn't he responsible
14:01things that echo um uh the the echo effect uh multi multi multi tracking i mean basically he was
14:10the inventor of the multi-channel uh uh console um and actually at at that event where i uh got
14:19the
14:19award they taken his studio that was in his house and they moved it into a recording studio in los
14:25angeles and there's this one room where all that gear exists and it's functional wow beautiful and the
14:32the console that they have in there that he used to use is one of the most amazing pieces of
14:37machinery
14:37i've ever seen and it's all tube and so i'm dying to go back over there they they offered you
14:43know
14:43they they gave me an invitation to come in and record something so i'm going to take them up on
14:48it
14:48because i definitely want to hear what this completely analog rig sounds like and the actual award they
14:54gave you isn't there like a piece of his studio his piece of his studio that him and his son
14:59russ
14:59rest in peace both of them um uh carved out uh it's a diffuser for the studio so it's basically
15:06that
15:06soaks up sound that's so awesome yeah i i've always i've always loved it's a real honor to get
15:11that it was it was a surprise to get the call and then to have to go there and then
15:16and accept it
15:16i was sort of like a surreal moment yeah is there anything left that that you are like something
15:23that's like on your list like like the sphere maybe in vegas like would you want to play the
15:27sphere i think i feel like that would be pretty sweet um well yeah yeah i'm gonna go see metallica
15:34uh over there that's one of those things you know i think joe walsh turned me off of it
15:39oh really because it's not set up where you can set up a bunch of amps and really play live
15:45like the
15:45way we normally do and and even you know and it's just so so everything is it's really about the
15:52production and it's not so much about the band although the band is playing it's really about the
15:58the the visual and all that kind of stuff and and we were talking about doing it uh
16:06last year before this tour this u.s tour that we just did and we opted for just doing a
16:11u.s tour and
16:12not just focusing on that one thing anyway and so it might happen down the road but it's not
16:17something i'm aspiring to because i think it might be a little bit too controlled you know but i'm
16:22dying to see metallica do it you know because because you guys are a band that actually you've changed
16:26the set list up every single night and you're you yeah it's hard it's hard to be beholden to a
16:31whole
16:32theatrical thing like that um especially for us and and also you know the way joe was telling me is
16:38you gotta you have to put your amps somewhere else and like metallica guys use the the um what do
16:44you
16:44call it amps you know the the they're not real they're like the yeah they're not real and so we
16:50don't do that and so you've got to figure out some place elsewhere to put the amps and all that
16:55kind
16:55of stuff and it just the more we talked about the details of it the more like uh i don't
17:00know
17:01you know you know metallica is doing two separate sets they're doing the no repeat weekend so they're
17:06doing a 16 songs friday and 16 songs sunday completely lars told me about this i went to a
17:12uh it was a party a few months ago and he was telling me this whole thing that those guys
17:19are
17:19doing which is really cool you know i love i love that metallica is always doing something new you
17:25know it's great yeah i mean i picture you know november rain that the whole sphere would be the
17:30desert and then you walk out you're in the middle the whole sphere is the desert you see the little
17:35church behind you you start playing this song that would be like the most epic sphere moment ever
17:40yeah god god that'd be awesome all right so uh the new album flying blind like it doesn't come
17:47out till february but the tour starts in april the new song my i'm telling you i love this song
17:53so
17:54much i i think i listened to it 22 times in a row and while i was doing cardio like
17:59this this song
17:59makes you want to do card like i'm like god this is awesome like one last thing the tone the
18:05tone in
18:05the beginning of that song that like little beginning part that sounds a little bit different than some
18:10of your other stuff is that like a different kind of sound in the beginning of that song no it's
18:15just uh
18:15my my the same guitar that i played the rest of the song with um to turn down a little
18:22bit and just
18:22finger picking oh it just it's i don't know i love it i love and i love the little video
18:26you guys
18:27made the girl diving in like yeah who came up with that what was that that was that was uh
18:32i i don't
18:33know i have crazy ideas sometimes i wanted to get this girl diving off you know because it was called
18:38flying blind and if you look at the spiral pattern on the cover it's sort of sort of oblivion and
18:44she's
18:45just free form diving into it and and so we tried to sort of capitalize on that idea yeah it's
18:51awesome
18:52flying blind the new album the tour check the video out for the song it's pretty funny i guess
18:56it's on youtube we don't have mtv proper anymore so yeah every time we make videos like where does
19:02it go it goes exactly but but the funny part is more people see videos now than ever before because
19:08of youtube yeah i mean it's a weird dynamic because i know people watch videos but it just doesn't
19:14have i maybe because i was so the part of the mtv era that you had a destination that you
19:20went to
19:21for videos and so now going to youtube just doesn't it doesn't compute it because you specifically go
19:27there not just to watch a bunch of videos not knowing what you're going to see you go to look
19:30for the video of an artist that you want to see so it's a little bit different it was like
19:35for me mtv
19:35was sort of like the radio it was like visual radio um youtube's a little different yeah and you know
19:41you could put out the greatest video ever made now and you still it wouldn't resonate the way it used
19:45to because like you said people don't know the options yeah it's different but they always still
19:50want to make a video to to go with the the single and so i always try to do something
19:55that's is the
19:56least predictable and and whatever off the beaten path but i did this this last video with stupid
20:02buddy who does robot chicken and a bunch of other animated stuff oh nice and we had this cool little
20:07idea about these two characters and so we did a video of that and then we have some some outtakes
20:12that
20:12we're going to start posting as well all right so so so we're going to do the uh we're going
20:17to do
20:17the slash horror uh film festival and then we have the uh the conspirators tour uh it starts in in
20:24april uh you start in south america then north america europe the song's out now flying blind
20:29great song slash it's amazing you you always the great thing about you is you always make good stuff
20:34like it just it doesn't stop just we keep getting good stuff from you which makes me happy because
20:40i i'm not one of those people that always i mean i love all the old stuff but i love
20:43you know i want to get excited about something you know like i get excited to hear old songs
20:48but it excites me to hear new music being played for the first time live yeah no same same same
20:54for
20:55me and and i'm always i'm always eager to write new stuff you know like i get excited when i'm
21:00writing
21:00new stuff and i'm always writing new stuff so it's it's i i i i can appreciate that it's flying
21:05blind
21:06slash always an honor to talk to you thank you so much all right man it's good to talk to
21:09you take
21:10care and we'll get the other song out to you soon oh thank you yes yeah i mean i i
21:15would love to hear
21:16some more of those songs they're awesome all right talk to you soon thank you slash
21:20you