The Time a Teenage Slash Wore a Dress to Hit on Steven Adler at a Bar
As a teenager, Slash once convinced bar security he was a woman to gain underage entrance into the Rainbow Bar and Grill, the famous rock 'n' roll joint on the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood, Calif.
And the Guns N' Roses guitarist did it to jokingly flirt with drummer Steven Adler.
Slash remembered the youthful high jinks this week on Jimmy Kimmel Live! There, the guitar icon performed "The River Is Rising" with Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators, from his upcoming album, 4, in addition to telling the late-night talk show about the time he and Adler were separated when using fake IDs.
Watch the videos down toward the bottom of this post.
Slash recalls, "One time I actually went to the Rainbow with Steve Adler, who was my partner in crime back when we were 14 or 15 years old. I showed [the bouncer] the ID, and Steven showed him his ID, and they let Steven in but they wouldn't let me in."
The Guns N' Roses guitarist was "just crushed," he continues, "so I went home and I put on a bunch of makeup, put on some of my mom's clothes — I was really drunk, you have to understand — and I went back up there. And it was ladies' night, that's what it was. So I went back and I got in."
But he wasn't fully victorious just yet. "The whole thing of it for me," Slash says, "was I was going to go and pick up on Steven, 'cause Steven would screw anything. And I thought it'd be really funny."
Once the guitarist gained re-entrance, however, he "started to realize Steven's not here," Slash adds. "He's gone. And this whole black cloud of reality came down, and I felt the most vulnerable I've ever felt. Still to this day, I've never felt like that. And then having to leave and walk down Sunset Boulevard in a dress back to my car."
Talk about a walk of shame. "You've got balls of steel when you're 15 years old," the Guns N' Roses member says.
Slash featuring Kennedy and the Conspirators' 4 comes out Feb. 11. Additional singles "Fill My World" and "Call Off the Dogs" followed last October's release of "The River Is Rising." Last month, Slash promised "there's new Guns material coming" after last year's "Hard Skool."