Slash Talks Hendrix

01/12/2011
. (Gibson) Slash has always worn his influences on his sleeve, be they Aerosmith or the Stones or Cream. One artist who had a massive impact on his formative years was Jimi Hendrix. With songs like "Purple Haze" and "Machine Gun" constantly spinning on his parents' turntable, young Saul Hudson soaked in the energy and the feel of Seattle's favorite son until it became part of his musical D.N.A. The Chapeaued Shredder sat down recently with The Quietus for an extended interview specifically about Hendrix and his enduring influence.

"I think the attraction with Jimi was just that he had this uninhibited, fluid guitar style that basically screamed," recalled Slash. "It had this over-the-top sound to it that just kind of drew me in. I think all of my favorite guitar players have a sort of manic quality to them."

He continued, "The thing about Jimi is that he was American born and with a talent from on high, but was discovered by an English crew that brought him over to London where everything was really happening and they appreciated him for what he was. It's sort of funny, because you think of all the really amazing rock guitarists that were coming out at that time� basically the English rock guitarists were all a bunch of white kids who wanted to be black and play that kind of guitar, and then there's this black kid coming from America who kind of brings it part and parcel from over there and everybody just stands back and says, 'Wow!' Everyone was tripping out on Jimi, who's really the sort of embodiment of that young lead guitar player, using a lot of distortion, a lot of feedback� it must have been interesting being, say, Jeff Beck at the time." more on this story

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