Slash Shares Why He Got Rid Of His Early and Oldest Guitars

Slash recently revealed that he no longer has most of the guitars from the early days of his career.

Reflecting on the past, he explained, “Unfortunately all that first stuff is gone.” During a conversation on the Mistress Carrie podcast, he admitted that during Guns N’ Roses’ early years, he often had to sell his guitars for extra cash. “In the early days of Guns N’ Roses, there was a lot of hocking going on,” Slash shared, explaining how many of those instruments were lost in the process.

However, there is one special guitar that Slash has managed to keep throughout the years. He fondly recounted the story of this cherished instrument, which has a unique connection to his early days.

The Babysitting Gig That Earned Slash His Oldest Guitar

Slash reminisced:

“The only guitar that I still have from my very early days of playing was one I got from a babysitting gig. Always on the lookout for work, he took on a job watching over a young girl. “Someone said to me, ‘Hey, I’ve got a friend who needs a babysitter.’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, I’ll do it.’ I think it was like a seven-year-old girl. And I was like, ‘OK, cool.’”

Upon arriving at the house, Slash noticed an eye-catching instrument hanging on the wall. “They had an acoustic, a 1930s Epiphone acoustic hanging on the wall. And I asked them before the parents left if I could play it,” he recalled. While the girl slept, Slash spent the evening strumming the vintage guitar.

When the parents returned home, they saw how captivated he was by the instrument and decided to give it to him. Slash said:

“I just sat on the couch playing this really beautiful Epiphone guitar.
“And I still have it.”

Slash’s latest album, Orgy of the Damned, was released in May, and he has spent much of the summer touring with his S.E.R.P.E.N.T. festival.