FEATURE-Guns N' Roses guitarist finds calling in 
Snakepit 

By Dean Goodman 
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Rock guitarist Slash's high-living Guns N' Roses days are a 
distant memory as he seeks a new shot at rock 'n' roll stardom with his new band, Slash's 
Snakepit. 
The group landed the opening slot for rock veterans AC/DC recently and crisscrossed the 
country in a bus on a $25 per diem for each member. Fortunately, Slash saved his 
millions and did not have to worry when it came time to settle the bar tab. 
The tour was designed to whet appetites for the band's new album, ``Ain't Life Grand,'' 
released last month by Koch Records. Slash, face hidden by his long tresses, stalked the 
stage each night with his guitar as singer Rod Jackson belted out a half dozen new songs 
and Guns N' Roses nugget ``Mr. Brownstone.'' 
The classic rock audiences, perhaps harboring fond memories of the time a decade ago 
when Guns N' Roses were arguably the top band in the world, lapped it up. 
``That's the most redeeming thing about taking your chances, going out there with 
blinders on and stepping one foot off the curb and seeing what happens and having it turn 
out positive,'' Slash told Reuters in an interview. 
``Ain't Life Grand'' is Slash's Snakepit's second record. He conceived the group as a side 
project between Guns N' Roses albums. Its debut, ``It's Five O'Clock Somewhere'' 
(Geffen), came out in 1995, while there was still a vague hope that Guns might release a 
follow-up to 1991's ``Use Your Illusion'' package. It did not happen, and a frustrated 
Slash quit in October 1996. 
He eventually resurrected Slash's Snakepit as a full-time project and installed new 
personnel. Besides Jackson, the band includes bass player Johnny Blackout, rhythm 
guitarist Keri Kelli and drummer Matt Laug. 
SNAKES ALIVE! 
Slash considered using a different name for the band but opted for the old one in part 
because ``it took absolutely no thought to come up with it.'' The name is a nod to his 
passion for reptiles. He has more than 30 snakes, as well as lizards, frogs and cats, all 
residing at his girlfriend's house. 
``She's dealing with it,'' he reported succinctly. 
Slash stopped naming his snakes years ago when he realized they cannot hear. But like 
any good parent he tries not to pick favorites, although he is very partial to a black-
headed python from Australia. But none is more loved than Clyde, who died in 1990 after 
a long illness. 
``Clyde was a loner with me. That was like my only snake at the time, so he was 
definitely very special. As much as I didn't have a house or any money, he had to survive 
the perils of my whole lifestyle with me,'' Slash said. 
Indeed, Slash has survived severe heroin, cocaine and alcohol habits, and countless 
overdoses. 
He now takes a more responsible attitude toward rock 'n' roll debauchery: ``You do what 
you have to do. ... If it has an overall effect on your job then you adjust it accordingly, but 
other than that we are who we are.'' 
Slash, 35, was born Saul Hudson to Anglo-American parents in England and had a hippie 
upbringing in Los Angeles. He co-founded Guns N' Roses in 1985 and the group built a 
loyal following on Los Angeles' hard rock club circuit and hit the jackpot with its first 
full-length album, ``Appetite for Destruction'' (1987), which for many years held the 
record for best-selling debut with U.S. sales of 15 million. 
Guns N' Roses Wilts 
Stadium tours, gigs with the Rolling Stones, the triumphant two-volume ``Use Your 
Illusion'' set and more stadiums followed. Insanely volatile on a good day, the band 
fractured as singer W. Axl Rose exerted control. 
Everyone else either quit or was fired, leaving Rose to toil for years on an as-yet-
unfinished album with session musicians and producers. The new Guns lineup is 
expected to launch a world tour in the summer of 2001 to promote its latest album 
``Chinese Democracy.'' 
``It'll be fine'' if the record does see the light of day, Slash said. ``Whatever it is that 
makes everybody happy and whatever is genuine is the most important thing.'' 
He adopts a similarly philosophical attitude toward Slash's Snakepit's record, on which he 
conjures up the guitar licks of heroes like Jimi Hendrix, B.B. King and Rory Gallagher. 
``It's not supposed to move mountains, it's not supposed to give you a psychological 
profile on us or probe into anybody else's psychological frame of mind,'' he said. ``It's not 
supposed to cause out-and-out violence. It's not supposed to do anything in particular, 
except hopefully promise a good time, and maybe somebody'll get laid, y'know, 
whatever.'' 
In other words, no use scouring the lyrics for references to the Guns N' Roses days. The 
first Snakepit record ``was just filled with innuendo,'' Slash said, but no one seemed to 
pick up on it since the band's singer at the time, Eric Dover, served as a kind of filter. 
Slash hopes Snakepit will last a little longer, and he relishes the group's professional and 
social dynamic: ``There's always gotta be some collaboration, otherwise I feel like an 
overexaggerated guitar guy, which I don't like being ... One of the main things that's fun 
about having a band is hanging out with 'em.'' 
Reuters/Variety