In the process, he has influenced countless guitarists and musicians across generations and genres — and has amassed a staggering collection of about 400 guitars, from holy-grail vintage pieces to prototype Gibson signature models, to guitars made by B.C. Rich®, Guild®, boutique acoustic luthiers, and plenty more besides. There's this line in Bull Durham where Kevin Costner's character tells Tim Robbins's character, "You got a gift. When you were a baby, the Gods reached down and turned your right arm into a thunderbolt." A lot of the point of this movie is that while the young pitcher has been blessed with incredible talent (and is also, being played by baby Tim Robbins, very sexy), it's the seasoned but mediocre career minor league journeyman Crash Davis who's the leading man with the depth (and sexiness, despite being played by Kevin Costner who is, outside of this role, completely gross and unsexy) to fascinate Susan Sarandon's incomparable Annie Savoy. In the movie Ebby Calvin LaLoosh is this kind of silly dude whose right arm is a thunderbolt, and that talent is fascinating but it doesn't mean he is. Afterwards, my infatuation turned into a deep obsession which made me decide in my pre-teens to buy every single one of their albums, sadly to say I haven't gotten Use Your Illusions I just yet. My favorite song turned from "Paradise City", to "November Rain", to "Estranged", and then "Welcome to the Jungle", "Garden of Eden", "Sweet Child O' Mine", "Civil War" and then just about every single one of their songs.

I noodle with the guitar a bit and I would have liked some more insight into Slash’s technique and approach, but he steers well clear of this kind of thing (for the most part), opting to focus on the lifestyle and the people involved instead. The book is sordid and tragic and funny and a whole lot of other things, but it provides a great snapshot of the musical scene at the time of what Slash refers to as the Guns ‘n Roses Reign of Terror, i.e. the 80s and very early 90s. Something else that fans will want to read is the depiction of events leading up to the end of Slash’s tenure with the band, and the issues with Axl Rose. Besides being a junkie and cocaine addict (not even mentioning the groupies...) he was such a severe alcoholic that he drank around four liters of vodka every day (not counting in the beer and whiskey he did at night). I'm surprised and glad he's still alive after all this excessive debauchery.A doctor installed a defibrillator in my heart when I was 35. Fifteen years of over-drinking and drug abuse had swollen that organ to one stop short of exploding. When I was finally hospitalized, they told me I had six days to six weeks to live. (p VIII) Slash dressed up as a woman after the bouncer didn't let him enter a bar. He couldn't find his buddy Steven Adler after he got admitted no problem (his mom who is a costume designer helped him get ready, he still lived with her at that point) and was so disturbed by all the cat calls and laughs around him that he fled the scene and concluded that "it must be really tough being a woman".

Born in the UK, in Stoke of all places, Slash grew up in LA and was a decent BMX rider. He started playing the guitar and hung out a lot with Steve Adler, the two later hooking up with Axl, Izzy and Duff to form Guns N´Roses. Never steady and reliable, most members drunk, stoned, junkies or all three, the band made a blistering album and a couple of other decent ones, and collapsed after a few record-breaking years of touring during which they became famous for going on late. Slash got himself together and formed Slash´s Snakepit and, later, Velvet Revolver, and at the time of writing is touring the world with a reformed Guns N´Roses. The tone of the book is neither boastful nor repentant. Slash tells it like it is, without false modesty. I appreciated the shooting-from-the-hip approach, except possibly for one thing, namely the peer-bashing (It comes across as slightly narcissistic when “every other band is rubbish and hateful except us”). Taking into account, however, the nature of the L.A. scene at the time, and the larger-than-life personalities involved, it probably shouldn’t be surprising that there would be some bad blood. The Collection: Slash Deluxe edition is presented in a Les Paul slipcase and measures 240 x 340 mm (9.45 x 13.39”). It includes a cover poster, four guitar art prints, and a certificate of authenticity. The initial print run of the Deluxe edition is hand-signed by SLASH and is limited to 1,000 copies worldwide. Explore The Collection: Slash Deluxe edition. Above (L-R): The Collection: Slash Custom, Deluxe, and Standard editions. I'd also read Duff's "It's so easy" before this and found that to be outstanding, maybe the best book written by musician that I ever read. So I was looking forward to reading this book. But I wasn't crazy about it.Launching Gibson Publishing in partnership with Slash for our debut book The Collection: Slash marks an important milestone for all of us at Gibson Brands,” says Cesar Gueikian, Brand President of Gibson Brands. “We continue to leverage our iconic past and lean into the future creating more opportunities for music fans around the world to experience original storytelling. With Gibson TV, Gibson Records, and now Gibson Publishing, we are organically growing our own media platform that continues to create compelling original content. I am proud of what our media team led by Beth Heidt, Mark Agnesi, Todd Harapiak, Lee Bartram, and Chris Vinnicombe have accomplished together with the extended team. And I am grateful to Slash and his team’s partnership for our debut publication.” Yea, you favorite band doesn't have to be the one with your favorite guitarist or singer. It is called a BAND for a reason.

He discusses his reasons for leaving the band, what he did after leaving, the other projects he worked on between leaving Guns N' Roses and the formation of Velvet Revolver, and the drama surrounding that band, and everything in between. The main problem with this book is that it doesn't seem to have been written by a professional writer or looked at by a professional editor. This would be way less of an issue if he'd gone with an actual ghost, rather than a music journalist who shared the writing credit, because then I could've indulged the conceit that Slash actually somehow wrote the thing by himself. As it is, I guess I had unrealistic expectations and was distracted by being sad because this book could've been so much better than it was. Slash is a book I want to read because I like hearing about people's childhoods and this is an auto-biography of him! Accurate not un-accurate. If you're expecting a memoir of drug addiction, you may be disappointed. Not to say that there isn't drug use here - there certainly is, including one memorable anecdote where Slash finds himself running naked across a golf course, pursued by little monsters only he can see. But he doesn't go into much more detail than is necessary, and his main focus in the book is the music. Axl remembered a riff that I'd played him when he was living over at my mom's house [...]. We were sitting around rehearsal looking to write something new when that riff came to Axl's mind. [...] I started playing it and instantly Steve came up with a beat, Duff joined in with a bass line, and away we went. I kept throwing parts out to build on it: the chorus part, the solo, as Axl came up with the lyrics. Duff was the glue on that song - he came up with the breakdown, that wild rumbling bass line, and Izzy provided the texture. In about three hours, the song [Welcome to the Jungle] was complete. The arrangement is virtually the same as it appears on the album. (pp 108-9)What a dissapointment it was. First of all, I felt like Slash took Anthony Kiedis's Scar Tissue and rewrote it - he only changed the names and made it 10 times worse. Then I changed my mind because Anthony focused mostly on drugs and selfanalysis, and Slash - on music. You would think it's good, but it's not. It's just simply BORING. I was reading it and reading and it was such a struggle. The thing is, it's not written well. It's just one fact after another, nothing to make it interesting. I didn't get to know anything about Slash. The only thing I know after reading it is that 'Axl is an asshole'. That's it. This sentence is also a great summary of this book. I learned more about booze and drugs in this book than watching a documentary on the History Channel. Damn.