Guns N’ Roses’ Slash recently admitted in an interview with Classic Rock that he felt resentment towards the band’s co-founder and guitarist Izzy Stradlin for quitting in 1991. He currently understands his point of view and is still thinking about that event.
Izzy Stradlin founded Guns N’ Roses along with Axl Rose, Tracii Guns, Rob Gardner, and Ole Beich. However, Rose and Guns had a falling out before they signed their first deal as a band, which resulted in Guns quitting shortly afterward. Beich was fired, and Gardner also left. The band went through an almost complete lineup change before signing a record deal.
The new lineup consisting of Axl Rose, Slash, Duffy Mckagan, and Steven Adler signed a deal in 1986. They created their iconic songs during that period and released classics like ‘Appetite for Destruction,’ ‘G N’ R Lies,’ and ‘Use Your Illusion’ I and II. However, after the release of the ‘Use Your Illusion’ albums, Stradlin became dissatisfied with his band.
He was also struggling with addiction and decided to quit and get sober and healthy around that period. The more his head cleared up, the more he realized the injustices in the band and how tired he was from various things. He didn’t appreciate Axl’s diva behavior and the band demoting him in the contract. After the build-up, he quit, and even though he also contributed to ‘The Spaghetti Incident?’ the band didn’t give him credits.
Recently, Slash spoke about how much he resented Stradlin for quitting based on those reasons. He said that he went through what he did for a long time, but that wasn’t a reason to leave and disrespect Guns N’ Roses. After he left, Stradlin had stated that the band was going to die, which made the other members not understand him and therefore resent him.
Here is what Slash said about Stradlin leaving in 1991:
“At that time, the fact that he quit wasn’t an issue. There was no judgment about any of that. I don’t think anybody judged anybody else on how they behaved outside of being able to show up and do the gig. I was admittedly resentful of that whole trip with Izzy leaving because whatever had gone on for him that forced that sudden change, I was like, man, I died eighteen times prior to that! It didn’t faze me!
But when he quit, he was looking at us going: ‘These guys are gonna f*cking die!’ My whole attitude was like: ‘I’ll get on with it. Don’t f*cking worry. I’ll manage.’ So there was a certain kind of resentment thereof not really understanding or appreciating where Izzy was coming from. In hindsight, I still sort of feel the same way, I guess, about that. Like, don’t worry about me.”
Even though he quit for valid reasons in 1991, he couldn’t stay away for long. He returned to the band for a year in 1993 and a tour in 2006. The members are still friends and don’t have bad blood between them. Stradlin had the opportunity to focus on his solo career and play with the band once in a while.
