Answer Addiction

Tag: Slash

  • Slash Reflects On Hitting Rock Bottom, Getting Sober

    Slash Reflects On Hitting Rock Bottom, Getting Sober

    The legendary guitarist has been sober since 2005. 

    Like many hard-partying rock stars, Slash is lucky to still be alive today. His use of alcohol and heroin is well documented, and now at the age of 53, he’s reflecting on why he finally cleaned up his act in 2005.

    Slash first left Guns N’ Roses (GNR) in 1996. As the legendary guitarist explained to Belfast Live, once he no longer had the “security” of being in a rock band, “I drank myself through it. I did drugs through it and it was like, textbook almost… I’d left my band, I was getting divorced, I was going through all this s—t. I had record company issues. It was really classic rock ’n’ roll life—the bad side.”

    As Slash was trying to launch himself as a solo artist, he explains, “I was drinking myself to death… I was out playing all over the place, I had no real direction I was going or any real concrete idea as to what I was going to be doing for any predetermined amount of time. It was very excessive.”

    This period carried over “through the early millennium, up through 2005,” and into Velvet Revolver, his post-GNR band featuring the late Scott Weiland.

    “Just because of the nature of the band—and it’s my own fault—but it was easy to do. I got completely strung out again and at that point I realized there was nothing about being strung out that reminded me of anything like when I first started using drugs. It was pretty miserable… Nothing was doing it for me and I decided I had to stop.”

    The guitarist also knew he had to clean up for his family. As he told Loudwire, “I had two kids and I was living in a hotel because I couldn’t be around them. It all sort of came to a head and I thought I needed to go to some sort of facility and just get away from everybody for a month and I’ll clean up.”

    Slash knows he’s lucky to have a second chance in GNR. “To have the opportunity to go back with Guns and that being such an amazing experience and such a positive experience, at this point in time, right now, to be in these two bands is probably one of the best professional periods I’ve ever been in.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Slash Talks Performing, Writing Music While Sober

    Slash Talks Performing, Writing Music While Sober

    “I found that when I got sober… my partying thing was really a matter of killing time in between things.”

    Slash, who is currently enjoying a successful reunion tour with Guns N’ Roses, had a long history with substance use before finally getting sober in 2006.

    The famous guitarist born Saul Hudson also has a new solo album, Living the Dream, coming out on September 21, and now that he’s writing new music and performing sober, he realizes it’s been a whole new ballgame.

    “I found that when I got sober, sort of looking back from the time that I started playing up until 2006, my partying thing was really a matter of killing time in between things. I wasn’t really using when I was in the studio, I was always focused on music,” he told Loudwire. “So when I got sober, all that effort that I put into what turned into a massive addiction at that point, I took all that and just put it straight back into the music, and it wasn’t really reliant on me being buzzed, or should I say inebriated, to be able to create stuff.”

    When writing the classic Guns N’ Roses songs, Slash recalled, “A lot of that material from the old days—I can pick particular songs that were definitely written under the influence, but I can pick other songs that were written under the influence of a couple beers.”

    Slash confessed to Rolling Stone, “From ’86 to ’94, there was definitely not a day or a show that I was sober… I was a very functional alcoholic. When I was on tour, it’s always alcohol. I knew better than to try a [heroin] habit on the road, knowing that if things don’t go as planned, you’re gonna be sick and all that miserable shit. So, it was just alcohol that I was dealing with. Which is its own demon, but I mean, I was good with it [laughs].”

    Slash has always been a workaholic, and keeping busy has been the key to his sobriety. “I think, probably I’m at my weakest if I don’t have a bunch of shit going on.”

    Today, he says his sobriety has “been going well. All addicts and alcoholics have to know that it’s there… I’ve been really fortunate that I finally got to that point where I was just over it. And I haven’t had an issue since then. I haven’t had any desire to go back and do that.”

    View the original article at thefix.com