Slash has received countless accolades and awards including a 2007 star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame alongside his idols Jimmy Page and Jimi Hendrix. An original member of the iconic rock band Guns N' Roses, Slash helped the band create signature sounds like the guitar riff of #1 hit "Sweet Child o' Mine" and "Welcome To The Jungle". The band dominated the 1980's and 90's music scene selling more than 100 million albums worldwide and ushered in a decade of hard charging rock music.
After leaving the band, Slash went on to critical acclaim in his personal project Slash's snakepit, and global success with supergroup Velvet Revolver. he has been widely sought after by the biggest musicians of all time, performing with everyone from Michael Jackson to Stevie Wonder to Ray Charles. Slash is one of the marquee playable characters in Guitar Hero III, has two signature Gibson guitars in his name, and authored his own top-selling biography Slash in 2007.
On Saturday, Slash was in Belleville performing at the Empire Square Live as part of the Empire Anniversary Celebrations. Steve and I decided to head down to see if we could meet him.
As you know, outdoor venues are very tough for meeting people. There are large, fenced-off areas and the only real hope of meeting someone is to call them and they come over. Knowing that Slash was a pretty decent signer, we decided to give it a chance anyways.
When we arrived, we saw that the buses had already arrived. The security guard told us that Slash had gotten off of his bus roughly ten minutes after arrival and was inside the building. We didn't really have a chance of meeting him before, so we grabbed some food and shot some pool.
Once the concert started, we went outside and stood on the street. Because it was an outdoor concert, we were able to hear the whole show and watch it on the jumbo screen. It was great. I was even impressed that they played Sweet Child o' Mine and then played Paradise City as an encore. The guitar riffs were amazing.
After the show, Steve and I situated ourselves beside the gate close to the bus. Soon other fans started to join us. The problem with the fence was that there was a green cover that didn't allow you to see through the fence very easily. It's great being tall though; I was able to see over the fence if I stood on my tip toes.
When Slash arrived he looked a bit like Bret "The Hitman" Hart. He had a backwards hat and shades going on. He started to walk towards the bus and we were able to call him over. He said it felt weird that he couldn't really see us. Slash scaled the fence to see how many people were there and then decided it would be best if he stayed on that side of the fence.
It was perfect. We were able to hand vinyls and other merch over the fence for him to sign without him knowing who was handing it over.
I think the vinyl record looks really amazing. It would have been nice to get a picture with him, but I'm happy to settle for the sweet autographs.
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