In a new Revolver interview, Slash revealed that it was Axl Rose’s idea for Guns N’ Roses to finally cover Velvet Revolver’s “Slither” live in 2018. He said Rose ‘dug’ the song. Slash said he sees the song as a homage to his late bandmate Scott Weiland.
“When we first started rehearsing, we had a pretty lengthy set list. And we had a list of songs which we called ‘alternative tracks.’ And ‘Slither’ was actually on there two years ago, but we just never did it. And then we started rehearsing for this last European festival and stadium run that we did. Axl said, ‘Let’s try Slither.’ We just fell into it and he really dug it.
But in a lot of ways for myself and for Duff, it also had a little bit of homage to Scott [Weiland]. All in all, it was a really cool and cathartic thing to go out and play that song after all these years — especially after losing Scott and playing it for all these people.”
Axl Rose and Scott Weiland had a bitter feud in 2006 when rumors surfaced that Slash was trying to rejoin GNR. Weiland called Rose a ‘fat, botox faced, wig wearing fuck.’ In a November 2015 interview with Alternative Nation just prior to his death though, Weiland seemed to indicate that the tension with Rose was in the past, and he called Slash an icon.
Guns N’ Roses debuted their cover of Velvet Revolver’s “Slither” live in Berlin over the summer. We reported the prior day that GNR were filmed rehearsing the song, two years after it originally appeared as a setlist alternate. Slash and Duff McKagan played with Scott Weiland in Velvet Revolver, so the performance was a fitting tribute to their fallen bandmate. Guns N’ Roses performed “Black Hole Sun” by Soundgarden in 2017 to honor Chris Cornell. Soundgarden toured with Guns N’ Roses in the early 90’s.
https://youtu.be/Yt1mhmR0dJY
