Slash Oldie But Goodie: Slash bashing 'Sympathy for the Devil'

[Estranged Reality]

I'm NOT trying to fuel another repetitive Axl-vs-Slash thread, but for the fans, I think this video is hilarious. I'm sure everyone's seen it but it popped up in my YouTube recommendations and it had been awhile since I watched it, and I forgot how fucking funny the beginning is:

"Tom Cruise? As Lestat?... I don't think so. I think it's gonna be pretty lousy." The way he says it is damn comical. Gotta love how candid Slash was back when he wasn't exactly in a sober state of mind.

"Axl, being my nemesis, of course, loved it."

(I'm a Cruise fan btw but I have to agree with his assessment of the movie.)

[Kapitch_77]

The end is funny too... "unless I'm fired hahaha"

[Nosaj Thing]

I don't see nor hear where he's bashing the song? He's trashing "Interview with a Vampire" and I agree, is a lame ass movie.

[Estranged Reality]

I don't see nor hear where he's bashing the song? He's trashing "Interview with a Vampire" and I agree, is a lame ass movie.

i meant he was bashing the experience of the song more-so than the song itself, but he's definitely bashing it. he says the Paul Tobias additions pissed him off, and then he says, "as a result, we ended up doing another cover song of a song that didn't need to be covered, and it didn't do anything for the band."

if you'd like i'll change the title to 'bashes interview with a vampire.'

[Black Sabbath]

Not my favorite cover by Guns, but I like it.

Also, Interview With a Vampire is good, so fuck you guys.

[seagullview]

At 1:23 he says they also did another cover song for a lame movie. Could this be the Jackie Chan song that was rumoured to be released?

March 12th 1998

New GN'R song out on March 20th ?

Yesterday a friend told me that a new song by GN'R (probably not a cover) will be released on the 20th of March. This previously unreleased song will appear on the soundtrack for the Jackie Chan movie "A Nice Guy". The song was recorded before Slash left the band.

True or false? We'll have the answer soon...

source: "Tver" (a GN'R fan)

http://home5.swipnet...March12_98.html

[Estranged Reality]

At 1:23 he says they also did another cover song for a lame movie. Could this be the Jackie Chan song that was rumoured to be released?

March 12th 1998

New GN'R song out on March 20th ?

Yesterday a friend told me that a new song by GN'R (probably not a cover) will be released on the 20th of March. This previously unreleased song will appear on the soundtrack for the Jackie Chan movie "A Nice Guy". The song was recorded before Slash left the band.

True or false? We'll have the answer soon...

source: "Tver" (a GN'R fan)

http://home5.swipnet...March12_98.html

i think when he says 'another cover song for a lame movie' he was referring to sympathy for the devil. they had just recently done the spaghetti incident so his comment about 'another' cover song was within the context of the fact that they had already just done a bunch of them.

[RNRS]

I like his comments in regards to everyone going their seperate ways. I started a new band, others went on holiday and Axl had his lawsuits.

[appetite4illusions]

"Ab Fab?"

Who and what was Absolutely Fabulous?

[John Bonham]

"Ab Fab?"

Who and what was Absolutely Fabulous?

Only the best show ever!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPD-MrMWYi4

[ThinkAboutYou]

I still think Slash had a point regarding Paul messing with his guitar parts

[EvH]

Not my favorite cover by Guns, but I like it.

Also, Interview With a Vampire is good, so fuck you guys.

[SoulMonster]

Very interesting from Duff about recording that song:

Talking about the atmosphere when recording 'Sympathy for the Devil': It wasn’t good. The huge difference for me was, I was sober, so I was rising, you know? I was really focused on reclaiming my life, and I knew very much that I just survived something. I really gave up. At 29 years old, I told myself “If I live ’til I’m 30, I’ll be lucky,” and I was cool with it. It wasn’t a morbid thought. I was like, “Fuck it, live fast, die young.” And I realized at 30 or 31 that I had a chance to become the guy the 14-year-old me had envisioned. So the band was secondary to that goal at that point. It wasn’t the band first and me second, it was me first. So my whole outlook on what was happening in the session didn’t take over my whole fuckin’ thing. I saw it for what it was. Paul [Huge], Axl’s friend, the guitar-player guy, really saw an opportunity. I saw opportunities being taken advantage of, I saw management freaking out, I saw Slash in a fucking awful, black, and darkened malaise, and Matt had gotten sober. A lot of people were coming to me, management and the record company. I didn’t get a second to be sober, and [they said], “Now that you’re sober, you gotta save this thing.” And I really kinda thought I did for the first year or two, because so many people were saying that to me. I started to figure out in my second year of sobriety, “Oh, I don’t have to do shit" [The Onion A.V. Club, May 2011]

And why was Slash in such a dark mood?:

Well, like that stupid "Sympathy For The Devil" track we did - granted it sort of sounds like Guns N' Roses, but it was my vehicle to help get the band into one room. But who shows up? It's Duff and Matt and me who do the whole track, then Axl did the other bit by himself a week later. That wasn't my idea of something that we should've released, and it definitely wasn't what I was hoping for to be the thread that was going to get the band back together and get us inspired to get out and do it [Guns N' Roses: Is It All Over? Does Anyone Care? Metal Hammer November 1995]

And he really didn't like Paul:

[...] we had this friend of Axl's, Paul, who really couldn't play that well. He played on 'Sympathy for the Devil.' Fuckin' asshole. I hate that guy. He didn't work out, so I am not really sure where the fuck that shit's headed. I'll deal with it when I get off the road [The Michigan Daily, April 1995].

[niceguy]

I still think Slash had a point regarding Paul messing with his guitar parts

It blows my mind how this forum in general regards Tobias as some sort of proper addition to GNR.

By that point, Slash had earned his place among the world's top rock guitarists. And you want to bring in a totally amateur bedroom guitarist who has proven NOTHING and tell Slash he is your equal?

Come on. That would be like if Slash brought in his cousin who once sang karaoke at a bar and tell Axl "hey this is our new co-lead singer".

[SoulMonster]

Axl tells the storey slightly differently:

The public gets a different story from the other guys ­ Slash, Duff, Matt - who have their own agendas. The original intentions between Paul and myself were that Paul was going to help me for as long as it took to get this thing together in whatever capacity that he could help me in. So when he first was brought into this, he was brought in as a writer to work with Slash. At the time those guys never suggested one name. Nobody else. Ever. Paul was one of the best people we knew who was both available and capable of complimenting Slash’s style. You could bring in a better guitar player than Paul. You could bring in a monster. I tried putting Zakk Wylde with Slash and that didn’t work. It brought out some interesting things in Slash but it was a different approach that ended up being overpowering and didn’t bring out the best in Slash. It brought out some interesting things and it would’ve worked to do some songs. But Paul was only interested in complimenting Slash, laying down a foundation of a riff or something. That would accent or encourage Slash's lead playing. Now whether or not Paul was going to be officially on the album or on the tour that really wasn’t an actual consideration at the time. It was in the air as a possibility but Paul was a friend trying to help us and he had a huge respect for Slash. He is and this is the bottom line a good man and that's the reality behind things. That doesn't change what took place with old Guns. I feel that some of the recordings we did in that limited amount of time had some of the best playing that Slash had done at least since Illusions. I was there. I know what I heard and it was pretty exciting.

Duff's probably close to the truth:

Then Axl wanted to bring in a guy named Paul Huge. "You want to bring in your buddy from Indiana?" Slash said incredulously. "Look, he'll just jam with us and maybe it'll work out," Axl said. "No," both Slash and I said. "Yes," said Axl. This wasn't some wedding band you could just bring friends into. If I wasn't going to bend for the sake of one of my best friends - Slash , and his Southern-rock songs [which Slash wanted to use for GN'R's next record] - I sure as hell wasn't going to let a stranger come in and fuck around with Guns. "Fine," Axl said. "How's this: you guys try him out on your own, give him a few days." We let him come in. Gave him a couple of days. It was hopeless [Duff's autobiography, "It's So Easy", 2011, p. 242]

[niceguy]

Then Axl wanted to bring in a guy named Paul Huge. "You want to bring in your buddy from Indiana?" Slash said incredulously. "Look, he'll just jam with us and maybe it'll work out," Axl said. "No," both Slash and I said. "Yes," said Axl. This wasn't some wedding band you could just bring friends into. If I wasn't going to bend for the sake of one of my best friends - Slash , and his Southern-rock songs [which Slash wanted to use for GN'R's next record] - I sure as hell wasn't going to let a stranger come in and fuck around with Guns. "Fine," Axl said. "How's this: you guys try him out on your own, give him a few days." We let him come in. Gave him a couple of days. It was hopeless [Duff's autobiography, "It's So Easy", 2011, p. 242]

And yet, so many people here worship this Paul Huge guy as the second coming of Christ.

[SoulMonster]

And yet, so many people here worship this Paul Huge guy as the second coming of Christ.

That's because Chris Pitman has got it right: Paul Tobias [is] truly awesome [Facebook, January 2012]

[maynard]

lol paul tobias. gilby clarke is a better guitar player and songrwriter than this fella. yes, gilby fucking clarke.

[SoulMonster]

lol paul tobias. gilby clarke is a better guitar player and songrwriter than this fella. yes, gilby fucking clarke.

Gilby is probably a better player, yes, but Axl couldn't write with Gilby:

We don’t know if we’re gonna be writing with Gilby or somebody else. We know we want to play with Gilby, but we’re not sure about the writing [Hit Parader, 1992]

Hence Axl thought it would be a good idea to bring someone in he knew he could write with, and who had a playing style he thought would complement Slash's:

Coming from Indiana I used to play with this guitar player named Paul and I learned about blues and emotionalism through him and he was a big Page fanatic [interview with Axl and Slash, 1988]

But the way Axl forced Paul on Duff and Slash didn't go down well, and Slash already harboured resentment towards Axl for refusing to work on Slash's songs which he had worked on with Gilby:

At one point he didn't like the songs [that ended up on Slash's solo record], and all of a sudden he wanted them and the [snakepit] record was already done. That set me off. What the fuck is that? It turned into a bit of a fight [Slash On The Line: A Report From the Road, October 1995]

So with Axl adding Paul's guitar tracks to Sympathy that was the final straw for Slash:

If you've ever wanted to know what the sound of a band breaking up sounds like, listen to Guns N' Roses cover of 'Sympathy For The Devil' (...). If there's one Guns track I'd like to never hear again, it is that one [bozza, Anthony, & Slash (2007). Slash. Harper Entertainment: New York, p.379]

[axlfan88]

From Mick Wall's W. Axl Rose book :

According to Matt, he walked out after a massive argument with Axl - about Slash. They had been talking in the studio when Paul Huge remarked he had seen Slash play with his band, the Snakepit, on the David Letterman show the previous night and that it had sounded like shit and looked like shit. Says Matt now: He was just bagging on Slash. I said, 'Listen motherfucker, when I'm sitting in the room, I'd appreciate it if you don't fucking say shit about Slash. He's still my friend. You can't even hold a fucking candle to that fucking guy. He's got more talent in his little toe than you, motherfucker, shut up!' And then Axl got in my face. I said, 'You know what, Axl, man? You're fucking smoking crack if you think this band's GN'R without Slash. You're gonna go play 'Sweet Child O' Mine' with fucking Paul Huge? Sorry, dude, it ain't gonna sound right. Fucking 'Welcome to the Jungle' without Slash?' [Axl] says, 'I'm Guns N' Roses - I don't need Slash'. I said, 'You know what? No, you aren't'. We got into a big pissy match; it went onto a bunch of other bullshit for about another 20 minutes. And then he finally said, 'Well, are you gonna fucking quit?' I said, 'No, I don't fucking quit'. And then he said, 'Well, then you're fucking fired.

Paul Huge chased me out to the parking lot and said, 'What the fuck, man? Just come back in and apologise!' I said, 'Fuck you, Yoko! I'm gone!' And that was it. I went home to my fucking six-level palatial rock star estate with two elevators and my Porsche. I was producing a band called Candlebox at the time, they were living in my house. And I said, 'I just got fired'. They said, 'Ah, fuck he'll call you back', and I said, 'No, not this time'. Cos he'd fired me before but he always called me back. I said, 'No, I don't think so'. And about a month later I got the letter from the lawyers.

Edited May 17, 2014 by axlfan88

[ShadowOfTheWave]

From Mick Wall's W. Axl Rose book :

According to Matt, he walked out after a massive argument with Axl - about Slash. They had been talking in the studio when Paul Huge remarked he had seen Slash play with his band, the Snakepit, on the David Letterman show the previous night and that it had sounded like shit and looked like shit. Says Matt now: He was just bagging on Slash. I said, 'Listen motherfucker, when I'm sitting in the room, I'd appreciate it if you don't fucking say shit about Slash. He's still my friend. You can't even hold a fucking candle to that fucking guy. He's got more talent in his little toe than you, motherfucker, shut up!' And then Axl got in my face. I said, 'You know what, Axl, man? You're fucking smoking crack if you think this band's GN'R without Slash. You're gonna go play 'Sweet Child O' Mine' with fucking Paul Huge? Sorry, dude, it ain't gonna sound right. Fucking 'Welcome to the Jungle' without Slash?' [Axl] says, 'I'm Guns N' Roses - I don't need Slash'. I said, 'You know what? No, you aren't'. We got into a big pissy match; it went onto a bunch of other bullshit for about another 20 minutes. And then he finally said, 'Well, are you gonna fucking quit?' I said, 'No, I don't fucking quit'. And then he said, 'Well, then you're fucking fired.

Paul Huge chased me out to the parking lot and said, 'What the fuck, man? Just come back in and apologise!' I said, 'Fuck you, Yoko! I'm gone!' And that was it. I went home to my fucking six-level palatial rock star estate with two elevators and my Porsche. I was producing a band called Candlebox at the time, they were living in my house. And I said, 'I just got fired'. They said, 'Ah, fuck he'll call you back', and I said, 'No, not this time'. Cos he'd fired me before but he always called me back. I said, 'No, I don't think so'. And about a month later I got the letter from the lawyers.

Matt was fired in 1997. I don't believe Snakepit was together then.

[Nosaj Thing]

then he says, "as a result, we ended up doing another cover song of a song that didn't need to be covered, and it didn't do anything for the band."

That's bashing?

[SoulMonster]

I don't think Slash has ever actually bashed the song. He has referred to it as "stupid", but that was more in the context of how the recording went down and all the frustrations surrounding the making of the song. He is so bitter about how it went down that he in 1995 claimed he had never heard the song after it was mixed. As he says it himself: It's not like it was lousy guitar playing or anything; I think it's how it went down. If people like it, then fine. I haven't gone to see the movie again again because I don't think I could bear it.

[Powerage5]

"Matt Soren"

[GivenToFly]

Then Axl wanted to bring in a guy named Paul Huge. "You want to bring in your buddy from Indiana?" Slash said incredulously. "Look, he'll just jam with us and maybe it'll work out," Axl said. "No," both Slash and I said. "Yes," said Axl. This wasn't some wedding band you could just bring friends into. If I wasn't going to bend for the sake of one of my best friends - Slash , and his Southern-rock songs [which Slash wanted to use for GN'R's next record] - I sure as hell wasn't going to let a stranger come in and fuck around with Guns. "Fine," Axl said. "How's this: you guys try him out on your own, give him a few days." We let him come in. Gave him a couple of days. It was hopeless [Duff's autobiography, "It's So Easy", 2011, p. 242]

And yet, so many people here worship this Paul Huge guy as the second coming of Christ.

In my 9 years on this forum I've never seen anyone rate Paul Huge as anything better than ok. Perhaps you can link me to posts where people praise him?