Slash's solo album announcement

Here's the official  press release that was used to announce the Slash solo album

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 In what will be his first true solo album, rock icon Slash announced today his album, 'Slash', will be released in the UK on 10 May 2010 through Roadrunner Records.

The album features an all-star roster of guest musicians including Ian Astbury, Chris Cornell, Rocco DeLuca, Fergie, Dave Grohl, Myles Kennedy, Kid Rock, Lemmy Kilmister, Adam Levine of Maroon 5, Duff McKagan, M Shadows of Avenged Sevenfold, Ozzy Osbourne, Iggy Pop, and Andrew Stockdale of Wolfmother.

A major undertaking for Slash, he enlisted services of producing partner Eric Valentine (Queens Of The Stone Age, The All-American Rejects) and compiled a rhythm section of bassist Chris Chaney (Jane's Addiction) and drummer Josh Freese (Nine Inch Nails). Slash handled the majority of arranging and songwriting duties and hand-picked each guest artist. The album's guests worked collaboratively with Slash to round out the song.

"The idea was really simple in the beginning," said Slash. "These are all artists I wanted to work with – that I thought it would be amazing to do something creative and collaborative. And I was so impressed with what everyone brought to the table. They were all so committed to doing a good job. And we had a lot of fun making these songs."

Background

Slash is widely considered one of the greatest rock guitar players of all time. He has received countless accolades and awards including a 2007 star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame alongside his idols Jimmy Page and Jimi Hendrix.

An original member of iconic rock band Guns N' Roses, Slash helped the band create signature sounds like the guitar riff of #1 hit Sweet Child O' Mine and Welcome To The Jungle. The band dominated the 1980s and '90s music scene selling more than 100 million albums worldwide and ushered in a decade of hard charging rock music.

After the band's break-up, Slash went on to critical acclaim in his personal project Slash's Snakepit, and global success with supergroup Velvet Revolver. He has been widely sought after by the biggest musicians of all time, performing with everyone from Michael Jackson to Stevie Wonder to Ray Charles.

Slash is one of the marquee playable characters in Guitar Hero III, has two signature Gibson guitars in his name, and authored his own top-selling biography Slash in 2007.

Check out the lyrics of By the Sword, the first single from the album.


  

"Back from Cali" Lyrics Slash

"Back from Cali" Lyrics Slash

Featuring Alter Bridge singer Myles Kennedy on lead vocals. Kennedy also toured with Slash to promote the GNR guitarist's solo album.

Of the song Slash said, “When we were thinking about getting a single I was thinking of writing another song and getting Myles to sing it. Then it dawned on me that I had another killer piece or music that I had demoed up for this record but couldn’t think of anybody to sing it so I'd been resigned to the idea of not doing it.


“So I put an arrangement together and sent it to him and he wrote this killer part for it. We flew him out to LA, recorded the song and squeezed it onto the record at the very last minute. Before we even recorded the song we had to get the album artwork done and had to put the name of the song in there before it was recorded. I knew it was going to be a good song, but it was by the seat of our pants.

"It’s different to anything else on the record. It’s a heavy, slow AC/DC kind of deal with really, really great vocals.” Miles and Slash also collaborated on Starlight.

Back From Cali with Myles Kennedy on vocals

Woke up this morning all alone
I got a ringin' in my head
I couldn't take it anymore today
She left me here for dead
Oh, I (echoed)

And it don't come as no surprise
I should have known if from the start
The lights are faded
And I can't deny this place ain't got no heart

Oh, you can hear my tonight
You can hear me tonight

You'll have to carry me
Back from Cali
I'm tired and broken and I lost my way
You'll have to carry me
Back to where I belong
You'll have to carry me
Back from Cali
I don't want money
I don't need the fame
You'll have to carry me
Back to where I belong

I got to leave this angel city
I can't do it by myself
So if you please
Mama, can you save me
Before I blow this life to hell

Oh, love
Mama drag me by the feet
And just drag me home

You'll have to carry me
Back from Cali
I don't care if you think I'm to blame
You'll have to carry me
Back to where I belong
You'll have to carry me
Back from Cali
The angel city where the devils play
You'll have to carry me
Back to where I belong

Yeah, you can hear me tonight
You can hear me tonight
You can hear me tonight
You can hear me tonight

I've lost my way
I'm so alone
And all I want to do is come home

Check out the lyrics to Doctor Alibi.

Do you think Slash makes homebrew beer? Do you think he would think it was easy to use carbonation drops? Or would he pay someone else to make beer? Or does he just drink ph tested Kombucha? It's hard to say, we've never met the guitar slinger!

"Crucify the Dead" Lyrics Slash and Ozzy Osbourne

Sharroooonnn!

"Crucify the Dead" Lyrics Slash (feat. Ozzy Osbourne)

The Prince of Darkness said yes to Slash's offer of collaboration and the rest is history. Said Slash of Ozzy, “Ozzy was a lot of fun. It was a real honour – he’s so busy with his stuff – and he took the time to stop and really focus on writing the lyrics for this song.

"We recorded the vocals up at Ozzy’s house, and it was funny because I’m sitting here and Ozzy’s here and we’re sitting at the control board and he’s got his microphone, and he’s working on the lyrics and he’s singing them, trying to work out how they should go. It’s such a recognisable voice!

"It was just a trip to hear Ozzy working out the parts for a piece of music that I wrote. Somebody I’d been listening to since I was a kid, all of a sudden right there. He put together a very poignant set of lyrics about a particular subject matter that a lot of us can relate to..."

What does that last line mean? 

Given the imagery the lyrics refer to in terms of Guns and Roses and thorns etc there has been some speculation that the song is a reference to the fractured relationship between Axl Rose and Slash. It could even be a response to GNR's Sorry which some considered to be Axl referring to Slash. It's pure speculation of course!

"Crucify the Dead" Lyrics

The fire started long ago

The flames burned out, still embers glow

So charred and black

There's nothing left to burn, to burn



We had the same dream

Lived life to extreme

A loaded gun jammed by a rose

The thorns are not around your head

Your ego cursed you till you bled

You cannot crucify the dead

To me you're dead, yeah





The future is unset in stone

Decisions past leave you alone

Betrayed us all with your own selfish greed, your greed, yeah

New soldiers now say

That your beggars collect

Re-crucified and paid by you

The thorns are not around your head

Your ego cursed you till you bled

You cannot crucify the dead

To me you're dead, yeah





We were like brothers with the world in our hands

You always have too much to say

Someday you look back and you wonder why

You let it all slip away, yeah



Crucify the dead

Crucify the dead



The thorns are not around your head

Your ego cursed you till you bled

You cannot crucify the dead

To me you're dead, yeah

Check out the lyrics to the first single off Slash's album, By the Sword or the popular Starlight.

"Sahara" Lyrics Slash

"Sahara" Lyrics Slash

Sahara features Japanese singer Koshi Inaba on vocals. It had an early released on November 11, 2009 in Japan and the song is only featured on the Japanese version of Slash's album.

The b-side to the Sahara is a cover version of Guns N' Roses' classic track from Appetite for Destruction, "Paradise City" featuring Cypress Hill and Fergie of the Black Eyed Peas on lead vocals.

"Sahara" Lyrics 


Check out the lyrics to Slash's Nothing to Say

"Ghost" Lyrics Slash and Ian Astbury of The Cult

"Ghost" Lyrics Slash

Ghost features Cult singer Ian Astbury on vocals & Slash's former band mate from GNR, Izzy Stradlin.

Said Slash of Ian “I always thought Ian was great and when I finished the music to Ghost, he came to mind instantly, probably because of the chord changes. But I hadn’t talked to him in a while and I felt sort of embarrassed to send it to him. 

One of the things I had to get over making this record was getting the nerve up to go after these people. But he’s an amazing singer. To be in the studio and watch him work was definitely a very cool experience.


“The only other person who played guitar on the record was Izzy, who came in and put some guitars on Ghost. It’s really cool because me and Izzy have a very recognisable dual guitar sound and I hadn’t heard it in a while. It was just great fun. I love Izzy.”


"Ghost" Lyrics 

Kill the ghost
That hides in your soul
Rock 'n' Roll
Rock 'n' Roll
Rock Rock

Wipe the blood from your Halo
? that you hide your shadow's pride
Spit in the face of the ugly clown
Who'll hunt you down 
But you can't hide
Exterminate the future

Kill the ghost

That hides in your soul

Rock 'n' Roll

Kill the ghost

That hides in your soul

Rock 'n' Roll

Whispers of the future
Broken ? in your skull ? in your smile
Exterminate the future

Kill the ghost

That hides in your soul

Kill the ghost

That hides in your soul

You can't run from the future
You can't change the past
You're not that fast 

You can't run from the future

You can't change the past

Not that fast 

Kill the ghost

That hides in your soul

Kill the ghost

That hides in your soul

Kill the ghost

That hides in your soul

Kill 

Rock N Roll

Check out the lyrics to the first single off Slash's album, By the Sword.  Or maybe the lyrics to Promise with Chris Cornell (ex Soundgarden and Audioslave).

By the Sword Lyrics Slash with Andrew Stockdale

By the Sword Lyrics Slash

"By the Sword" is the first official single from Slash's solo album. It features Andrew Stockdale of Wolfmother on vocals and was released as a single on March 1, 2010.

“It’s just a riff that I had that stuck with me. I think I came up with it here in the UK with Velvet Revolver at a soundcheck. A lot of the material on the record was written in hotel rooms during that last Velvet Revolver tour.

"Andrew’s phenomenal singer but I’d never met him before so I didn’t know who to fucking contact! And a friend of mine – Tom Zutaut, the guy that signed Guns N’ Roses to Geffen back in the eighties – got his number for me.

"Andrew happened to be in Hollywood working on Cosmic Egg, so I took an acoustic over there and we wrote the song together. I had this riff and a couple of chord changes and he changed a couple of chords for the chorus, it was just very organic. It’s a very cool song.”

It's probably only a coincidence to notice the first line of the lyric references riding horses like the U2 song but also that the third line refers to the U2 album, All that You Can't Leave Behind....

By the Sword Lyrics:


With the horses that you ride,
And the feelings left inside,


Comes a time you need to leave all that behind,


Well they claim they'd like to know,


And they'll fight you there to go,


And they're gatherin' around for all the show,






Well there is a reward,


To live and die by the sword,


Well they tried to complicate you,


But you left it all behind,


All the worldly possessions,


Are left for recollections,


And finally it's all gone!






They're releasing all the hounds,


What is lost can still be found,


When you're walking with your fear down on the ground,


Well there's those who choose to run


Following the setting sun,


And now it seems the journey's has begun,






Well there is a reward,


To live and die by the sword,


Well they tried to complicate you,


But you left it all behind,


All the worldly possessions,


Are left for recollections,


And finally it's all gone!






With the horses that you ride,


And the feelings left inside,


there's a time you need to leave it all behind,






Well there is no reward,


To live and die by the sword,


Well they tried to complicate you,


But you left it all behind,


All the worldly possessions,


Are left for recollections,


And finally it's all gone!

Check out the lyrics to Slash's Ghost recorded with Ian Asterbury from The Cult. Also why not read the Nothing to Say song lyrics.