Slash Reveals Why Guns N’ Roses Will Never Hit The Big Screen

Photo Credit: Raph_PH

Bohemian Rhapsody, Elvis, and Rocketman have all been hits recently, big films based on top-selling artists.

I Walk The Line, the Johnny Cash film, was another that took a famous artist, threw in their music and told the tale. They’re not always pretty, delivering a warts-and-all experience that delights fans. Doubtless, the race is on in Hollywood circles to find the next big band that will feature on the silver screen. Guns N’ Roses would seem perfect for the job, but they’re not likely to feature in a movie adaptation soon, according to guitarist Slash.

He was asked by Movie Maker if a Guns N’ Roses film was likely, and his answer is fairly definitive. “Yeah. That’s, that’s a, that’s a funny one,” said the star, born Saul Hudson in Stoke, England. “People come to make the Guns N Roses movie. And then I have people coming to me about doing a movie, I think it was after I wrote my book. It’s just not something that, collectively we’re sort of just not interested. And I can’t imagine trying to find some actors that can portray the band properly.”

As well as casting, Slash feels capturing the band’s essence wouldn’t be easy without ‘selling out’.

“I mean, rock ‘n’ roll movies suffer from being just super, super corny and unrealistic anyway, as a whole. There are very few really good rock ‘n’ roll movies. So, I would hate to sell us out ourselves out with some sort of script that’s supposed to depict our history. I don’t see it happening.”

Slash is back touring with the band, and the desire for a movie will only likely increase as they continue to put on shows. Their first album, Appetite for Destruction, is three decades old and is yet instantly recognizable to the current generation through the use of their songs in video games and films. That has accentuated their reach through the years; titles such as Burnout Paradise featured tracks from the album as the main theme. That’s also the case for Use Your Illusion 1 and 2, with songs such as You Could Be Mine becoming popular thanks to its inclusion in Terminator 2. Other games help drive home their music; Coral has an online slot called Guns N’ Roses, which features the band’s music and branding. Plenty of other video games have kept them popular despite not having a top ten hit this century; Madden NFL 15 and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas are two.

That demonstrates the band’s reach into pop culture, and given some of the reported antics of Axl in the eighties and the protracted recording of Chinese Democracy, which took more than 15 years, there are some great stories to tell. Sadly, it would appear we won’t get to see them on the big screen.

We won’t even get to see the story of Slash, a unique character from rock history. He was born in England to an African American mother who once dated David Bowie, and his mixed cultural background has contributed to him being one of the most fascinating characters in modern rock. Plus, it wouldn’t be hard to find an actor to play him as nobody really knows what he looks like! Still, even a Slash film won’t happen. When asked if he’d consider doing his movie, the answer was definitive.

“No,” he replied. “I definitely don’t want to do that,”

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