Why Did Slash Leave Guns N' Roses

The reason Slash left Guns n' Roses has long been debated, and Axl constantly seems to be given his share of the blame - and possibly even more. While I do agree that Axl should have some of the blame for the break up, I don't believe he deserves the full blame. My belief is that Slash has to take some of the blame, due to his attitude and drinking problems.

My belief is that the beginning of the end for Slash happened in 1991 when Izzy Stradlin left the band. While Slash and Izzy were friends, they didn't hang out much and they were basically opposites: Izzy was sober and liked to ride motorcycles, Slash was constantly drunk (or on drugs) and liked partying hard. For this reason, it may sound weird that this is related to Slash's departure.

What followed Izzy's departure, however, obviously played a part. At some point during 1992, Axl decided that Slash and Duff had to sign over the rights of the band name to him, or he would stop touring. Slash and Duff agreed, probably because they wanted to save the band, and gave Axl the rights. This made the tour continue, but it also made Slash and Duff secondary members of the band - basically they were now Axl's employees.

Why Axl did this is an interesting question. Trying to see the situation from his side, it is obvious that Axl was now stuck in a band with only three original members remaining. He had lost Izzy Stradlin, who wrote a great part of «Appetite For Destruction». Left was Slash and Duff, who were partying hard, and drinking a lot - to the degree that Duff had to quit drinking to stay alive.

While on tour, the new situation in the band worked fairly well. When the tour ended, however, it appears that Slash realized what the new reality was like. While he wanted to tour following the release of the cover album «The Spaghetti Incident», Axl did not, and since Axl was the boss, this was it. This obviously bothered Slash. Axl seemingly dictated what the band should do next, and when he wanted to record the next album, the band had to do that.

That album (not to be confused with «Chinese Democracy») was recorded between 1995 and 1996. None of the songs are known, but Matt referred to it as a rock album. In a 1999 interview with Kurt Loder, Axl said he opted for something that should make Slash happy, but Slash was not very enthusiastic, and left during the recording process.

While it may be easy to say that Axl made Slash leave, this is only partly true. Axl had reasons for doing what he did with the contract. The band had indeed fired him earlier, and he thus had reasons to be worried about what Slash and Duff would do when they were under the influence of alcohol and drugs. Any conflict could lead to Axl being fired by the other two, and Axl may have suspected that they could carry on with another singer. Eager to avoid this, he demanded the rights to the name.

After the tour, however, Duff cleaned up, and Slash got better again. At this point, Axl could've possibly kept the band intact if he had handed the rights back to Slash and Duff. It does appear, however, that Axl was worried about the direction of the band. Slash wanted Gilby to help writing the next album the band would make, and Axl disagreed with this, because he felt Gilby had little to offer the band. After all Matt and Gilby Clarke helped Slash write his band's album «It's Five O' Clock Somewhere», which is surely forgotten now. The album featured songs Axl rejected for Guns n' Roses.

While the history of Guns n' Roses is still a little messy and unclear, I find it fair to say that both Slash and Axl made Slash leave Guns n' Roses. Axl made Slash's life in the band difficult, while Slash didn't keep up with the standards Axl wanted to band to keep. This led to Slash leaving the band, and Axl continuing alone.