Iconic guitarist Slash is best known for his role as Guns N' Roses axeslinger, but according to a new interview, he almost joined another Rose-related band - The Stone Roses.
The rumour of the American guitarist being touted as John Squire's replacement in the Manchester indie band has been the stuff of urban legend - until now.
Guitarist Aziz Ibhrahim, who briefly played in the band after Squire's acrimonious departure in 1996, has said that it's true that there had been contact made between both parties.
He told the StageLeft podcast: There had been auditions. Slash had offered to play. There was a lot of bitterness and anger and so forth, maybe they wanted to piss [Squire] off, so they thought, ‘Let’s get the greatest rock icon of all time.'
However, according to Ibrahim the reason that it never happened was down to Slash's sartorial choices.
"Slash was in England and his manager wanted to manage the Roses. "They thought, ‘Yeah yeah, we’ll get this big rock icon, that would really annoy John.’ Then they said something to the affect of, ‘We’re not going to work with a guy with leather pants, are we?' So Slash wasn't in".
As for Slash's side of the story? He told The Guardian in 2010 that he'd "heard of the Stone Roses, but I'd never met them. I think I was probably too busy in Guns N' Roses at the time. Maybe it might have been a good idea. Someone told me we tried to recruit the lead singer into Velvet Revolver. That's not true either."
H/T: NME
