Guns N' Roses Slash On Why He Didn't Want to Be Eddie Van Halen & Their History Together! 

Slash and evh is like comparing apples and oranges.

As a guitarist why would you want to sound like another player .

David's comment was not cool. Death of a fan is not "it's rock n roll" - that's BS. As much as I dislike Axl's behavior I'll stand behind him on this one.

So Eddie said when you’re in a band it’s a collaboration and you all try to do the right thing. So why did Eddie and his brother cut Michael Anthony out of the royalties from the 1984 album? Causing Michael Anthony to lose millions of dollars. That was a real prick move and kudos to Michael Anthony for his integrity as a musician.

Guns N Roses were the first LA band since Van Halen that weren’t TRYING to sound like Van Halen. That’s what made them stand out. The influence on GNR? A hard rock band who put songs first and achieved mainstream success by incorporating incredible gifts into concise meaningful songwriting!

One of the main reasons I was drawn to Slash over all the other 80's era guitarists was that he was one of the few following in the footsteps of the 70's greats like Page and Perry. There's only one Eddie and all the clones never did it as well.

Slash is cool. Very good chops, iconic riffs. Classy perspective of EVH.

Slash and Eddie Van Halen have two different sounds. It all depends on the mood from the listeners perspective in the moment. They are both great, but I think Eddie Van Halen is way too unique that is hard for most to duplicate with perfection.

As a guitarist I'll say this. They both left their mark as 2 totally different styles so both deserve the hype. That being said e.v.h. inspired me to want to sound and play everything he ever did. To this day his playing is my foundation and I still revert back to every riff I ever learned from him when I'm sitting alone and rehearsing by myself. Slash, not so much.

Although slash has his own style, but come on, we have to tell the truth that eddie van halen more than just the best guitarist, he reinvented and revolutionalized guitar techniques, and followed by million guitarist in thr world, even slash he knows eddie still better than him

That’s why I love that slash never finger taps

There’s only one Eddie Van Halen.

Guns N Roses and Van Halen two of the best bands ever Rip Eddie

Slash stayed with the tradition of rock guitar playing.EVH changed the face of hard rock

Two different virtuousos paving their own way. Eddie was an 80s pioneer who could play anything but mostly stayed in his period. Slash channels so many different influences and arguably has a more timeless style.

THERE WILL NEVER BE ANOTHER EDDIE VAN HALEN RIP MY COLDOLENCES TO THE VANHALENFAMILY AND HIS TRILLION OF FANS /LOVE WALK IN😪😪😪

I love you Slash! Saw you in Chicago, May 2015 !

Did he burp at start of interview , then look at camera , like...oh well ?

Axl pissed at Roth's attitude? You should ask Metallica about Axl's attitude after the '92 Montreal riot that he started.

Any real guitar player knows comparing guitarists is generally pretty dumb. Guitar playing is relative to what you like. Someone may think EVH was the worst guitar player of all time and think the world of Jerry Cantrell. They all deserve to be celebrated for the contributions they've made for the genre and the instrument. I love them all.

Eddie and Slash -- two opposite ends of hard rock guitar playing, both great soloists, both amazingly influential (Eddie more innovative and better shredding chops, but still, they both rule).

Even though it never happened, in 1988 Guns N' Roses were supposed to be the opening act for David Lee Roth on his solo tour

Rose was disgusted with somebody else's attitude?! Lol

Van Halen to my opinion is a better guitarist than Slash but i choose to listen to Slash solo... i connect better. Van Halen style/technique is hard to copy of course but for the most part sounds wild. I like how melodic Slash solo is as i could emotionally connect to it better.

I respect Slash developed his own sound and GNR are a great band that being said I never cared for their music but Van Halen are the greatest American rock in our history.

RIP EVH 🎸🤘🏻🖤

it's just a matter of different styles/schools actually, Slash is more rooted to 70's style guitarist like Jimmy Page, Joe Perry or Brian Jones, very blues influenced, more raw sounding, more orthodox style of playing if you will, heavier guitar (preferably Les Paul) while EVH basically created the 80's sounds, more processed sound, expanded technicality, expanded gear, more flashy style, preferably lighter super strat style guitar both can't be more different but i love them both, RIP EVH

Slash is not on eddie playing level but is a nice guy.

Slash is the best!

the burp kills me...

I'm not a guitar player but EVH has impressed the fuck out of me. I've never been that impressed with Slash's playing (not saying he isn't great I must be missing something.

EVH is one of the 5 who changed the guitar game. Slash (respect) is a good rock player.

I saw EVH live back in 92. That man was epic and no one was on his level. Slash is a great guitar player, but too blues e for my taste. EVH was very melodic and his style was not a style many could ever replicate. Slash style on the other hand, he uses a lot of pentatonic and blues scales. I’m not saying he was not gifted, he was definitely a gifted guitar player.

"You a big fan of Eddie? [Burp!]" LMAO

Slash doesn’t sound like his playing when he solos, but I do feel like Slash has Eddie’s sense of rhythm playing - the best part.

Eddie is a killer on guitar. Too much smoke and mirrors for my style. I am old school. I would pick slash twice over Eddie.

Its funny because as a guitar player trying to find my own style when VH hit the scene i was impressed,however,i spent my time trying to learn to play impossible guitar pieces by Frank Zappa and Alan Holdsworth,to this day Alan Holdsworth was the most gifted guitarist of the 20th century.

As a guitar player now focused on tuba I’m so thankful the good lord led me to the tuba. Tuba players get the best groupies!

That giant pile of Les Pauls is SICK.

Eddie and slash were very different players both were pretty equal in my mind. But the kind of songs they played made sense for their style of play

Slash kicks ass!

slash is a day older than me I to play a les paul i guess you can say we were influenced and feel the same way when VH came out I never wanted to be EVH either lol I grew up in northern California lol how funny

I was at Donnington that day amid the crush when 2 fans were killed. I stay away from large crowds because of it. I tried once, went to Glastonbury but had flashbacks and couldn't wait to get out of there. On the day in question at Donnington, when a security guy who was pulling people from the crowd jumped on stage asking DLR to stop the show, DLR turned his back on him and told his own security, "Get this asshole off my stage." From what I understand, none of the bands knew that people had died, or were about to die. For all the hate that Axl gets, he has my gratitude, and I'm probably not the only one, because he saw what was happening in the crowd and was concerned enough to stop Gn'R's show and asked people to stop pushing forward and to move back as people were being crushed at the front. It was a temporary respite as the crowd just weren't listening. There were so many idiots in the crowd who didn't care about anyone, throwing bottles of piss and generally behaving like yobs, pushing up to the front at all costs, deaf and blind to what was going on. I wonder what DLR now thinks about what happened. It was a terrible day anyway. RIP to the guys who passed away.

Slash’s riff from Sweet Child o Mine is still one of the most famous guitar riffs of all time. So there.

Without question EVH is a better guitar player, in terms of hearing a song and jumping in. (We're talking the 1980s not today.) His SNL jams were legendary in '85. Slash isn't like that imo. When you listen to him jam he just sticks to pentatonic blues scales. What Slash did on Appetite and a few UYIs boils down to work ethic. He worked harder on Appetite than anybody and if you listen to his rhythm channel (right speaker) you can hear him constantly jangling around with the riffs and putting little accents in and making the songs live a little. He's probably most interesting as a songwriter - Coma is pretty much unlike any song out there. Of course Eddie's a really weird songwriter too

I know this will set a lot of VH fans in anger mode but outside the guitar community barely anyone cares about Van Halen. Ask someone out on the street for a Van Halen song. 99.9% will say "JUMP!". Ask for a GN'R song and they will at least say Paradise City Welcome to the jungle Sweet Child O' Mine November Rain Knockin' on heaven's door (although it's not their song). Van Halen isn't played on the radio at all. For years. That doesn't mean GN'R is a better band/Slash is a better guitarist (he's not regarding the technical skills at least) but I think the higher popularity of GN'R can't be ignored.

EVH was incredible on those strings, finger tapping or not! Nobody can or probably ever will touch him. Van Halen was a killer band with an even more killer axe man!

I live both of them, but you guys who think that Slash is "better" and has more riffs than EVH don't know what the hell you're talking about. EVH influenced an entire generation of rock and roll guitarists and is essentially the living embodiment of Jimi Hendrix. He changed rock and roll guitar playing forever. The list of his memorable riffs and solos is practically endless. Slash is great and GNR is a classic band, and you can like whomever you want to, but objectively he's not close to EVH.

Slash couldn’t play like Eddie if he wanted to

Van Halen were not glam. Not even close. They didnt wear makeup, or dress like women or try to look feminine. Their music was about nitty gritty life, not any ballads about "I lost my love". Dave never sang about his "Sweet Child O' Mine", he sang "Ain't Talkin' Bout' Love"! And all those guitar players were all flash and no substance. Ed was the fucking original.

Why do these interviewers constantly go to that comparison of the two guitarists? They have so little in common. Why not compare EVH to Roy Clark? I mean Clark was doing the whole shredding thing in the late 1950's !! What Van Halen came up with was new to the rock world, but a lot of country artists were actually doing a lot of that stuff long before that first Van Halen record came out!! Heck go and listen to Ace Frehley of KISS doing his Shock Me guitar solo in 1977 and you hear him finger tapping and that was BEFORE the first Van Halen record ever came out! EVH did the finger tapping more, and yes better, than anyone else but he certainly was not the only one doing it!! I am not a big Van Halen fan or Guns N Roses fan, but I have always liked the style of Slash more than EVH simpy because Slash was never about flash and balls and it seemed that was all EVH was about. Slash seemed more of a guitar player while EVH seemed more of a "hey watch me" guitar player. As I have grown older and gotten more into my guitar playing I have come to respect more of what EVH did outside of his fast stuff and I think he himself would prefer people pay more attention to that rather than Eruption!! Listen to the melodies of some of those Van Halen songs, listen to the cool guitar riffs and entire progressions of chords and such and there lies EVH's true talent, not just fast solos!! Slash was always about the entire song, not just the solo's!!

I love them both, but if I had to pick which band I'd rather see live today, I'll take GNR any day. The current VH live show is crap.

Great info!

What did the axl and David lee Roth story at the first have to do with slash and Eddie?

It would've been interesting to see if Sammy could've kept Axl's ego in check. LOL.

That’s Rock n Roll baby. Sad thing is Dave’s not lying. I’m sure Dave didn’t want those people to die. Diamond Dave is awesome, an asshole, but still awesome.

Ed is an amazing guitar player. He literally changed the way guitars are played in rock. He's also a complete piece of shit as a human being. At least Slash is down-to-earth and for the most part, humble about his playing skill...

I don't any problem at all with DLR and his answer to Axl's question. It was not the most empathetic response. But a rock and roller would say something like that.

I want to hear Slash telling to Fortus the things he said about Yzzy guitar playing.

He wanted to stand out? Bullshit, him and Tracii Guns went to school together, Guns was the Van Halen Rhodes player in that circle and Slash only could pull of April Wine licks, so he has coped that style as his own, and Tracii has owned his playing style and where he got it from.

Roth absolutely wins the Van Halen commerce battle with 57 million album sales worldwide to Hagar's 27 million worldwide album sales. This is an easy fact to look up. It's not even close. 2 of the Dave era albums are certified Diamond.

Right on man

He didn’t want to be Eddie because he couldn’t

I love Eddie van Halen

Slash did his own thing. He KILLED it. You definitely can here the EDDIE influence in his playing. It’s impossible to not be influenced in some way by Eddie. But Slash went his own way and the results speak for themselves. Well I guess I should have watched before commenting lol he said the same thing didn’t he.

I have the Donningham recording where you can here the people being crushed in the audience

"burp" (3:44) ... what a pro. : ) )

I agree. He left o’l slow hand in the dust back I’m 1978.

I love rock but couldn't care less about gossip or politics within bands. I already have *my own* problems to care about, don't need other people's troubles. But, now and then, i like to know about these things... I guess it's the voyeur factor inside us humans or whatever.

RIP EVH

You mean why Slash COULDNT be Eddie Van Halen😁🙏🔥

Van Halen defined 80s glam metal. When everyone tried to copy them is when it became a joke and it even devalued Van Halen in a sense.

Slash could never be Eddie

At 8.20 Sammy sold more records with VH than Roth hahahaha not even fuckin close, Roth era out sold Sam's era by alot, although Sam was great, and they all went #1 but sales no, VH1 and 1984 both were diamond and sold over 10 mil each, I think 5150 sold about 5 or 6mil and that was their best selling with Sammy, which is great don't get me wrong,..but Roth era is way better

Just ask Sammy and Michael

And how many "EVH" style players are playing in 2022 ?

Eddie is probably the best 80/90 guitarist. and among the 5 of all time, Slash very good but completely different, or you compare van halen to Randy Roads or it doesn't make sense

If we're going to be honest with ourselves, the first question that we should ask is, "Could he...".

What did he expect??? Some philosophical discussion??? It’s David Lee Roth. Did you want a hug and a atta boy? I would expect that from Diamond Dave. Axl should have, too. Dave didn’t let shit affect him in that way. The show must go on. I get that. I would be affected by something like that but Dave isn’t me. He’s a whole different species of human.

Dave did wear makeup

he dosent want to copy Eddie,,,,, because HE CAN"T,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, plane and simple!

Slash or GnR definitely wouldn't want to to sound or be compared to a pretty good pop rock band, as Angus Young called Van Halen..lol

Scott Weiland and Slash are more well-known that Satriani or Vai to the general public. That's why they did the tribute at the RnR HOF. Yeah, it was pretty bad. Not anyone's fault. But the organizers should've picked more suitable people to perform a VH song

I am just glad to see a musician like Slash admit that there was more to EVH's playing than the pyrotechnics. EVH has taken some shots from some players that I admire like Joe Walsh who, IMO, are not listening close enough to his playing. They don't get that Eddie's biggest influence was Clapton. It's all the blue licks that he throws in in between the tapping and the vibrato work that is unreal. Also, my ex-guitar teacher, who was a music student at a major university, said the greatest thing about Eddie were his riffs. Stuff like "Unchained," "Mean Streets," AFU (Naturally Wired), and "Without You." These riffs are motherfuckers to play, but they are the riffs of a band that has sold well over 100 million albums. Where a guy like Joe Walsh has it wrong is that you cannot sell that many records and not have "soul" to your playing, and most of all, be a substandard songwriter. At the end of the day, Eddie was about songwriting, and that is what separated him from his imitators who, in all honesty, probably out-Van Halened him, but who could not come up with the riffs and the tunes. That's really what it comes down to.

Axl had no moral high ground. He punched Stephanie Seymour in the face. He treated his audiences like shit.

There is a video of Jimmy Hendrix playing live on BBC tv......they were supposed to play Hey Joe....after a few seconds in, the band stopped playing and Jimmy said something like: we are going stop play this rubbish and do some real music, and it's a song by the Cream..... And they played Sunshine of you love. That wasn't what the BBC had in mind, and if not live kicked him out of the studio probably. But Hendrix didn't care. He loved it far better as his own music. Funny thing is, the song was written by the Cream as a tribute to Jimmy Hendrix. They had seen him for the first time playing at a concert somewhere, and it blew them away... totally in awe.... How great things like that turn out sometimes....

I usually fall in on the side of Sam over Dave... But I think he was wrong on what he said about Slash. I am NOT even a slash fan, but as a guitarist I thought He did a pretty dang good job, for his part anyway. The only real turn off was the singer... He sang it well enough (nothing special) But the real issue was him trying to do the whole Diamond Dave shtick on stage... which don't even work that well for Dave. Or at least that's my opinion and I can rest easy now that I have let the internet know it!!! RnR!!!!

anybody know the band playing in the background at 4:16?

EVH all day long

I don’t believe DLR said that, that’s something Axl would say.

I am glad he didn’t go the Eddie Van Halen Way

At least Slash sounds like Slash and not like EVH like many clones out there😉😎

dont ever compare these two therr both elites with different styles. and. slash has gotten way better it seems to me like sadly since hes been sober lol so he could hang with edward now in a guitar rumble imagine that the two square off. riffs. slash wood hang maybe even take lead thru first few rounds but ultimately. edward romeo delight will be the one standing with that song playin. as champ maybe for eternity rock is getting big again tho and these young guys got equipment we never had or came close to so never say never

They should of had Chickenfoot on stage instead of Velvet Revolver. That was the worst Rrhof performance.

I wish i never watched this video, or at least not have read the articles shown because ignorance is bliss. I had no idea Slash felt that way about Izzy. They always sounded so in sync with each other leading me to believe they had a decent relationship. Apparently not and clearly Slash had zero respect for Izzy's guitar playing. Really disappointed in Slash's rude and unnecessary comments regarding Izzy. 😕

Roth's comment was taken way out of context. He probably just didn't want them to burden themselves with something they had little control with. Also every rockstar was drunk all the time back then, especially at a bar lol. FBS man, Axl is way too sensitive I am surprised anything got done with that band with someone that volatile.

Slash is officially the coolest person alive on the planet

Slash [please all in my opinion only] is an above average guitarist, Izzy carried a lot of the load and both were magical live. The dual sound was for me a way lower level of the dual sound the late great Steve 'The Riffmaster' Clark was capable of creating and with Phil Collen mostly doing more technical work and shredding. They both complimented each other as did Hudson and Izzy. Izzy's influence should arguably NEVER be missed, he was the brains in GnR in my opinion. His loss was massive, and he also oozed cool like Steve did live. Slash plays completely differently to God. EVH, like Ace Frehley and other guitarists influenced generations of guitarists. Slash himself has said Ace was a massive influence, Ace was tapping in the early KISS years also. Dimebag also idolised EVH and Ace, Dimebag went to his grave with one of EVHs guitars in his coffin and Ace inked on his chest. Slash to me is the perfect example of a guitarist/product who has been, like Coke a Cola or McDonalds, NIKE, the most brilliantly marketed guitarist in recent rock history. His iconic top hat is a marketers wet dream, and he can play. Slash plays completely differently. Is he a great? That's for others to say. To me he's a great guitarist, solid, a very unique style, much is made of the way he vertically holds his axe, but Ace was doing this in the Alive days and in the 'First Final Tour 1996 to 2002], so that's not something I'd argue Slash came up with as Kennedy has claimed in interviews, it is just BS. But it does give Slash, and Ace, Steve also played like this, a very unique sound from his LPs, and when you put on the radio and hear a song you can pick it is Slash playing. That is a legacy. All the greats have that. EVH is simply a giant. On many fronts, what he did with creating, butchering, tweaking his early guitars was amazing. Eruption or Spanish Fly but two examples of the amazing sounds EVH can get out of his guitars. In the end most of these men are on good terms. It's not a pissing contest. Apples and oranges. One more thing, a guitarist who's won a BS Emmy but still has one and for me/many is SO under rated is Steve 'Fingers' Stevens. Lovely story involving SS/EVH and a shit load of RVH guitars/amps that Eddie gifted Steve one day. I just want both brothers to get their shit together and bring Mikey back, we fans deserve it.

I would bet there is more to the D. Lee Roth talking to Axl Rose story. That doesn't sound like a complete story. " D.L.R said F*ck it, its rock n roll". I so don't think so. Not in my opinion. Just saying

Slash technically does not compare to EVH and like someone else said even if he could play like Ed why would he.