Todd Kerns Slash

Leslie Michele Derrough of GlideMagazine.com recently conducted an interview with Todd Kerns, who plays bass in Slash‘s (VELVET REVOLVER, ex-GUNS N’ ROSES) band. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

On working with producer Eric Valentine on Slash‘s new album:

“He’s a very, very talented man. We went through an entire phase where the three of us — myself, Brent [Fitz, drums] and Slash — were sitting around arranging and rearranging and tearing songs apart and putting them back together. Then Myles [Kennedy, vocals] came in and we started that whole process again cause he’s sort of putting in his two cents and then Eric comes in and we start doing that process again (laughs) … But it all came together really fantastic; like it’s huge and aggressive and it’s multi-colored at the same time. It’s not sort of one vein or one flavor; it’s sort of an array, a rainbow of rock (laughs).”

On what it’s like to work with Slash:

“Slash is one of the most intelligent guys I know. I don’t think people think he’s not smart but I think they have this kind of image of him as this sort of rock and roll, smoking, drugs, rock and roll guy, like he’s some sort of a rock and roll animal. I think that’s the impression people have of him and that is somewhat true, although all those things I just mentioned he doesn’t do anymore. I’m always kind of terrified that I’m spoiling his image somehow by saying that he’s a very thoughtful guy.”

“A lot of what Slash is all about is he just wants to play guitar. When you know Slash, it’s weird to see him without a guitar in his hands. You see him all day long sitting somewhere with a guitar in his hands playing and then you see him onstage playing and then you see him later on playing guitar sitting in the bus (laughs). In the studio, it’s a lot more focus and a command to making it the best it can be and he’s absolutely tireless. We all kind of joke how like we’re all getting hungry or have to go pee and he’s still going, ‘Hey, let’s try this one.’ He’s so very focused and very sort of driven. He is a very laid back guy but he also knows what he wants.”

“Slash has been nothing but awesome to me. He’s been very good to me. I didn’t expect us to have our photos in the live album, ‘Made In Stoke’. I didn’t expect us to have our photos in the DVD. I kind of thought, this is Slash‘s band, it’s Slash featuring Myles Kennedy; that’s just the way it is. Over the duration of that I’ve watched my own profile get raised a giant percentage. So to me, it’s whatever Slash wants to do. If he decides tomorrow he’s going to get Paul McCartney to play bass, that’s just the way it goes (laughs). Initially, the whole thing about recording an album with Myles didn’t have to be that ‘we’re going to record an album with Myles and Brent and Todd; we’re going to use some session guys in L.A. and it’s going to be Myles and Slash.’ But he was awesome about it and let us be on the record.”