Slash Says Guns N' Roses Purists Take His Music 'Too Seriously'

When it came time to decide on a bonus track for his eponymous debut album, former Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash decided to include a slowed-down, hip-hop version of his former band's 1988 Top 10 single 'Paradise City' featuring the unexpected tandem of Cypress Hill and Fergie of the Black Eyed Peas.

"I've been playing 'Paradise City' with Cypress Hill since 2002 -- I just love the way they do the verses -- and we always have somebody come up and do the chorus," Slash explains to Spinner of the collaboration's genesis. "I always said, 'one of these days, we've got to record this' and here we were, seven years later.

"I had the Cypress Hill guys come down [to the studio] and I'd just done 'Beautiful Dangerous' with Fergie so I said, 'why don't you sing the chorus?' just for the hell of it."

Before releasing the track in North America, the guitar god decided to give it a test run with Japanese audiences.

"I put it out as a B-side of a Japanese single and, of course, it cruised around the internet," he recalls. "I had all the Guns N' Roses purists that were really pissed off about it and I had all these other people that really liked it."

Despite the mixed reaction, the guitarist ultimately decided to include the new 'Paradise City' on the deluxe edition because, as he says with a smirk, "I just figured some people are taking it a little too seriously."