Slash recalls playing his first ever sober gig was "a trip" but insists he got over the shock pretty quickly.
The guitar hero famously lived the rock lifestyle to the extreme in his Guns N’ Roses days and never played a gig without a drink in him until a tour with Velvet Revolver in 2006.
And while that experience was a nervy one, he has never looked back since and has remained sober.
He tells BBC 6 Music: “When I was in rehab, there was a point when Velvet went out and did a real quick tour around California. And so I left rehab and went out and did this tour, and it was the first time I’d been on stage sober — ever.
“That was a trip and it was a little shaky, but you get past that pretty quickly. Because you’re in the moment – you can’t just sit there and go, ‘Oh my God, I can’t do this.’ You have to do it. So I got over that pretty quickly.”
Slash also reflects on GNR’s notoriously drink and drug-fuelled reputation and says he eventually called it quits in regards to substance abuse when he realised that he had no choice but to clean up his act.
He says: “GNR was the poster child for dysfunction and chaos, I love that about that band.
“I wouldn’t die, you know, so there’s some truth to that where I finally got to a point where ‘Okay I’m not going anywhere so I’m going to have to sort this out.’ I didn’t have any kind death wish, but I really took everything to the extreme and didn’t care.”
Slash will release his new solo album under the banner of Slash with Myles Kennedy & The Conspirators on Monday, September 15, as a special fan pack edition exclusively through Classic Rock magazine.
Classic Rock’s Slash Fan Pack includes the World On Fire album, a metal pin badge plus an in-depth, 116 page full-colour magazine dedicated to every aspect of how the album was written and recorded, and can be pre-ordered now.
