60th birthday of Slash: Six facts about the rock legend

“Sweet Child O ‘Mine”, “Welcome to the Jungle” and “November Rain” – these rock anthems know every music fan. What makes all three songs so iconic: the guitar play, whether reef or solo. Slash (60), the man with the cylinder and sunglasses, is responsible for this. But who is exactly behind the stage person with the curly mane?

Slash, bourgeois Saul Hudson, was born in the Hampstead district of London and grew up in the English Stoke-on-Trent. At the age of six he moved to the USA with his mother Ola Hudson (1946-2009). He owes a large part of his passion for music to her. As a fashion designer and costume designer, she made a name for herself and worked for John Lennon, Ringo Starr, Diana Ross, Janet Jackson and David Bowie.

His mother not only combined professional cooperation with David Bowie. A “mysterious romance” developed between them, as Slash described in a radio broadcast of “Triple M”. He remembered: “I was seven or eight years old.” Bowie was a constant guest at Hudson. Slash didn’t bother that, on the contrary. “He was cool. I liked David very much,” he said.

Slash never had the career aspiration “Rockstar”. As a child, he dreamed of becoming a moto-cross champion. “I was obsessed!” He said. But at the age of 13 to 14 years old, he discovered hard rock and bands like Aerosmith and AC/DC for himself. “I always loved the rock guitar. I just never thought that I would do it,” he said.

But with his first guitar, everything has changed for him, he said “Yahoo Entertainment”. Shortly before his 15th birthday, he took the instrument in hand for the first time. But he almost became a bassist. “When I decided to take lessons, I actually wanted to learn to play bass,” he revealed in the “Marshall “. It was only to a hint of Guns N ‘Roses’ ex-drummer Steven Adler (60) he devoted himself to the guitar.

The world -famous name “Slash” was created in his childhood. The later music star was often at home with actor Seymour Cassel (1935-2019) to play with his son. Cassel experienced him in the visits of energy and restlessly – and therefore gave him the nickname that stands for a “quick movement”. Just as Slash apparently jeopardized his house at the time.

“Sweet Child O ‘Mine” should later become one of the biggest hits from Guns N’ Roses. He was awarded platinum over 30 times worldwide, in the USA he shot to first place on the single charts. In the beginning, Slash did not take the song seriously. The well -known intro reef was created at the Jammen – for the guitarist it was initially more of a “circus melody”. But one of his bandmates recognized the potential. “I actually only thought it was a joke, but lo and behold, Axl was in his bedroom upstairs and heard it,” he told the “Guitar Edge” magazine 2007.

There were always conflicts between Axl Rose (63) and the other band members, especially because of drug problems. Ex-drummer Steven Adler had to leave the band because his heroine tonsum impaired his performance. Slash also lived the classic rock’n’roll lifestyle with alcohol and drugs for a long time.

However, this was doomed in 2001 at the age of 35 when he was diagnosed with a severe heart disease. “You still have six days to six weeks to live,” he had heard of his doctors, as he said in the. Because of his cardiomyopathy, he got a pacemaker.

The diagnosis made him radically change his life. He has been Clean since 2006 – also for his family. With his ex-wife Perla Ferrar (50) he received two sons, London Emilio (22) and Cash Anthony (21) in the early 2000s. He has been happy with his partner Meegan Hodges for ten years, with whom he was already in the 1980s and 1990s.

In private, Slash is enthusiastic about exotic animals. At times he had around 75 snakes, he revealed. When his son was born, however, he separated from the animals. “I had already experienced a few times that snakes almost eaten my domestic cats and suddenly felt that my children could get something terrible,” said the musician. The snakes found a new home in California reptile homes.

His passion for snakes was also evident in music: in the mid-1990s, Slash founded the band Slash’s Snakepit. The hard rock group published two albums with a changing line-up.