Slash: The IHC review of the rocker’s unhinged biography [IHC Book Club]

Title: Slash
Author: Slash with Anthony Bozza
Publisher: HarperCollins

“…I had actually brought coke into South America and back, which is ridiculous…”

I think it’s funny that after a couple months of not being mentally able to finish a book (of any sort), I devoured Slash in a week.

Trust me, it isn’t because it was a fantastically written book, but I think it had more to do with how easy it was to read (and my head space at the moment… ).

My first impression is how guarded it is. Which, during the course of reading the entire book, is basically Slash’s personality. Sure, he’s pretty candid about his drug and alcohol intake, but he had to confront that in rehab anyways. He also came clean about his relationships, again, a rehab therapy session. He love for his sons and current wife, ditto. Guns N’ Roses, well… To me it comes off as still being a lot complicated and unresolved than maybe it should be. Of course, Slash isn’t a dishing the
dirty type of book, but still, there seems to be a lot more of the story that Slash doesn’t tell us humble readers about.

To add another dimension to Slash, since it’s publication the band Velvet Revolver has split up (with many fingers pointing at Scott Weiland rejoining the Stone Temple Pilots as the catalyst). So in whatever next chapter Slash writes, it will be interesting to see how the end of Slash meshes with whatever is told next.

Some of the tour tales were okay, but really, once you’ve read The Long Hard Road Out of Hell, a lot of other tour tales just don’t stand up (that being said, I’m going to reread that Manson book soon).

What I did find interesting in reading Slash is that Slash really does just have a love of playing guitar (and doing it well to his standards) and his respect for most of his fellow musicians.

Overall, it was okay. Better than some, worse than others. If you’re looking for a in depth look at GnR, your outta luck, but if you want to read about a guy who loves to playing getting his shit together on a regular basis enough to play, Slash will do that for you.

7/10

Via: Kawphy’s Book Reviews