Slash’s ‘Intimidating’ Show in Front of Jimmy Page and Brian May
Slash recalled the “intimidating” experience of performing a show while Jimmy Page and Brian May were in the audience.
The moment took place around 2005 when the Guns N’ Roses guitarist was touring the U.K. with Velvet Revolver. In a recent interview, he told 95.5 KLOS that he hadn’t met either of the British musicians before, although he regarded both as heroes.
“I get probably as starstruck, if not more starstruck, than the average person,” Slash said. “You have to keep your cool and try not to make anybody uncomfortable by telling them what a big influence they are on you right away. … I think that's unnerving. It is for me because I don't know how to react.”
You can watch the interview below.
Slash said he had previously met Lemmy Kilmister and Joe Perry, finding them both to be “really, really cool” people who soon became his friends. “But I'll tell you one story [about] meeting some guitar heroes and just what an impact it has," he said. "I was doing a show at Hammersmith. Jimmy Page and Brian May … showed up at the gig. Talk about just being really uncomfortable! But they're lovely guys – really, really down-to-earth. And I was really happy to meet them and also to find that they were sort of human. But I'll never forget that as being one of the most intimidating shows I ever did.”
He recalled being asleep on his tour bus when Page came to the door and later encountered May backstage "just before we went on." "And then those guys both sat on the side of the stage while we played," Slash noted. "So it was an entire day!"