Slash recalls the first time he met Lemmy from Motörhead at the Rainbow

Lemmy moved to Los Angeles in the 1990s, tired of the gloomy weather the UK is so well known for, he up and left for a warmer climate. Where else than the Hollywood Strip? Blondes lining the sidewalk and Rock N Roll flowing through the streets. Lemmy became an iconic character on the Sunset Strip, most notably for the amount of time he would spend at the infamous Rainbow Bar and Grill, a hot spot hang out for Hollywood rock royalty.


The Rainbow was the place to be, all the great’s used to hang there from Van Halen to Motley Crue, and Poison to Alice Cooper. Guns N Roses were also notorious regulars, with Axl Rose being kicked out several times during the 80s and 90s, no surprise there though.

Slash spent most of his time drunk during the 80s, he tell’s kerrang! Magazine in a new interview. “The whole time from 1987 and all the way into the ‘90s, and God knows when, there was a lot of drinking and a lot of craziness and partying, and just excessive…you know”, Slash says.

“There was a period in 2001 when I was really sick from alcohol poisoning and that slowed me down for a minute, and then it started back up again,” he explains. He also recalls the first time he met Lemmy from Motörhead, and it was even before Guns N Roses took a hold of the Sunset Strip. Nobody had even heard of Slash at the time.

Slash was out with his girlfriend enjoying some drinks and no doubt other substances. “My first real Lemmy experience actually happened at The Rainbow. This was probably pre-Guns N’ Roses and I was there with a girlfriend,” Slash recalls. “So I get up to take a piss and when I come back, Lemmy’s there. He’s on the outside seat, she’s on the inside, and I get on her other side. I’m so enamoured that Lemmy is there that I’m completely oblivious to the fact that he’s chatting up my girlfriend. And she’s in this weird state, thinking, ‘Who the fuck is this guy? And why aren’t you doing something about it?’ Lemmy finally realises that he’s become the third wheel in this situation and it’s not going anywhere for him, so he gets up. She was like, ‘Hey, I didn’t do anything…’ And I said, ‘Do you know who that was?’”

Slash also talks about hitchhiking in Seattle with fellow GNR member Duff McKagan. “When we first got together, Duff, being from the punk scene in Seattle, knew all these venues along the Pacific Northwest. So he set up a tour where we could play there, or I think go all the way up there playing all these dates, but when we headed up we had a friend of ours’ automobile and we had a fucking U-Haul trailer. All five of us, plus roadies, were stuffed in the back of that car. It was like something out of a cartoon and we made it as far as Bakersfield [California] when we broke down. We left the car, grabbed our guitars and hitchhiked to Seattle”