Why Slash “always hated” Kiss
Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash has always been more than effusive about the bands he loves and has mentioned many prominent figures as influences throughout his career. However, on the other side of the coin, the hard rock hero can also disparage artists when he feels the need to. This is something that global rock behemoths Kiss found out first-hand.
While there might be evident similarities between Slash’s work with Guns N’ Roses and that of Kiss, namely their stadium-filling stadium rock, which is often guilty of delivering a hefty scent of cheese through the speakers, the top hat-donning axeman has made it clear that his not a fan of Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons’ group.
Admittedly, Kiss has always been an acquired taste. When speaking to Musician in 1990, Slash reflected on when he and former Guns N’ Roses drummer Steven Adler decided to start a band. He explained that one day, they were at Adler’s residence, where there was a guitar and amplifier. Slash then revealed that his friend played some Kiss records, “who I always hated”, before recalling that they both started playing loud rock noise and elected to give music a go as a career.
This hatred of Kiss would later bring Slash into direct conflict with the New York band’s frontman, Paul Stanley. This was something ‘The Starchild’ claimed in his 2014 memoir, Face the Music: A Life Exposed. Stanley explained how he and Slash didn’t speak for nearly 20 years because of Slash’s supposedly offensive comments. However, Stanley did say that they eventually put their differences aside in 2006.
In his book, the Kiss leader claimed that he saw Guns N’ Roses play a duo of shows in Los Angeles before they recorded their 1987 debut album, Appetite for Destruction. Stanley described the performances as “stupendous” and asserted that, not long after, Slash went public with disparaging remarks about him. This followed Stanley’s claim that Guns N’ Roses weren’t happy with the sound at the second concert, so Slash asked him out of the blue to help with the sound. It was after the show that he allegedly insulted Stanley.
“Immediately after my interactions with the band, I started to hear lots of stories Slash was saying behind my back.” Stanley writes. “He called me gay, made fun of my clothes, all sorts of things designed to give him some sort of rock credibility at my expense. This was years before his top hat, sunglasses and dangling cigarette became a cartoon costume that he would continue to milk with the best of us for decades.”
However, the Kiss man claimed to have the final say only a few months later when Slash called, saying he wanted some free guitars. “You want me to help you get guitars after you went around saying all that s— about me behind my back?” Stanley allegedly told his younger counterpart. “You know, one thing you’re going to have to learn is not to air your dirty laundry in public. Nice knowing you. Go f— yourself.”
Unsurprisingly, Slash responded to Stanley’s incendiary claims. When speaking to Germany’s Rock Hard in 2014, he maintained that he had not read the autobiography but did share his account of what went down. Although he didn’t specify what he said, he did confirm that he said “something derogatory” about the Kiss frontman in the media.
The Guns N’ Roses guitarist said: “He had come around to produce Guns N’ Roses way back in the day, before we actually made the first record. And at some point, we decided we didn’t… We never actually were interested in working with him. But we sort of had him come around because he was [drummer] Steven Adler’s hero.”
“I’d done an interview for the Calendar in the LA Times, and I’d said something derogatory about him,” Slash added. “And then, months later, he realised that he had an arrangement with B.C. Rich, and I was looking to try and get a guitar to record the Appetite record, and asked him if he would hook me up with some B.C. Riches.”
Slash continued: “He said something along the lines of, ‘You shouldn’t air your dirty laundry in public,’ having to do with him. ‘So, no, I won’t help you.’ And I was, like, ‘OK.'”
The Guns N’ Roses legend added that the two did moderately makeup at the 2006 VH1 Kiss Rock Honours: “We sort of let bygones be bygones. And so we’re more or less cool now.”