Slash found it “hard” to call other musicians and ask them to play on his new album.
The Guns ‘N Roses’ guitarist has enlisted a range of artists, including Chris Stapleton, Iggy Pop, Steven Tyler, Chris Robinson and Gary Clark Jr., to perform on ‘Orgy Of The Damned’, a record of mostly blues tracks, but despite his own global fame, he insisted 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.”
One singer who didn’t return Slash’s calls was Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler, but he was still able to get involved with the record.
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.
He said: “There was a lot of drinking going on, but we were having a real good time playing all these covers and jamming around.
“And we actually took it to the point of touring round the US and we even did some touring in Europe.
“Anyway, I always wanted to make a record of that. But the there was Snakepit, then I was in hospital, then Velvet Revolver, then the Conspirators, then back to Guns N’ Roses. It’s just been very busy.
“Anyway, 30 years later I finally had two weeks off and I thought, ‘I’m going to do this record now.’ ”