Slash is set to rock Claudelands Arena next month. Kirstin McNabb chatted with the former Guns N Roses lead guitarist ahead of his gig and found among other things he's
dying to see a tuatara outside of a zoo.
A lot of major acts touring New Zealand choose Vector Arena as opposed to Claudelands; what prompted a Hamilton gig?
You're looking for places that you haven't played before that has an audience that's never seen you. So I like to, as much as possible, get off the beaten path. Most promoters only have you travel the same routes all the time because it's just a proven, you know, this is where the crowd is and sometimes there's other places where, you know, there actually is an audience that's really into you that they don't pay attention to, so we just like try to make it cool going through NZ. I've been [to New Zealand] over the years a few times but not that many times and you don't always wanna play in the same place.
Well ,we're really pleased to have you here. It's a bit of a coup for us here in Hamilton. Speaking of Hamilton, many of us hold Devilskin close to our hearts - how did they come to your attention to be your support act?
Basically I didn't know anything about them, I was sent a couple of different packages of different bands to choose from and I just happened to like that one.
There aren't many female rock singers so how do you find Jennie Skulander, their vocalist, stacks up?
I've never seen her but it sounded good to listen to you know. I like girl rock singers 'cause they tend to be genuinely more emotional than the average guy rock singer. So sometimes they can be really expressive so she seems like that type, you know? She seemed interesting to me.
Have you got any spare time while you're touring New Zealand at all?
It never seems like we do. When it comes down to it there are hardly any days off when we're on the road. We play six days a week, but when we're over there because we're doing more than one show we'll see what we get a chance to do.