Slash Recalls Dressing in Drag, Getting Arrested on the Sunset Strip

Posted on Aug 26th 2010 4:00PM by Steve Baltin
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Stefano Cremaschi

As an icon of the Sunset Strip and its famous haunts (the Roxy, the Rainbow, the Whisky, etc.), Slash may have more tales than anyone about the famed street.

"I moved here when I was a kid, I was raised here, I've been a part of this neighborhood forever, I started playing guitar here, all of my bands were from here," this year's honoree at the Sunset Strip Music Festival tells Spinner. "I feel very much a part of this whole neighborhood."

Because he is a member of the community, the celebration, which will also see West Hollywood declare Aug. 26 "Slash Day," is very meaningful for him. "When I got the phone call, it totally took me by surprise," he says. "I was really flattered by that because it's such a major part of my whole being."

And what are some of his favorite stories about the Strip? "I used to have a fake ID and go to the Rainbow all the time with Steven [Adler] when I was 16 or 17 years old," he recalls. "One Tuesday night, Steven and I went to the Rainbow. Steven got in and [the bouncer] Steady -- he's been there forever, he's a fixture -- stops me. I'd gone through there a million times and he stopped me, looked at my ID and said, 'No, you can't come in here.' And I was floored. I was a little bit drunk anyway, so I went home."

"So, I dressed up in my mom's clothes -- put on a hat, wore one of her cool dresses, put makeup on and came back and parked up above Doheny and Sunset," he continues. "I was on a mission really, so it just didn't hit me what I was doing and just walked right in," he recalls. "I went in, looked for Steven, thinking, 'I'm gonna go pick up on Steven. This is gonna be the funniest thing.'"

There was only one problem with the idea. "After combing the whole place, I realized he wasn't there and this dark cloud of reality hit me that I was standing in the Rainbow in drag. It just became the most inhibiting, fearful thing I'd ever been involved with before," he says. "I hightailed it out of the Rainbow, but for every honk, every yell, every f---ing anybody that said anything I thought was directed at me -- which maybe gave me a little insight as to what girls must feel like -- I was totally paranoid."

Another prouder Sunset Strip moment for Slash came when Guns N' Roses released the 'Use Your Illusion' albums. "When 'Use Your Illusions' came out, we had this midnight reopening of Tower Records," he says. "I went to Tower Records, went around the back and looked at everybody filing in to buy our cassettes or CDs through the same window [where] I got arrested years earlier for stealing cassettes from. That was very special."

"I was banned from Tower and then three or four years later I got a job as the manager at Tower Video," he adds. "Go figure."

The tribute to Slash will take place Thursday at the Strip's House of Blues. On Saturday, he'll perform with Fergie as part of the festival, which will also feature sets by Smashing Pumpkins, Semi Precious Weapons, Kid Cudi, Common and more.