Guitar legend Slash prepares new solo album

Slash, best known as former lead guitarist of U.S. rock band Guns N’ Roses, said he is preparing another solo album while planning to visit Seoul as part of a world tour.

After releasing his first solo album “Slash” in Korea in May, the current guitarist of Velvet Revolver is to hold a solo concert on March 20 at Ax-Hall in Seoul.

“I am working on material for the next record that I am gonna do outside Velvet Revolver and working on that material right now,” Slash said in an e-mail interview with The Korea Herald.

However, he did not mention in detail which artists he will work with or what kind of music styles he will pursue.

His last album featured musicians from a variety of styles, including Adam Levine of Maroon 5, Fergie, Kid Rock, Cypress Hill and Ozzy Osbourne.

“It was really satisfying to work with all these different singers and song writers because I’d written pieces of music and introduced them to the singers, and they came up with their own voice for those songs,” he said.

Slash is known for using Gibson Les Paul guitars. For amplifiers, he uses only Marshall.

For the upcoming concert in Seoul, he said he will not use so many guitars.

“On this tour, I’m not using many guitars. Four main guitars and four back ups. I have the AFD amps coming out, it’s flash Marshall. Great amp,” Slash said.

He was last in Seoul in 1999 when he was performing with Michael Jackson.

Unfortunately, however, Seoul fans this time will not able to see a cigarette dangling between his lips on stage, the trademark of Slash’s sexy performance, since he has quit smoking.

“It will be two years by April,” he noted.

Born in 1965 and debuting in 1983, Slash was named the No. 2 guitarist on Time Magazine’s list of 10 best electric guitar players of all time in 2009, trailing his hero Jimmy Hendrix.

Slash said people would not have chosen him as the No. 2 if they had known the guitarists that inspired him in his childhood, although it was a great honor to him. Actually, the 46-year-old said Jimmy Hendrix is the one he most respects as a guitarist, saying Hendrix created a new world in guitar playing.

Slash’s solo concert will be held at Ax-Hall in Gwangjang-dong in Seoul at 6 p.m. Myles Kennedy, lead vocalist of the rock band Alter Bridge, will be joining in the show. Tickets are 99,000 won. For details, call (02) 3141-3488.

By Kim Yoon-mi (yoonmi@heraldcorp.com)