Slash Labels Former Manager’s Guns N’ Roses Breakup Theory ‘B.S.’

It turns out that Michael Jackson didn't help break up Slash and Axl Rose. In a new interview, the guitarist refuted a recent claim by Guns N' Roses' former manager that his decision to perform and record with Jackson in 1991 was the catalyst for the split between the two.

Speaking to Elliot Segal, the longtime morning DJ on Washington, DC's DC101, he said, "I've been hearing a lot about this particular interview from a lot of people that he really pissed off. And I've heard that. And I don't think there's any truth to that. I mean, obviously, the band stayed together for years after that whole thing. And it wasn't a big deal at the time. And if it did piss anybody off, it was something that went away. So I don't think it had anything to do with the original Guns N' Roses demise [...] I don't wanna read or hear that guy's B.S., so I just avoid it. That way I stay sane."

Two weeks ago, Doug Goldstein, who managed Guns N' Roses from 1991-2008, suggested that Rose never got over Slash's decision to play on two songs from Jackson's album Dangerous, "Black or White" and "Give It to Me," because of the child abuse allegations against Jackson at the time. “I told him not to do it," Goldstein said, "because Axl was molested by his father when he was two, and he believed the charges against Michael Jackson. He thought Slash would support him and be against all abuse. From the point of view of Axl, that was the only problem. He could ignore the drugs and the alcohol, but could never the child abuse.”

The audio of the full interview is embedded above, with this discussion coming at the eight-minute mark.

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