Slash very nearly joined The Stone Roses, was turned down for wearing leather trousers

Slash: went through hell for leather
Slash: went through hell for leather (Image credit: Future)

In one of the stranger supergroup stories to land in recent months, it's emerged that after leaving Guns N' Roses in 1996, Slash almost joined The Stone Roses, who had just lost founding member John Squire.

Former Stone Roses guitarist Aziz Ibrahim made the revelation in a Stagelift Podcast interview, before revealing that the top-hatted one's leather trousers prevented him joining the UK alt-rock heroes.

"I know there had been auditions - Slash had offered to play," Ibrahim recalled. "There was a lot of bitterness and anger and so forth; maybe they wanted to piss him off, so they thought, 'Let's get the greatest rock icon of all time.' Slash was in England, he was in Snakepit, the management knew the Roses and wanted to manage the Roses.

We're not going to work with a guy with leather pants, are we?

"Goldstein wanted to manage the Roses, so Slash had offered Manny or Ian - 'I'm not sure,' one of them said. Afterwards, they thought, 'Yeah, yeah, we'll get this big rock icon - that would really annoy John.' Then [they] said something to the effect of, 'We're not going to work with a guy with leather pants, are we?'"

My oh my. That third album would have been very different indeed…

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Michael Astley-Brown

Mike has been Editor-in-Chief of GuitarWorld.com since 2019, and an offset fiend and recovering pedal addict for far longer. He has a master's degree in journalism from Cardiff University, and 15 years' experience writing and editing for guitar publications including MusicRadar, Total Guitar and Guitarist, as well as 20 years of recording and live experience in original and function bands. During his career, he has interviewed the likes of John Frusciante, Chris Cornell, Tom Morello, Matt Bellamy, Kirk Hammett, Jerry Cantrell, Joe Satriani, Tom DeLonge, Radiohead's Ed O'Brien, Polyphia, Tosin Abasi, Yvette Young and many more. His writing also appears in the The Cambridge Companion to the Electric Guitar. In his free time, you'll find him making progressive instrumental rock as Maebe.