Having been in bands for his entire musical career, guitar maestro Slash is enjoying being the boss on his own solo album, albeit with a little help from his friends.
When Slash - the former Guns N' Roses axeman - had the idea of recording his debut solo album, the first three guys he called to sing on it were Iggy Pop, Ozzy Osbourne and Motorhead's Lemmy Kilmister.
"Fortunately, I know them. I don't think I could have called up
Ozzy out of the blue without having known him for a while," he laughs.
Once that motley all-star lot said yes, he got up the nerve to call everyone else he wanted and the album, Slash, which comes out on Monday, also includes Black Eyed Peas' leading lady Fergie, Maroon 5's Adam Levine, some guy called Dave Grohl, as well as three other Appetite For Destruction-era Guns N' Roses members.
Not a bad haul.
But, he insists: "It's not one of those things where I'm so cool that I can ring everybody up and say, 'Hey, play on my record'."
Yes, but it sure helps having been in one of the biggest, most notorious rock bands of the past 30 years - and being an influential modern-day guitar god.
However, as you come to find after only a few minutes talking to him, the 44-year-old is not like that. He's polite, easy-going, and humble.
"There were no real favours done. But there were a lot of years of relationships built up that I called on and what [album producer] Eric Valentine called the 'currency of music'," he concedes with another chuckle down the phone from his hometown of Los Angeles.
Since leaving Guns N' Roses in 1996, he's been a guitarist-for-hire for everyone from Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson to Alice Cooper and Cheap Trick, did a few albums as Slash's Snake Pit, and started Velvet Revolver. But Slash is the first album he's done entirely under his own steam - even though it comes across more like a Slash-and-friends type arrangement.
The idea behind the album came about in 2007 when he was putting together his autobiography, not surprisingly also called Slash. He remembers he was on the back of the Velvet Revolver tour bus writing "I just thought that was something I'd like to do some day".
It happened sooner than planned. The tour ended prematurely when they "let go" troubled singer Scott Weiland, who has been plagued with addiction issues for years, after he decided to cancel the Australasian leg of the tour.
"That's why he got fired, and at that point I was just so frustrated and tired. That was very exhausting dealing with him and his shit, and it's really draining when you're trying to do something, and it's so easy to do and someone has to make it completely difficult. So at that point I said I just need to do something on my own."
He came up with the music first, then decided who might sound good singing the songs, and then went about drawing up a wish list. "So the choice of singers was totally inspired by the music," he says. "And I think that worked out well because I got really relaxed performances from everybody."
Considering the album's diverse mix of rock songs - pop-rock softie Adam Levine on Gotten alongside raw-throated rogue Lemmy on Doctor Alibi, and then there's pop diva-turned-rock chick Fergie taking a surprisingly rough and ready turn on Beautiful Dangerous, and Dave Grohl hammering away on instrumental Watch This - it's surprisingly cohesive.
"Notice how I put Adam and Lemmy together," he cackles. "But I never even stopped to think about that, I didn't think how that [diversity] was going to come together, I was just doing what I wanted. But I think one of the things that happened, is that I play the guitar throughout, [drummer] Josh Freese and [bassist] Chris Chaney hold down the bottom, so there is a certain type of sonic familiarity that runs through the album and that ties the songs together."
Given Guns N' Roses well-documented excesses, and his own personal battles with drug and alcohol addiction, it's not surprising Slash relates most to Lemmy's booze and drugs anthem Doctor Alibi.
"It's about the person I was less than four years ago. It's about drugs and alcohol and trying to figure out whether you can sustain it. Lemmy's still going though," he says wryly.
"The whole concept for the singers was basically let the music inspire you to do whatever you want to do. It was total freedom for them. And it's funny because all the songs lyrically have something that I can totally relate to. It's either that I relate to them or understand where they are coming from. It's not like someone wrote a song about Martians and space ships and battle destroyers.
"Even the most out there song, which is Andrew Stockdale's [from Wolfmother] By the Sword, is as down to earth as it gets."
There were a few rumours floating round that he was doing a pop record with Black Eyed Peas' leading lady Fergie - Slash and his wife Perla are friends with her - which was going to be on the album.
"I'm not a pop guy," he scoffs cheekily. "I just heard her sing a rock medley in a club in Hollywood three or four years ago. I mean really what she's always wanted to do is do something rock 'n' roll, she's just never had the opportunity. She's got this cool rock streak because she really is as genuine and fun and raucous as she sounds - and definitely not the glamour puss that she seems when you see her in magazines. Although, if you look her in the eye, she looks pretty mischievous."
And there were others he hadn't met before, including Stockdale who sings on the epic and sprawling psychedelia of By the Sword.
"I had to track him down. Being that he was from Australia I didn't know where the f*** he would be. But he was the guy I wanted. I finally tracked him down and he just happened to be in Los Angeles."
The last time TimeOut talked to Slash was around the release of Velvet Revolver's Libertad in 2007. He had just been out to dinner with his dad who didn't like his son's latest offering because there wasn't enough guitar on it.
This time round, says Slash, Slash snr is not disappointed with the result.
"He likes this one. Oh yeah, he likes this one," he laughs, and is quick to take the opportunity to point out the problems with that last Velvet Revolver album and the band itself.
"It was the kind of band with a lot of personalities and I'm not that good at pushing my weight around. But I always thought the guitars were a little short-changed on that record. It wasn't aggressive enough guitar-wise. But anyway, so in going to do my own record I didn't have to f******* listen to anybody," he laughs. "So yeah, [Slash] is a little guitar-heavy and that's the way it should be."
He's also getting a band together to tour, with Alter Bridge singer Myles Kennedy already on board, and they will be playing a mixture of songs from the new album, as well as Snakepit, Velvet Revolver and Gunners songs. It will be interesting to see what domineering and temperamental Guns N' Roses frontman Axl Rose makes of that latter prospect.
The tour should reach New Zealand later this year.
Slash has been around. But after all these years in the music business he's chuffed to be doing something he's never done before. "It was a hell of a lot of fun to make - and it wasn't a pain in the arse," he jokes of the project which took about two years to complete.
"Everyone I worked with was great, I didn't have any hassles, and I didn't have to be the democrat. It's very liberating after years and years of being in bands and working as a team, that I'm finally at a point where I'm doing entirely my thing."
LOWDOWN
Who: Slash
What: Debut solo album, Slash, out Monday
Past albums: Guns N' Roses - Appetite For Destruction (1987), Use Your Illusion I & II (1991); Slash's Snakepit - It's Five O'Clock Somewhere (1995); Velvet Revolver - Contraband (2004)
ALBUM TRACK BY TRACK
1. Ghost (with Ian Astbury and Izzy Stradlin)
The Cult frontman and former Gunners guitarist Izzy Stradlin team up for opening chugger about ridding your soul of evil ghosts. Rock'n'roll is the answer, don't you know.
2. Crucify the Dead (with Ozzy Osbourne)
Tranquil ballad that gives way to relentless wailing riffs and Ozzy's metallic howl over the top.
3. Beautiful Dangerous (with Fergie)
Slash goes pop? Not likely. More like Fergie goes heavy rock and since she's never been one to shy away from wearing tight black leather she does a ripper job.
4. Back from Cali (with Myles Kennedy)
A hollering blues rock number with the singer from Creed-offshoot band Alter Bridge.
5. Promise (with Chris Cornell)
Former Soundgarden singer adds his sultry and, this time round at least, soothing voice to a cantering ballad.
6. By the Sword (with Andrew Stockdale)
Soaring, loud and sprawling. Very much in the vein of Stockdale's band Wolfmother but with Gunners licks instead of Led Zep and The Who.
7. Gotten (with Adam Levine)
If Slash was ever going to get a song on Grey's Anatomy then this is it. Mr Maroon 5 offers his catchy and pleasant lilt to the softest song on the album.
8. Doctor Alibi (with Lemmy Kilmister)
Hard, full-tilt, and heavy. What else do you expect from the Motorhead main man?
9. Watch This (with Dave Grohl and Duff McKagan)
A stomping instrumental, also with Gunners bass player on it. "I asked Dave to sing that song but he didn't want to sing. He just wanted to play drums," says Slash.
10. I Hold On (with Kid Rock)
It has big and bold moments, but falls into an electric-acoustic ditty with the former rap-rocker sounding like a true blue country boy.
11. Nothing to Say (with M. Shadows)
Starting off like a slasher movie soundtrack before jagged and fast metal riffs take over as the singer from melodic metallers Avenged Sevenfold grunts and growls.
12. Starlight (with Myles Kennedy)
An aching and heartfelt refrain that explodes sporadically into a bombastic and over-the-top rocker.
13. Saint is a Sinner Too (with Rocco DeLuca)
Quavering and fluttery voiced Los Angeles singer-songwriter on the most beautiful song off the album, with Slash revealing his deft acoustic skills.
14. We're All Gonna Die (with Iggy Pop)
The original sinewy punk rocker offers some informed wisdom on this fitting finale: "We're all gonna die, so let's get high."
