In a new Zeit interview, Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash discussed seeing assholes in the music business.
ZEIT ONLINE: Your world was populated by musicians and artists instead.
Slash: Yes, but that many of them were pretty well known did not strike me at the time. I learned intelligently, in some cases I would even call intellectual countercultural people who opposed the establishment. Damn cool people who later became my heroes. But I also saw a lot of iridescent assholes who thought the world owed them something. I never wanted to be like that.
ZEIT ONLINE: Her father designed album art for Neil Young and Joni Mitchell; Her mother was a costume designer. So pop stars like David Bowie came to your house when you were young. Does your dealings with your own prominence have anything to do with how you grew up?
Slash: As a kid, you do not really have anything to compare your own life with. Looking back, I am happy to have grown up in such an artistic environment. However, most of the time I went to a state school – I never really fit in, because I just did not come from a typical American mainstream family.
