Saul Hudson (born July 23, 1965), known professionally as Slash, is a British and American musician, best known as the lead guitarist of the hard rock band Guns N' Roses, with whom he achieved worldwide success in the late 1980s and mid-1990s.

Saul Hudson was born in Hampstead, London, on July 23, 1965, but raised in Blurton, a small suburb in Stoke-on-Trent, until age 6,[11] before moving to Los Angeles, California.

"[18] During his early years, Slash was raised by his father and paternal grandparents in Stoke-on-Trent while his mother moved back to her native United States to work in Los Angeles.

[28] During his first lesson, Slash decided to switch from bass to guitar after meeting Robert Wolin, a teacher at Fairfax Music School, and hearing him play "Brown Sugar" by the Rolling Stones and a Cream song.

Before one of the shows in 1985, Slash shoplifted a black felt top hat and a Native American-style silver concho belt from two stores on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles.

The album was critically praised for ignoring the then-popular conventions of alternative music, and fared well on the charts, eventually selling over one million copies in the U.S. alone despite little promotion from Geffen Records.

Slash's Snakepit toured in support of the album with bassist James LoMenzo and drummer Brian Tichy of Pride & Glory, before disbanding in 1996.

[55] However, the following April, Slash stated that they had been unable to find a suitable singer and that Velvet Revolver would remain on hiatus for the next few years while its members focus on other projects.

[63] It featured an all-star roster of guest musicians, including Osbourne, Fergie of the Black Eyed Peas, Adam Levine of Maroon 5, M. Shadows of Avenged Sevenfold, Lemmy Kilmister of Motörhead, Dave Grohl, Chris Cornell and Iggy Pop.

[63] The album also features musical collaborations with former Guns N' Roses members Izzy Stradlin, Steven Adler and Duff McKagan.

[68] To promote the album, Slash embarked on his first solo world tour with Myles Kennedy of Alter Bridge—who also appeared on the album—on vocals, Bobby Schneck on rhythm guitar, Todd Kerns on bass, and Brent Fitz on drums.

[91][92] Guns N' Roses were officially announced as headliners of Coachella on January 4, 2016, with KROQ reporting Slash and Duff McKagan would rejoin the band.

[93][94][95] Slash performed with Guns N' Roses for the first time in 23 years during the band's secret warmup gig at the Troubadour in Los Angeles on April 1, 2016.

He made two surprise appearances during Jackson's 1992 Dangerous World Tour in Spain and Japan and supported the 1999 charity concerts MJ & Friends in Seoul and Munich playing the same set as he did for 1995's MTV Video Music Awards.

In 1993, Slash appeared on the album Stone Free: A Tribute to Jimi Hendrix, performing "I Don't Live Today" with Paul Rodgers and Band of Gypsys.

In 2006, Slash played on a cover of "In the Summertime" on keyboardist Derek Sherinian's solo album Blood of the Snake; he was also featured in the accompanying music video.

[104] In 1988, he appeared with his Guns N' Roses bandmates in the Dirty Harry film The Dead Pool, in which his character attends a musician's funeral and shoots a harpoon.

In 1999, he appeared as the host of the Miss America Bag Lady pageant in the widely panned film The Underground Comedy Movie.

He has also appeared as himself in several projects, including Howard Stern's Private Parts in 1997, The Drew Carey Show in 1998, MADtv in 2005, and Sacha Baron Cohen's Brüno in 2009.

Slash voiced a recurring caricature of himself in Robert Evans' animated television series Kid Notorious, which aired in 2003 on Comedy Central.

Slash also made several contributions to The Heroin Diaries: A Year in the Life of a Shattered Rock Star, the autobiography of Mötley Crüe bassist and back-up singer Nikki Sixx, which was also published in 2007.

He is also credited as having provided some artwork for Aerosmith's 2012 album, Music From Another Dimension!, as it reproduces a picture of the band drawn by Slash when he was still a teenager.

[120] He alleged that Slash had insulted his Velvet Revolver bandmates, telling Rose that he considered Scott Weiland "a fraud", and Duff McKagan "spineless", and that he "hated" Matt Sorum.

[129] Slash is an honorary board member of Little Kids Rock, a national nonprofit that works to restore and rejuvenate music education programs in disadvantaged public schools.

[131] Slash's love of reptiles was, for many years, a notable aspect of his public persona, with several of his many snakes appearing with him in music videos and photoshoots,[132] until the birth of his first son in 2002 impelled him to find a new home for his collection.

[7] In 2007, Slash was honored with a star on the Rock Walk of Fame; his name was placed alongside Jimmy Page, Eddie Van Halen and Jimi Hendrix.

He was the honoree at the 2010 Sunset Strip Music Festival, where he was presented by West Hollywood mayor John Heilman with a plaque declaring August 26 as "Slash Day".

[141] He performed three songs—"Paradise City", "Sweet Child o' Mine" and "Mr. Brownstone"‍—‌with fellow inductees Duff McKagan, Steven Adler, and Matt Sorum, one-time Guns N' Roses guitarist Gilby Clarke, and his frequent collaborator Myles Kennedy.

[148] His main studio guitar is a 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard replica, built by luthier Kris Derrig,[149] which he came to own during the recording sessions for Guns N' Roses' debut album, Appetite for Destruction.

[154] The Slash signature pickups were marketed through Seymour Duncan's YouTube channel with product demonstrator Danny Young performing the official videos.