Slash Explains How He Keeps Track of All His Riffs

Legendary guitarists come up with thousands of riffs throughout their careers, but where do they "store" all of them? Slash, who's written music with Guns N' Roses, Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators and a plethora of other musicians, explained how he keeps track of all his riffs during a chat with Loudwire Nights host Toni Gonzalez.

He stores them in his head.

"All things considered, I couldn't have said this 20 years ago, but I keep a lot of it in my head because I actually have the capacity to remember it now," the guitar hero said laughing. "I record stuff on whatever little small device, like my phone or whatever, and that's where any kind of cool idea goes. And if I need to reference it, I know where to find it."

The rocker just recently announced his fourth upcoming record with Kennedy and the Conspirators, appropriately titled 4. However, he also put out some new songs with Guns N' Roses — "Absurd" and "Hard Skool" — which came out this year and served as his first proper release with Axl Rose since 1994.

GN'R just finished a tour of the U.S. last month and will hit the road again next year, but not before Slash heads out on his own run in support of 4. For many musicians, not being able to tour during the pandemic was a challenge. But for someone who's constantly in the studio or on the road?

"Some of my worst pitfalls were really a result of not working. And I didn't know, I didn't have the experience to know better at the time," Slash admitted. "But over the years, I finally started to realize that the reason I have a lot of issues during downtime is because I just don't know what to do with myself during downtime."

"I'm so used to the pace of touring and I'm used to the energy and I'm used to having a schedule, going out every night… And there's really no substitute for that," he continued.

Fortunately, the guitarist has learned how to keep himself busy, whether writing new music for either of his bands or even for movies.

To hear the full discussion, tune into Loudwire Nights tonight at 7PM ET.

Loudwire Nights with Toni Gonzalez airs nightly starting at 7PM ET. You can tune in anytime, from anywhere right here or by downloading the Loudwire app.