Slash


As far as being black and being in Guns N' Roses, I think the only time there was a realization of the ethnic difference between myself and say, Axl, was when we put out this song called One in a Million that he wrote. The lyrics in it were-- I can't even remember it, it was just-- immigrants and faggots and police and niggers. And that was the first time that I said, "You know, I don't really feel comfortable with you-- making these statements. -- Slash



Saul Hudson was born July 23, 1965 in a suburb of London to a white English father and an African-American mother. When Slash was 11, he moved to Los Angeles with his mother, with his father eventually joining the two several years later. As a result of both his parents working in the entertainment industry, visitors to the Hudson home were often the likes of Joni Mitchell, David Bowie and David Geffen. Slash moved in with his grandmother when his parents separated. It was his grandmother who gave him his first guitar at the age of 15.

He devoted hours of each day to teaching himself how to play, eventually dropping out of high school. The band Guns �N Roses was formed several years later,

and while they wrote most of their classic hits in the mid-1980s, they became wildly popular with the release of 1987's Appetite for Destruction which sold 15 million copies in the United States. After many successful years as a member of Guns �N Roses, he resigned in 1996, due to issues with lead singer Axl Rose over the direction of the band.

Since then, Slash has gone on to form the band Velvet Revolver, earning a Grammy Award for their album Contraband in 2005. Throughout his career, Slash has performed with some of the greatest musicians of all time including Steven Tyler, Elton John, and Michael Jackson. He continues to write scores for major movie blockbusters including Ray, Terminator 2 and Hulk.