Slash and the Reason Why He Doesn’t Read Rock Memoirs

Slash, like many rock stars, has co-authored a memoir chronicling his wild guitar god life. However, just because he's written a memoir doesn't mean he reads them.

In an interview with Italian outlet Linea Rock, the guitarist says, "To tell you the truth, I don't read rock and roll books. I've read a book about national artists and I've read books about rock and roll, but I've never read anybody else's… Well, I read the Jim Morrison one, and I read the most recent Joe Perry one, but for the most part, I stay away from autobiographies."

So, what's the reason for not reading any rock biographies? Simply put, Slash said, "A lot of it is because I know people. I know the people that wrote them, and it feels like spying on them. It's like following people on their Instagram; if you know them, it feels like spying."

Then again, since Slash knows his fair share of fellow rock icons, he can probably just ask them for all the behind-the-scenes stories himself. One good thing has come from the rock memoir genre for Slash: It inspired him to really get to the truth in his own memoir.

"I also used to think that rock and roll books were 75 percent bulls--- too...Autobiographies are largely written by other people, or biographies are totally written by other people, so it's their own fantasy that they're sort of building up in these books. That sort of inspired me to write my book myself and not rely too much on a ghost writer — to be as honest as possible."