While the music community is obsessed with wondering whether Slash will be playing with Axl Rose at the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame induction ceremony, the guitarist has been more focused on who should perform rhythm axe duties on his upcoming tour.
Although Slash's singer, Myles Kennedy, is a more than capable guitarist, apparently the idea is to let the singer sing and the guitar players play. To that end, Slash held auditions to find just the right man for the job, which you can watch in the videos above and below.
"To put together this next record, I never planned on using a second guitar player," Slash explained. "But as far as going out and doing the tour was concerned, I needed to find somebody local. We had a whole auditioning process where I think 20 people showed up, and [drummer] Brent [Fitz] and [bassist] Todd [Kerns] picked out who, more or less, was going to be a call-back, and then I went in the next day and played with those five guitar players."
Slash (along with the lucky second guitarist just selected) hits the road on 3 May, ahead of the release of his new solo album, Apocalyptic Love.
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Joe is a freelance journalist who has, over the past few decades, interviewed hundreds of guitarists for Guitar World, Guitar Player, MusicRadar and Classic Rock. He is also a former editor of Guitar World, contributing writer for Guitar Aficionado and VP of A&R for Island Records. He’s an enthusiastic guitarist, but he’s nowhere near the likes of the people he interviews. Surprisingly, his skills are more suited to the drums. If you need a drummer for your Beatles tribute band, look him up.