Slash on the “great soulful quality” of Brian Johnson’s voice being perfect for the blues
The second solo album from Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash is a tribute to all things blues. Titled Orgy of the Damned, the album gives Slash a way to release his love for the genre.
And in the Summer 2024 print edition of Goldmine, Slash talks in detail about this obsession with blues music.
“The qualities of good blues music for me,” Slash says, “it’s almost not even tangible. It’s a sincerity: There’s a certain honesty in the playing and in the vocal delivery and the way that it’s coming across. For me, when it’s really raw and sort of stripped down, it always appeals to me the most, even in electric blues. But I think [it’s] the sincerity.”
On Slash’s new album, AC/DC vocalist Brian Johnson is one of the guest singers, along with Beth Hart, Iggy Pop, Steven Tyler, Paul Rodgers and others. Johnson sings on the classic Howlin’ Wolf song “Killing Floor.”
Slash goes over the reasons for choosing Johnson to sing that particular blues song: “Well, you know, the thing about Brian is nobody really knows anything about Brian except that he’s in AC/DC, right? We know he was in a band named Geordie [before AC/DC], but that’s really it. But there’s something about his voice that I’ve always thought had a great soulful quality to it if you ever took it down to this level. And when I was wanting to do [the song] ‘Killing Floor,’ he came to mind. He was the only person I thought of; it was almost like I imagined what it would sound like with him doing it, before I even talked to him.
“I called him up,” Slash continues,” and he was excited about it because this [music] has a big influence on him from way pre-AC/DC days, and he covered Howlin’ Wolf and some other blues guys. … When [we got together in Florida], he started singing it, and exactly what I think I imagined, he did. He sang it down in that sort of gritty register where Howlin’ Wolf sang it, and he was really into it.
“It was cool,” Slash laughs. “He was definitely somebody that not everybody would have thought of, but there was an innate thing in my mind that said that Brian would be great for this.”
You can also watch Slash perform his love for the blues at the inaugural S.E.R.P.E.N.T Festival, July 17, 2024, via the streaming service Veeps.com, HERE.
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