QUAD RAPHONIC
“I’VE WANTED TO DO RECORDS LIKE THIS EVER SINCE WE FIRST STARTED — EVER SINCE GUNS N’ ROSES FIRST STARTED”
WHEN GUITAR WORLD CATCHESUPWITH Slash one morning in late October 2021, it’s just a few weeks after the guitarist has wrapped a successful two-month stint of U.S. stadiums and arenas with Guns N’ Roses. And yet, here we are, discussing the imminent release of a new Slash featuring Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators album, as well as a just-announced tour with the band.
For some artists, this quick turnaround might engender a bit of musical whiplash. For Slash, it’s just standard operating procedure. “I think I’ve gotten pretty used to sort of living in both worlds at the same time,” he says, then laughs. “You have to, in order to be able to do it.”
It also doesn’t hurt that Slash genuinely loves to play guitar, in particular in a live situation. “When the feel is right and the energy is right and everything’s firing on all cylinders, it’s the fucking best,” he acknowledges. Which is perhaps why, when it came time to record the new and fourth SMKC album — titled, aptly, 4 — he wanted to create as much of a live experience as possible.
Which meant changing things up from how Slash has made any previous Conspirators record (and, to go one further, how most bands make most records in general). “I’ve wanted to do records like this ever since we first started,” he says. “Ever since Guns N’ Roses first started. It’s just, I could never get a producer to actually do it.”
That “it” involved packing the entire SMKC band (which, in addition to Slash, includes singer Myles Kennedy, bassist Todd Kerns, drummer Brent Fitz and rhythm guitarist Frank Sidoris) along with all the guitars, amps, drums and the rest of the gear, into one room — in this case, Nashville’s historic RCA Studio A, with producer Dave Cobb — hitting the record button and blasting through a
