Slash says it was a “huge honour” having AC/DC’s Brian Johnson and Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler play on his record.
The Guns N’ Roses guitarist has enlisted a range of artists, also including Chris Stapleton, Iggy Pop, Chris Robinson and Gary Clark Jr., to perform on ‘Orgy Of The Damned’, a record of mostly blues tracks.
And he has revealed it was quite “spontaneous” getting Tyler to play harmonica on their cover of Howlin’ Wolf’s 60s’ classic ‘Killing Floor’, whilst singer Johnson was “really conscientious” about doing the song justice.
Slash told Swedish radio station Rokklassiker: “All I would do is pick the songs and then think who I would want to sing ’em. And Brian was the first guy I thought of [for ‘Killing Floor’].
“[H]e was really excited about it, because he was very much influenced [by] and covered Howlin’ Wolf in his younger years.
“So he got permission from the AC/DC guys to go ahead and do it, and I went and met with Brian in Florida [where Johnson lives], and he just did this great version of the song.”
On Tyler wanting to jump in on the action, he added: “I told him I was doing it, on the phone, and he … offered to play harmonica. I didn’t ask him. And he came down that day and put it on. It was great. You know, it was very spontaneous and … we had a good hang that day.”
The ‘Welcome To The Jungle’ hitmaker recently admitted it wasn’t easy to get people to feature on the record.
He told Classic Rock magazine: “Listen, when you’re cold-calling musicians, some of whom you don’t even know, it doesn’t matter who you are. It’s a hard gig.
“You’re trying to sell an idea.
“The two hardest ones to nail down were Chris Stapleton and Billy Gibbons. Billy’s all over the place. He’s always working and he’s always doing something. I told him I was doing a version of ‘Hoochie Coochie Man’ and I knew from his tone of voice that he was sceptical.
“I mean, he knows me, but… Anyway, I had to coax him into it…
“I feel really honoured that he’s on the record.”
In fact, Tyler didn’t get back to him for a while.
Slash said: “He was incommunicado for a month. And then, when the record was done, I finally heard from him; ‘Oh man, I’ve been here and there. What’s happening?’
“And that’s why he came down to put the harmonica on ‘Killing Floor’.”
The record has been in the pipeline since 1996, when Slash had left Guns N’ Roses and was working on a side project, Slash’s Blues Ball.