from snakepit.org Question from Jeff of Portland OR: My question is regarding the GNR pinball machine. There are several GNR songs on there; however, there are other songs on there that are not on any GNR album. For example, the "SLASH solo guitar feature" or the song played on the "extra ball feature". Did you actually record these songs for the pinball machine? I've also heard that there are other unreleased tracks on the machine. Is this true? SLASH replies: There are eight different original GNR recordings which were taken off the masters. An unreleased song is "Ain't Goin' Down" with no lyrics. If you see the Viper pinball game which I also did the music for, you'll find "Speed Parade" there. It's the sound the car makes. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Rip - January 1995 RIP: What's with you and pinballs? Slash: I kept getting asked, 'When you gonna write a pinball song?' Then all of a sudden, I starting writing this... it just came... but all of a sudden I started thinking about designing a pinball machine. Pinball's very hands-on... like pool... sort of a rock 'n' roll thing, and since I'm from the old school, I started to get into it. You have to use a lot of physical stuff with it, as opposed to just flicking a thumb pad. So I started thinking, What if you could make the back-glass so that you could draw out the playfield from a point of where the ball is, so you could see where you were going through the balls point of view? So when I thought about that, I knew we couldn't do it - they would just take it and I wouldn't have any artistic or creative control. So I'm thinking about it - becauseit's too expensive. All of a sudden I start thinking about these two guys who would drop everything and f?!kin' floor it, don't know where they're going, just they're gettin' out. There's lyrics in it that go, 'through the twists and valleys, and the tunnels and the maze...' and it came out really cool, 'cause it's a really dumb song (laughing). RIP: How did you get into the idea of creating a pinball machine? Slash: All of a sudden I started collecting. Pinball machine's usually have a theme, and then I thought, You know, there hasn't been a good rock 'n' roll machine in, like, 15 years. And the last machine I think that came out, that had an official band name on it, was the Ted Nugent game, which sucked, it was terrible. I thought, Well, Guns is a well-enough known name that we could probably do one. So I started drawing out the game, then I started sketching, writing down the rules and where the ramps should be, and what the whole object of the gameis - to get the band onstage. Then, well, who would I do it with? Williams and Bally are such an established thing that if I gave them the idea, they would just take it and I wouldn't have any artistic control or creative control. So I'm thinking about it and decided, let's fuckin' call the Data East people, because even though they're sorta the underdogs in pinball, they make great pinball games. So I called them up, I met with them in Chicago, got a tour of the backroom, and I've learned a lot since them about pinball. I go, 'Listen this is the idea, can you actually do this, can you do this?' And they said, 'We can f?!kin' do anything.' So I said, 'Okay, that's the company, that's the attitude that I want to go with.' There's a guy named Joe kaminkow, one of the owners of the pinball company, and John Borig - there's a whole list of people - who worked on it that were amazing. On the credits it says: Designed by John Borig and Slash - that's cool. If I had an idea, he technically knew how to do it. We'd sit for hours in a conference room with a huge piece of paper with the gameboard on it, making all the rules. Then to have it completed and sent out - I sent all the guys in the band one, all the people directly involved with the band. The people that I've given 'em to, are so like, they call me up: thank you. It warms the heart, I guess. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- At home with SLASH Metal Hammer August 1998 SLASH'S SILVER BALLS "I'm not at liberty to really discuss the Snakepit pinball machine until the blueprints are done, but it's going to be a really, really cool game, very different. I drew everything, like I always do, on cocktail napkins. The Guns machine, for one, is the first machine ever made with the real record on it. At the time, it was the loudest machine ever made. The Viper machine we just did... it has Snakepit material on it, and now that's the loudest machine ever made. I went to (one pinball company) and asked, 'Can you do this, this, this and this?' And they went, 'Umm, I don't know.' I went to Data East and they said, 'We can do anything.' I spent a couple of months in meetings back and forth to Chicago, dealing with stuff (for the Snakepit machine). "All the pinball companies are in Chicago. My ex-wife, her family lives in the suburbs of Chicago, and I went there to visit for the first time - I never played pinball as a kid - so I was bored. there was nothing to do except drive into the city and get fucked up and never be able to find my way back. But they had a basement - those are real popular in Chicago - a nd they had pinball machines down there. So I played pinball every night for a week. We came home and I bought The Addams Family (pinball machine) for Renee. That was the first one. Then one turned into two, two turned into four, four into six, and next thing you know, I was designing one! That's when the Guns N' Roses machine came. "I play for relaxation, just to take my mind off things. Or you just walk into the room, turn on one machine and play a game before you go on to something else. There's a general theme: either they're monster or a fun, goofy theme, like Party Zone. Anything that's got a cool vibe. I don't know how to define it. Baseball, football, the fisherman one - no way. I'll probably get Godzilla. "The Funhouse machine has a great story. We were all on mushrooms one night and Renee thought the machine was talking to her. I told her, 'Honey, it's OK, you're having a bad trip.' But she made me unplug the machine, making sure its mouth and eyes were closed, and I had to sell it. Later on, I found another one, so I bought it back in... (My now ex-wife and I) were on the outs then. Still to this day, she's scared to death of it." -------------------------------------------------------------- Livewire's Exclusive Interview with Slash July 10, 2001 Livewire: And you're a big fan of pinball, as well, I understand. Slash: Yeah, it was just one of those things I didn't even really discover until I was 27. I actually designed the Guns n' Roses pinball game. There were a lot of them made but they're pretty hard to find now. Apparently people just keep them in their collections. --------------------------------------------------------------- UNKNOWN SOURCE Another passion of our hero is pinballs and being a creative person he couldn’t refrain from making some of his own…how can u find the time for everything SLASH? Let’s see how he did it! And look how many pinballs he has got! [gunner's pinball] Want to know something more about this COOL SLASH’s creation work? Please SLASH could u explain? It was an hard work to put everything together to realize this pinball m achine but we know SLASH likes to be busy!!! Click on the image to listen from SLASH how amazing and binding was making this pinball machine…but hey! It seams like he had a lot of fun and satisfaction doing that…maybe that’s the reason why he tried it again with the Viper pinball machine!!!!! GO ON SLASH WE LOVE YOUR CREATIVITY! SPEED PARADE will be one of the songs of the new record read what SLASH said about it: “Speed parade is the oldest song in the album. I wanted to do it with Guns n’ Roses, but relations between members were terrible. It was too far to finish up the song, I didn’t have a chance to do that song on the other project. That’s alright. I finally made it as I imagined. That song is in my pinball machine. I play it LOUD AND HEAVY!!!!!” That is the viper pinball machine for Sega and SLASH says it fits well because of his “strange car-sounds” Did you ever play that pinball? Did you ever listen to that song? WE CAN’T WAIT!!!!! SLASH don’t you have the viper pinball machine? Or is only journalists that always ask you to play the guns n’ roses one? Again from the German magazine ROCK HARD we got the information that SLASH has 19 pinball machines!!! (Have a look!) We hope we didn’t misunderstood because our German is less then zero and we used a language assistant to translate… but we think SLASH said that in one of his Chicago trips he first bought the Addams family pinball for his mum…the way to become a pinball maniac was short and they became more and more very easily! Once we read somewhere that he sold one of his pinballs because his now ex-wife was very frightened by that one! Once she thought it was talking to her and she got scared! Very recently even your question if SLASH ever had sex on a pinball machine has been answered! “On a pinball machine? Well I actually did do something once on a pinball machine. They’re really sturdy. What a weird question.” SLASH also said that between his pinballs machines his favourites are Jurassic park and the Addams family together with the Guns N’ Roses one for sentimental reasons… he added that he actually never plays the guns n’ roses pinball because he is sick of hearing “Welcome to the jungle” over and over!!! Then WHY do journalists always picture him playing the GUNS N’ ROSES one??? Do u think SLASH is the man to beat if u want to be the best with this game??? Read what he thinks! “I suck! I’m a lousy pinball player. My bass player fuckin’ takes my high score every time he comes over here.” So beware of Johnny! Oh! Another question has been answered! SLASH has the viper pinball machine! U can see it in the picture above! Another pinball machines related news! Mandi, the lady in the picture, earned a place on the Guinness book of records playing SLASH’s Indipendance day pinball for 555 hours, 55 minutes and 55 seconds!!! Mandi is a songwriter and a singer and did this to make attention given to her charities promise! Also SLASH recently sold out some of his pinball machines and one of these was sold in a VH1 auction! It was a production number one dedicated to SLASH by some pals … why did u sell it SLASH? Was it that one that scared Renee?