Slash Explains 'Sweet Child O' Mine' Riff, Says Les Paul Destroyed Him Onstage

"Sweet Child o' Mine" is perhaps the defining '80s rock anthem, and is often credited with being one of the best guitar-driven tracks of the modern era. The man behind the Guns N' Roses riff -- Slash -- has been asked about his creative process for decades, and he recently told Billboard about the creative sparks that eventually laded "Sweet Child" at No. 1 on the pop chart.

"It was a riff that I was messing around with and really just sort of discovering all of the notes within the riff," Slash said. "We were sitting in the living room of this house we were staying at [during] pre-production for Appetite for Destruction. It was just a fun thing that I felt like I'd stumbled on, and then Izzy [Stradlin] started playing chords behind it and it started to take on a little bit more of a song vibe."

Unbeknownst to Slash and Izzy, lead singer Axl Rose was listening from above.

"Axl had apparently overheard us doing it from upstairs in the bedroom where he was and so we were at the rehearsal room the next day or later that night and he goes, "Hey, play that riff that you were playing," Slash said. "We started playing it and all off a sudden, he had words for it and it just became the song."

Slash also discussed his first electric guitar -- a Memphis Les Paul copy his grandma purchased for $100 at a pawn shop -- and the first time he played a live gig with the legend himself.

"So when I first got a chance to meet him and play with him at Fat Tuesdays in New York [in the late '80s], I was eager to do it," Slash said. "I was really nervous. We were just winging it and, basically, the term I always use is that he just wiped the stage with me. I couldn't keep up with him. That was really inspiring for me and so I started practicing and taking certain aspects of my playing more seriously and use jamming with Les Paul as a benchmark of how my playing had improved."

On. Jan. 24, Slash will be presented with the Les Paul Award for excellence at the NAMM Show in Anaheim, Calif.

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