Slash Interview (VINTAGE - September 1996)

[RONIN]

GUNS N' ROSES -"We Ain't Dead Yet"

KERRANG!
September 21st 1996

He's played 400 gigs around the world in last three years, he can't wait to start the next GUNS N' ROSES album - and he's amazed that he's lived to be 31. In the second part of our world exclusive interview, Slash tells Jason Arnopp how he survived a decade of drink, drugs and decadence...

LOS ANGELES. The midafternoon sun is furnace hot, and the ashtray on our table is overflowing with French cigarettes which have been smoked right down to their butts. Slash lights another Gitane, adjusts his sunglasses, orders another vodka and cranberry juice from the waiter in the freshly-ironed white shirt, fiddles with the peak of the baseball cap that's perched atop his head, and furrows his deeply-tanned brow.

He's sitting in the Sunset Marquis hotel's poolside café, negotiating his way around his first Guns N' Roses interview for two years. He's already revealed that the band are finally writing new songs together, that he and singer Axl Rose are currently on civil terms, and that he'd really rather like them to make a 'simple, kick-ass hard rock record.

So far, so good. Except for the small matter of one Paul Huge, Rose's choice to replace Gilby Clarke and a guitarist who Slash insists he cannot, and will not, work with. So Guns N' Roses are still the reigning 'World's Most Dysfunctional Band', heavyweight division, and as such could fall apart in a spectuacular storm of vitriol and legal writs at any given minute.

But does anybody, anywhere still care any more? Since Guns N' Roses last released a proper, all- new record we've had a Nirvana grunge, Green Day punk, Terrorvision and Bitrock. Have they in fact, been away so long and cried wolf so many times that the world in general no longer remembers or cares?

Another cigarette. Another drink. Another furrow of the brow...

"I'VE NEVER cried wolf," says Slash. "Axl hasn't said anything, and Duff has been working his ass off on other things. It's only been other people saying we were going to do something. I always felt they should say nothing until the band says so.

"Have we left it too long? Nah. F**k, we came from nowhere in the first place. The first couple of shows will decide whether it's going to fly or not. That's it. I don't care so much about keeping up appearances; I care about the band going out there and gelling with the audience.

"See, it's not about wanting to sell 25 million records and being disappointed when you don't," he insists. "It's about puting out a record that we can stand behind, and performing our show. It's not like we have to re-conquer. I wasn't into that conquering concept in the first place."

But Axl Rose was, surely?

"I'm not speaking on his behalf," he shrugs. "But it was never my deal. I dig playing the songs, the immediacy of it, and making up the set as you go along.

"But we've disappeared before. They keep us alive in the press, while we're going through our personal traumas."

What sort of personal traumas?

"Relationships, home, just getting us all back into one room. F**kin' dealing with the whole public visibility thing. But I swear to God, it's nothing compared to how much you get when you play. It's a really small price.

"The more you hide from people, you turn into a recluse and you can't get off your f**king ass. If I don't play, I'll be a junkie in a hotel room somewhere. That's the honest reality."

Contrary to popular belief, Slash has been playing, all over the world. And not just with his Snakepit band. He estimates that he's done around 400 shows in the past three Guns-free years with "jazz musicians and horn players, and people like James Brown and Les Paul.

"I was actually chased after some TV guy who said all I do is sit around. You saw me here this afternoon relaxing out by the pool, but I had a nine-hour rehearsal yesterday. Tonight, I've got to go home, pack and get on a plane to Hungary. Don't ever f**king say I just sit around."

SOME THINGS you should know about Slash. He smiles a lot more than you'd expect. He's a Very Nice Man - which he says is down to having been "born into this business". He considers displaying your own gold and platinum discs as being "an insubstantial shrine to yourself". He says he's never listened to any Guns N' Roses records once it's been released. He still thinks of Axl Rose as a "family" and insists there's a "serious ongoing affinity" between the two of them. He is amusingly vague on details like when he last saw GN'R's original guitarist Izzy Stradlin' ("We went to an Alice Cooper show in Mexico. Then, I just didn't see him again..."), and he admits he can't hang out with his friend Gilby Clarke "because it might upset the others".

He regrets the bad blood that erupted between GN'R and Metallica in the wake of the infamously excessive US co-headline tour the two bands undertook in ´93.

"It wasn't their fault. It was ours. The whole thing was so over the top, we didn't make a dime," he claims. "That's embarrissingly senseless. Everyone was trying to keep up with the Rolling Stones. I can see naked girls in a G-string for free - I don't have to pay 20 grand to have 600 of them coming over!"

Slash has no children - or so he believes - but he is married. He describes this as: "Enough in itself. I love my wife dearly, but it's hard for me to measure this all out. She's my first and only wife. If anything should ever happen in this marriage. I'll never get married again."

HE ALSO enthuses about the new material Guns N' Roses have been writing. Apperently, the band members are currently trading tapes amongst themselves. "It's amazing stuff," he says. "The songs are really good, and I have a good vibe about it. I wouldn't want to go out and do a bad Guns N' Roses record."

In terms of no-nonsense attitude, are we talking about the modern equivalent of the band's classic, 17-million-selling ´87 debut, `Appetite For Destruction´?

"Well, I think everyone's so pissed off and frustrated at this point that it's inevitable," he smiles. "It's gonna be an angry record, but that's what we were built on.

"We'll see where it goes. I haven't rehearsed with them, or even been in the same room with them, since before the Snakepit record came out (in ´95)."

Isn't that scary? You're supposed to be a band.

"I know, but the only thing that really draws us together is once we get in synch as players. Then you get to that earthy, 'all for one, one for all' thing, where you start hanging out together.

"I don't care what Axl might say - this band was formed on the camaraderie between a little gang, against all odds."

But you're clearly not a gang now.

"Well, we have to re-establish that," he says. "We have to say, 'We're gonna do this, because nobody else is'. It's almost like starting over again. "Guns is like a family thing, but we've gone through so many changes - just going through the monstrosities of the business. Contracts, legal stuff, management... This whole huge conglomeration dealing with a stupid bunch of punk kids. It gets over the top."

FOR THE first time in more years than Slash probably cares to think about. Guns N' Roses have plan for the future. Naturally, it's liable to collapse at any stage.

"The plan," announces Slash, "is for Duff (McKagan, bass) and Matt (Sorum, drums) to take off their band, Neurotic Outsiders, for a while., leaving me and Axl to write stuff. If that spark gets rolling, then great. If it doesn't and we get into a fight, I'll just carry on playing gigs and jamming -with Snakepit or whatever.

"It's not complicated. At least, I don't see it that way. Axl and I could've done this sooner, if we'd just made a few compromises. But I guess that when bands get so big indecision becomes everything.

"There's no sense of, like, finite reality with Guns. It's just a matter of everybody coming together and the magic happens. I hate to sound silly about it, but I've found it's the same with a lot of the older bands I've got to know over the years. I talked to (Rolling Stones guitarist) Keith Richards, and he said he'd had more drastic but similar problems with Mick Jagger."

So that Guns N' Roses in 1996: an older, if not necessarily wiser, rock n' roll band.

"After being together for 12 years? Compared with Pearl Jam? Yeah, we're older," Slash chuckles. "But I'm happy about just be on the f**king planet. When I was 18, I never thought I'd be 31, like I am now."

Slash's fag packet is nearly empty, and our drinks are getting low. But are we any nearer to knowing where Guns N' Roses go next? Slash seems to think so.

"The records that Guns have left behind are great," he concludes, before heading off to meet a friend in the bar. "But we haven't blown our f**king wad yet."

http://www.gnrevolution.com/viewtopic.php?pid=54735

[double talkin jive mfkr]

Slash seems really wasted in the interview and therefore is very candid/honest about the demise of the band 

[RONIN]

5 minutes ago, double talkin jive mfkr said:

Slash seems really wasted in the interview and therefore is very candid/honest about the demise of the band 

One month before quitting.  

He seemed hopeful in that interview. It makes you wonder just how bad those October sessions went. Looks like Duff and Matt decided to stick around instead of the original plan of leaving Axl and Slash alone together. 

Edited October 1, 2017 by RONIN

[double talkin jive mfkr]

Quitting is the same as getting fired. If things aren't going well it's cause you're getting pushed out. 

Izzy's god like legendary status has increased significantly since NITL and has surpassed that of Axl as a result of not selling out. 

Edited October 1, 2017 by double talkin jive mfkr

[Blackstar]

1 hour ago, RONIN said:

One month before quitting.  

He seemed hopeful in that interview. It makes you wonder just how bad those October sessions went. Looks like Duff and Matt decided to stick around instead of the original plan of leaving Axl and Slash alone together. 

The interview probably took place about 1-2 months before it was published, ie. some time in the summer of '96.

The Neurotic Outsiders toured in September '96:

https://www.setlist.fm/setlists/neurotic-outsiders-bd67962.html

In this interview (published in Sept. 4 1996, most likely given about 2 weeks earlier), Sorum says that the week before the conversation took place they were all in the studio rehearsing:

But Sorum reports in the last week that Slash has been rehearsing with G N' R bassist Duff McKagan (who plays guitar in Neurotic Outsiders), Rose, Reed and "an anonymous guitar player" who may or may not be Clarke's replacement, and Sorum.
"It sounds like the band again. Everybody's in good shape and Duff's looking really good and healthy. It was good that we took the time off, because at the end of the tour Duff was one foot in the grave. I mean it was like we were all drugged out. We just all stepped back out of the whole rock and roll debauchery for a while and just sort of mellowed."

Edited October 1, 2017 by Blackstar

[MyPrettyTiedUpMichelle]

1 hour ago, RONIN said:

One month before quitting.  

He seemed hopeful in that interview. It makes you wonder just how bad those October sessions went. Looks like Duff and Matt decided to stick around instead of the original plan of leaving Axl and Slash alone together. 

Or like he was trying to convince himself...

Some of those phrases...'we have to re-establish that (the gang)' and 'family' and 'all for one, one for all' etc...I wonder if this applies today?  Have they finally just come round to the idea that they are family and can accept each other, bad history and all, and that's what got them back together (money aside)?

Though that still leaves the Izzy issue...however Vicky Hamilton just said on the podcast that 'Izzy doesn't want to be found' so...maybe there are still fractures that won't fully heal?

[sidman69]

here's an interview with Slash september 1996 i think from Howard Stern's show. He talks about the new GNR record, Axl and some other stuff

 

 

[RONIN]

On 10/1/2017 at 2:39 PM, MyPrettyTiedUpMichelle said:

Or like he was trying to convince himself...

Some of those phrases...'we have to re-establish that (the gang)' and 'family' and 'all for one, one for all' etc...I wonder if this applies today?  Have they finally just come round to the idea that they are family and can accept each other, bad history and all, and that's what got them back together (money aside)?

Though that still leaves the Izzy issue...however Vicky Hamilton just said on the podcast that 'Izzy doesn't want to be found' so...maybe there are still fractures that won't fully heal?

I suspect the family concept no longer exists anymore for those guys. I'm sure they're amicable enough now but I imagine the ties that binded them all sort of ended in the late 90's when they disbanded and went their separate ways. The contract to demote Duff and Slash probably destroyed the already damaged familial bonds. They're simply businessmen now who are working together to manage their lucrative brand. Duff even mentions as much in that 1999/2000 interview of his I posted a few weeks ago:

After several years away, do you think there is any chance that Guns N' Roses' original members reunite someday for an album or a tour? Would you do it if you were offered it?

If it's something democratic between the five of us, that's something I would love to do. Not long ago we were offered several shows to begin the new Millennium in Australia. But there's no way it could be like the old days. Things have changed.

[RONIN]

On 10/1/2017 at 2:25 PM, Blackstar said:

The interview probably took place about 1-2 months before it was published, ie. some time in the summer of '96.

The Neurotic Outsiders toured in September '96:

https://www.setlist.fm/setlists/neurotic-outsiders-bd67962.html

In this interview (published in Sept. 4 1996, most likely given about 2 weeks earlier), Sorum says that the week before the conversation took place they were all in the studio rehearsing:

But Sorum reports in the last week that Slash has been rehearsing with G N' R bassist Duff McKagan (who plays guitar in Neurotic Outsiders), Rose, Reed and "an anonymous guitar player" who may or may not be Clarke's replacement, and Sorum.
"It sounds like the band again. Everybody's in good shape and Duff's looking really good and healthy. It was good that we took the time off, because at the end of the tour Duff was one foot in the grave. I mean it was like we were all drugged out. We just all stepped back out of the whole rock and roll debauchery for a while and just sort of mellowed."

The timeline is a bit confusing Blackstar. So what's your best guess as to when Slash did his final rehearsals with GnR. Was it from August - September 1996, with October essentially being a month long resignation from GnR?

It appears that there is a short session in early 1994 with Axl, Slash, Duff, Gilby, and Matt. Then another brief set of sessions in spring of 1995 to rehearse with Zakk Wylde. And finally - the fall 1996 sessions. So over a 3 year span, the band really played together only for 3 sporadic sets of sessions. Is that right or am I missing something here?

[Sosso]

20 minutes ago, RONIN said:

It appears that there is a short session in early 1994 with Axl, Slash, Duff, Gilby, and Matt. Then another brief set of sessions in spring of 1995 to rehearse with Zakk Wylde. And finally - the fall 1996 sessions. So over a 3 year span, the band really played together only for 3 sporadic sets of sessions. Is that right or am I missing something here?

Dizzy

[shotsfired cro]

1 hour ago, Sosso said:

Dizzy

Who is Dizzy?

[Chunder Monkey]

"HE ALSO enthuses about the new material Guns N' Roses have been writing. Apperently, the band members are currently trading tapes amongst themselves. "It's amazing stuff," he says. "The songs are really good, and I have a good vibe about it. I wouldn't want to go out and do a bad Guns N' Roses record."

 

I would LOVE to know what became of that material. 

 

[Tori72]

Sad piece of rock history, really. I always thought of Slash as being very mellow, loyal to the band / Axl and optimistic in interviews. At least before the break-up. So it's not that surprising that he didn't give more away before he would officially split.

I'd love to know what went down at the Alice Cooper Show with Izzy though. Wasn't 1996 the time when they secretly tried to rehearse with Izzy again but it didn't work out? So apparently they were also socializing again but somehow it didn't work altogether...

 

Edited October 5, 2017 by Tori72

[GnRMisterE]

Interview aside, I love the fact that Terrorvision are mentioned! In my view, the best band to come out of Britain in the 90s (and still a great live band!)

[RONIN]

9 hours ago, Chunder Monkey said:

"HE ALSO enthuses about the new material Guns N' Roses have been writing. Apperently, the band members are currently trading tapes amongst themselves. "It's amazing stuff," he says. "The songs are really good, and I have a good vibe about it. I wouldn't want to go out and do a bad Guns N' Roses record."

 

I would LOVE to know what became of that material. 

 

 

"In fact, a lot of people aren’t aware of this but for about two weeks in 1996 the guys got back together in the Illusions lineup and I remember telling Axl, “Don’t fuck it up.  Just go in a room like the Traveling Wilburys and sit on crates, no girlfriends, no managers just your guitars and a tape recorder and grab whatever magic occurs as a result of you all being together and playing, just make music for each other and with each other not for the world and its magnifying glass.  Make believe that someone is offering you 100 million dollars to write 12 songs.  These are songs that will never have to be heard but they have to be complete and you won’t get paid unless you can prove that you actually hammered out these ideas, these songs.” 

Of course that was all for not because two weeks later that reunion fell apart but from what I understand Izzy had a tape of like 50 songs that he was gonna bring to these sessions that never happened.  I don’t know if Axl heard Izzy’s stuff and thought it to be a little primitive or something but I know that Slash had a good dozen or so as well and Axl was into at least three of them and maybe four but then Slash got big headed and just took them all and said “Fine, I’m gonna go do Snake Pit with them”.  I know that Axl was really upset that Slash quit and that Slash took those particular songs because those were songs that were written explicitly for Guns N’ Roses. " - Marc Canter

 

 

Edited October 5, 2017 by RONIN

[Blackstar]

15 hours ago, RONIN said:

The timeline is a bit confusing Blackstar. So what's your best guess as to when Slash did his final rehearsals with GnR. Was it from August - September 1996, with October essentially being a month long resignation from GnR?

It appears that there is a short session in early 1994 with Axl, Slash, Duff, Gilby, and Matt. Then another brief set of sessions in spring of 1995 to rehearse with Zakk Wylde. And finally - the fall 1996 sessions. So over a 3 year span, the band really played together only for 3 sporadic sets of sessions. Is that right or am I missing something here?

That was it, more or less, with the possibility of another very short session in the fall of '95 (after Slash's return from his solo tour which ended in August). The Zakk Wylde sessions were in late January or February '95. As for the '96 sessions, I believe they took place mainly in August, as in September there was the Neurotic Outsiders tour, with most of the dates being in US cities far from L.A. and abroad. In October '96 it was probably just 1-2 days.

[Blackstar]

8 hours ago, Tori72 said:

Sad piece of rock history, really. I always thought of Slash as being very mellow, loyal to the band / Axl and optimistic in interviews. At least before the break-up. So it's not that surprising that he didn't give more away before he would officially split.

I'd love to know what went down at the Alice Cooper Show with Izzy though. Wasn't 1996 the time when they secretly tried to rehearse with Izzy again but it didn't work out? So apparently they were also socializing again but somehow it didn't work altogether...

They didn't try to rehearse secretly with Izzy in '96, as far as I know; the only (not secret) rehearsals with Izzy and Duff took place in the summer of '95.

The Alice Cooper show, where Slash and Izzy met, was in early June 1996. Slash said in October '96 that he had lost contact with Izzy since that show.

In '95 Slash didn't seem to care that much to bring Izzy back (not that he didn't want him, of course - in '94 he didn't, though). But maybe in '96, near the end, he was seeing Izzy as the last hope to save things; probably not so much for the album, but as a mediator, because, no matter what had happened, Izzy had another kind of relationship with Axl; Izzy also knew Paul Tobias from back in Indiana and he could talk to him as well.

Imo, whether Izzy would return in some capacity (it seems that he didn't want to fully come back) or not depended mostly, if not solely, on Izzy himself; not Axl or Slash/Duff. At that time, neither Izzy nor Tobias would be fully involved (ie. tour and everything), so it wouldn't be an "either Izzy or Tobias" situation for Axl.  I think Izzy had developed some sort of PTSD after GnR and his soberness was still fragile, so, although he wanted to write with the guys, when he smelled drama from a distance, he just walked away. Who knows, maybe at the Alice Cooper show he and Slash discussed the possibility of him coming back and he said "okay", but then he disappeared...

Edited October 5, 2017 by Blackstar

[RONIN]

44 minutes ago, Blackstar said:

They didn't try to rehearse secretly with Izzy in '96, as far as I know; the only (not secret) rehearsals with Izzy and Duff took place in the summer of '95.

The Alice Cooper show, where Slash and Izzy met, was in early June 1996. Slash said in October '96 that he had lost contact with Izzy since that show.

In '95 Slash didn't seem to care that much to bring Izzy back (not that he didn't want him, of course - in '94 he didn't, though). But maybe in '96, near the end, he was seeing Izzy as the last hope to save things; probably not so much for the album, but as a mediator, because, no matter what had happened, Izzy had another kind of relationship with Axl; Izzy also knew Paul Tobias from back in Indiana and he could talk to him as well.

Imo, whether Izzy would return in some capacity (it seems that he didn't want to fully come back) or not depended mostly, if not solely, on Izzy himself; not Axl or Slash/Duff. At that time, neither Izzy nor Tobias would be fully involved (ie. tour and everything), so it wouldn't be an "either Izzy or Tobias" situation for Axl.  I think Izzy had developed some sort of "PTSD" after GnR and his soberness was still fragile, so, although he wanted to write with the guys, when he smelled drama from a distance, he just walked away. Who knows, maybe at the Alice Cooper show he and Slash discussed the possibility of him coming back and he said "okay", but then he disappeared...

If Marc Canter's allegation of Izzy having 50 songs to bring to the '96 sessions is true - it may have been on the cards to involve him in some capacity. Who knows. 

[MyPrettyTiedUpMichelle]

1 hour ago, Blackstar said:

I think Izzy had developed some sort of "PTSD" after GnR and his soberness was still fragile, so, although he wanted to write with the guys, when he smelled drama from a distance, he just walked away. Who knows, maybe at the Alice Cooper show he and Slash discussed the possibility of him coming back and he said "okay", but then he disappeared...

Glad you mentioned the PTSD, it's something I've thought too.  You read some Izzy interviews and you get a distinct impression of him having been quite traumatised and in fact, still not being quite himself even several years later.  I'm sure he had good times too, but his drug addiction was very bad, the whole GNR machine was in over-drive which overwhelmed him completely (Duff too) and then when he straightened himself out and came back, his description of the others and his reaction to them (zombies, personality changes, unrecognisable, didn't want to wake up next to Slash's corpse) suggested he was in danger of being overwhelmed again.  I can't blame him for walking away.  

[MyPrettyTiedUpMichelle]

1 hour ago, Blackstar said:

I think Izzy had developed some sort of "PTSD" after GnR and his soberness was still fragile, so, although he wanted to write with the guys, when he smelled drama from a distance, he just walked away. Who knows, maybe at the Alice Cooper show he and Slash discussed the possibility of him coming back and he said "okay", but then he disappeared...

Glad you mentioned the PTSD, it's something I've thought too.  You read some Izzy interviews and you get a distinct impression of him having been quite traumatised and in fact, still not being quite himself even several years later.  I'm sure he had good times too, but his drug addiction was very bad, the whole GNR machine was in over-drive which overwhelmed him completely (Duff too) and then when he straightened himself out and came back, his description of the others and his reaction to them (zombies, personality changes, unrecognisable, didn't want to wake up next to Slash's corpse) suggested he was in danger of being overwhelmed again.  I can't blame him for walking away.  

[Tori72]

18 minutes ago, MyPrettyTiedUpMichelle said:

Glad you mentioned the PTSD, it's something I've thought too.  You read some Izzy interviews and you get a distinct impression of him having been quite traumatised and in fact, still not being quite himself even several years later.  I'm sure he had good times too, but his drug addiction was very bad, the whole GNR machine was in over-drive which overwhelmed him completely (Duff too) and then when he straightened himself out and came back, his description of the others and his reaction to them (zombies, personality changes, unrecognisable, didn't want to wake up next to Slash's corpse) suggested he was in danger of being overwhelmed again.  I can't blame him for walking away.  

Yup, same here. Always thought so, too. PTSD, something he had to work on to get through it. Also quite understandable after that explosion from 87 onwards and those massive addictions. 

[Chunder Monkey]

4 hours ago, RONIN said:

but I know that Slash had a good dozen or so as well and Axl was into at least three of them and maybe four but then Slash got big headed and just took them all and said “Fine, I’m gonna go do Snake Pit with them”.  I know that Axl was really upset that Slash quit and that Slash took those particular songs because those were songs that were written explicitly for Guns N’ Roses. " - Marc Canter

 

It's confusing to me. We know some of Snakepit1 was originally Slash's GNR material. But this interview is set after snakepit1 was released and toured, yet Slash is still talking about unheard amazing material from when he jammed with GNR prior to that. Makes me wonder if there's other songs.

[Blackstar]

21 hours ago, RONIN said:

The timeline is a bit confusing Blackstar. So what's your best guess as to when Slash did his final rehearsals with GnR. Was it from August - September 1996, with October essentially being a month long resignation from GnR?

It appears that there is a short session in early 1994 with Axl, Slash, Duff, Gilby, and Matt. Then another brief set of sessions in spring of 1995 to rehearse with Zakk Wylde. And finally - the fall 1996 sessions. So over a 3 year span, the band really played together only for 3 sporadic sets of sessions. Is that right or am I missing something here?

The Hungary show Slash says in the interview he was about to play took place in Aug. 14 1996.

In November 1996 (14/11) Kerrang published an article which seems to contain outtakes/off the record quotes from the same interview published in 21 Sept. '96. Probably those quotes were held back and Slash, after he had quit, gave his permission to the magazine to publish them:

Edited October 6, 2017 by Blackstar

[RONIN]

16 hours ago, Blackstar said:

The Hungary show Slash says in the interview he was about to play took place in Aug. 14 1996.

In November 1996 (14/11) Kerrang published an article which seems to contain outtakes/off the record quotes from the same interview published in 21 Sept. '96. Probably those quotes were held back and Slash, after he had quit, gave his permission to the magazine to publish them:

Fascinating stuff. Thanks for posting that Blackstar. What do you make of this interview?

It would appear here that Paul Tobias and the direction of the music are the driving factors for tension with the underlying subtext being the power struggle between Axl and Slash (who owns the name, contract negotiations) - by 1995-1996, it would seem that Slash had completely lost his power and position to negotiate either who is in the band or even the direction the music would take. 

It also seems to lend a bit of credence to what Marc Canter was saying, that perhaps the Tobias issue really was the tipping point in an already fragile and damaged relationship between Axl and Slash. But I suspect regardless of Tobias, that was an impossible situation that was going to come apart anyway. They were doomed the minute Axl left the partnership in '95. That's really the end of Guns N' Roses legally speaking.

[RONIN]

19 hours ago, Chunder Monkey said:

 

It's confusing to me. We know some of Snakepit1 was originally Slash's GNR material. But this interview is set after snakepit1 was released and toured, yet Slash is still talking about unheard amazing material from when he jammed with GNR prior to that. Makes me wonder if there's other songs.

I think that part of the interview is a bit muddled between Canter and the interviewer. From Blackstar's interview, it appears that Duff and Slash both had plenty of material that they were bringing to the '96 sessions. As per Marc Canter, Izzy allegedly had a bunch of stuff as well. Clearly there was quite a bit of music in the cache even from those handful of sessions from '93-96 - much of it perhaps still in Axl's vault labeled as Riff #4,385 (Slash) on Tape #900. 

But none of this music has vocals (at least from what Duff and Slash have said) and therein lies the rub.