When I turned sixteen, Mark Mansfield threw a party for me at his parents’ house in the Hollywood Hills and my band was all set to play. For my birthday, my girlfriend, Melissa, gave me a gram of coke and that night I learned a valuable lesson: I do not like to combine cocaine and guitar. I did a few lines just before we went on and I could hardly play a note; it was really embarrassing. It’s been the same the very few times since that I’ve made that mistake: nothing sounded right, I could not find the groove, and I really didn’t want to be playing at all. It felt like I had never played guitar before, or as awkward as the first time I tried to ski.
That’s just a small sampling of what can be found in Slash’s new book, simple titled ‘Slash’, which is in stores now. To read how the rest of that story goes, publisher Harper Collins has posted the entire third chapter from the book online here http://www.harpercollins.com/book/browseinside.aspx?pguid=32619618051991&user=12345&isbn=9780061351426&browsePosition=1
Additionally, Harper Collins has teamed up with Ultimate-Guitar.com to give away a $5,000 1958 VOS Les Paul guitar signed by Slash, as well as a copy of Guitar Hero® III: Legends Of Rock for Xbox 360. More info on the contest can be found here http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/contests/sl_contest.htm