Today is the 25th anniversary of late Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain’s death, and the 17th anniversary of late Alice In Chains singer Layne Staley’s death. Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash is quoted in a new Kerrang article about Cobain, and he said he was a bigger fan of Staley and Alice In Chains, along with Chris Cornell and Soundgarden.
“It was kinda lame that music writers at the start of the ‘90s could only create an identity for the Seattle bands by setting them up as anti-Guns N’ Roses. I know writers like to consider the whole ‘birth of grunge’ as the death knell for Guns, but we were so big at that point that the emergence of the grunge bands didn’t really matter to us.
Personally, I thought Nirvana were cool – I have four of their albums – but they weren’t as heavy or riff-oriented as Soundgarden or Alice In Chains, so those were actually my two favourite Seattle bands. I guess Axl [Rose] and Kurt Cobain had some issues, but Dave Grohl is on my album with Duff [McKagan], so at least one member of Nirvana didn’t hate me!”
Slash never got the chance to collaborate with Staley or Cobain, but he did play with Chris Cornell on “Promise” and he was collaborated with Dave Grohl on multiple occasions.
