2002.01.04 - Los Angeles Times - Slash Persona Non Grata at GNR Concert (Slash, Goldstein)

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Slash Persona Non Grata at GNR Concert

Former Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash’s plan to check out his estranged bandmate Axl Rose on stage last weekend was scrapped by Rose’s representatives, who informed him that he wouldn’t be allowed into the Las Vegas concert hall.

Slash, who officially left GNR in 1996 and has remained alienated from the temperamental Rose, had arranged through a friend to attend Saturday’s show at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, where Rose was playing with his new Guns N’ Roses lineup for only the second time.

That didn’t seem like a good idea to Rose’s manager, Doug Goldstein. “We didn’t know what his intentions were,” Goldstein told The Times this week. “If nothing else, it would have been a distraction. Axl was really nervous about these shows. We decided on our own not to take any risk.”

Goldstein sent an assistant to discuss the issue with Slash, who agreed to cancel his reservation. Slash told The Times on Thursday that four hotel security guards accompanied the representative to his room and made it clear that he wouldn’t be admitted to the show.

“They said no way. I knew things were being blown way out of proportion. It was like being grabbed by my hair and being ripped back into the days of when I was in Guns N’ Roses.... I was going to see the show just like anybody else, and to be supportive, for what that’s worth. I spent the last six years trying to stay out of the nastiness that does go on. If Axl had heard I was there and sent somebody down to go, ‘You want to come up and jam on “Paradise City” or “Welcome to the Jungle”?’ I would have done it.”

Elaine Dutka