Renowned guitarist Slash has been preparing his very first solo album since 2007. The former Guns ‘N’ Roses and current Velvet Revolver member plans to release the record, Slash and Friends, sometime in 2010. The list of these “friends” is very lengthy. Those announced so far include Flea, Ozzy Osbourne, M. Shadows, Alice Cooper, Chris Cornell, Ron Wood, Iggy Pop, Fergie, and Adam Levine. Now Dave Grohl and Duff McKagan have even entered the fold. Josh Freeze will drum and Chris Chaney will play bass on the majority of the album.
“Doing a track for my record with Dave Grohl on drums & Duff on bass tonight, it promises to be killer,” Slash tweeted about the studio session before returning the 140-character Website to report “Great jamming w/Duff & Grohl tonight, the track is a killer instrumental, very heavy.”
With this effort, Slash is slowly becoming our generation’s Jeff Beck, recruiting established musicians to enhance his guitar work. For example, The Jeff Beck Group’s 1969 album Beck-Ola featured vocalist Rod Stewart and Ron Wood (again!) on guitars. The Jeff Beck Group would evolve over the years until Beck completely broke out on his own, recording whatever the hell he wanted to at the time.
The thing is, with these albums, the music rarely sounds cohesive. Slash has created a definitive guitar sound, but mixed with these various vocalists and eccentric musicians, I think the record is going to be all over the place. Oh well, I’m sure a few tracks will rip!
