B.B. King. That is who kicked off a lifelong love of the blues for Slash, best known as the lead guitarist for Guns n' Roses.
His passion for blues has led the Brit-born Rock & Hall of Famer to release "Orgy of the Damned," his sophomore solo bow that features a dozen mostly cover songs sung by an array of famed guest vocalists.
The itch to do this kind of project can be traced back to Slash's Blues Ball, a mid-'90s side gig Slash dabbled in, but never advanced into a recording project, as he was figuring out his musical situation having just quit Gn'R and disbanded the first lineup of his band, The Snakepit.
"There was a crazy frenzy of stuff going on in my life at that time," he explained. "While putting together another Snakepit, I was simultaneously hanging out with all these blues guys and sitting in at places like The Baked Potato. I was friends with this guy Teddy Andreadis, who is a touring and session guy and also this guy Johnny Griparic. We did a lot of jamming and we threw this band together called Slash's Blues Ball, which was basically just a drunken cover band. I always thought it would have been great to record this, but because it wasn't such a serious, focused thing, it just didn't happen."
Having been busy touring with the reunited Guns n' Roses and his solo band, The Conspirators, the guitarist thought back to those blues jams. He recruited Griparic and Andreadis to join him in the studio along with drummer Michael Jerome and singer/guitarist Tash Neal. The quintet spent a week last year recording basic tracks, in between Slash's touring commitments with Gn'R and The Conspirators. For this project, Slash enlisted producer Mike Clink, who helmed GnR's 1987 landmark debut album, "Appetite for Destruction."
As for guest musicians, Slash called in a number of favors to recruit a wide array of contributors, including AC/DC's Brian Johnson, Aerosmith's Steven Tyler, Iggy Pop, Gary Clark Jr., ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons, Chris Stapleton, Demi Lovato and Chris Robinson of The Black Crowes. The dozen songs include covers of artists ranging from Steppenwolf and Howlin' Wolf to Fleetwood Mac, Stevie Wonder and The Temptations. Once again, all roads led back to the Blues Ball.
"Some of the songs were from the setlist back in the '90s and some were songs that we didn't really do, but I've always wanted to do," Slash said. "It was a fun project — very spontaneous and recorded live, so it had that real sort of greasy, fun feel to it."
Slash's passion for the blues was stoked by his grandmother on his mother's side shortly after the six-year-old, then known as Saul Hudson, relocated with his family from England to California.
“My grandmother on my mom’s side is Black and said that’s all fine with The Beatles, Stones and all that you’re listening to, but you know where it all comes from? And she turned me on to B.B. King.” —Slash
"My first real blues memory was when I first moved to Los Angeles from Stoke-on-Trent in '71; I had really been steeped in British rock and roll up to that point," he recalled. "My grandmother on my mom's side is Black and said that's all fine with The Beatles, Stones and all that you're listening to, but you know where it all comes from? And she turned me on to B.B. King. My grandmother and cousins on my mom's side introduced me to all kinds of blues, funk and R&B. When I did start playing guitar in earnest and was into all the blues-influenced rock and roll guys like Clapton, Jimmy Page and Hendrix, it all went straight back to all those records my grandmother turned me on to. It's really a big part of my whole DNA."
Inspired by the music festivals of his youth and in keeping with the ambitious nature of "Orgy of the Damned," Slash decided to take his new album on the road via the S.E.R.P.E.N.T. Tour. This array of dates features an all-star lineup of guest blues artists, including the Warren Haynes Band, Keb' Mo', Christone "Kingfish" Ingram, Robert Randolph, Samantha Fish, Eric Gales, ZZ Ward, Jackie Venson and Larkin Poe appearing at various dates. At the Hayden Homes Amphitheater show July 10, he brings in the Warren Haynes Band, Samantha Fish and Eric Gales.
"Teddy (Andreadis) and Tash (Neal) are doing the vocals and so we have a pretty cool set that's a mixture of blues, some old-school rock and roll and some old-school R&B, so it's not strictly a blues set," Slash said. "But it's all very bluesy and a really fun bunch of songs. There are a couple of surprises in there."
