CHICKS \\ Slash And Fergie Going To Work Together Again

Paul Cole of Sundaymercury.net reports: I meet Slash just after he has accepted Classic Rock magazine's prestigious Album of the Year award. It's for the solo set he released earlier this year, and which features guest appearances by many of the artists he most admires.

There's Lemmy from Motorhead, Foo Fighter Dave Grohl, Alice Cooper, The Cult's Ian Astbury, Brummie rock wildman Ozzy Osbourne, Iggy Pop, Kid Rock and, er, Black Eyed Peas R&B diva Fergie.

The song they recorded together, Beautiful Dangerous, is being released as a single in the New Year - and Slash says it's not as unlikely as it might appear to the uninitiated.

"To many people, Fergie wasn't an obvious choice for me to work with," he says. "But, you see, I just knew she had a dynamite rock and roll voice. I'd heard her doing a rock medley at a Black Eyed Peas gig, and she was belting out the lyrics.

"I thought: Hell, yeah! After that I did a bunch of gigs with Black Eyed Peas. They were including Sweet Child O' Mine in the set, and you should have heard her sing that. I think she's the best woman rock and roll singer I've heard in the last 20 years.

"So when I came up with a song that required a woman's touch, it was natural I should call.

"We're going to work together again. There was another song we cut during the sessions for the album, and she liked it so much that she plans to use it on a solo album of her own. It's going to be a real rock and roll album, and I'll be delighted to play on it."

There'll also be another solo album, with Alter Bridge frontman Myles Kennedy handling all the vocals, and a summer UK tour which will sadly not include a return to Donington Park.

"I'd love to play Donington again but we have a tour in August with the solo band and I think Download comes a little too early.

"I've played there four times with four different bands [Guns N' Roses, Slash's Snakepit, Velvet Revolver and Slash] and it really is the best gig of them all.

"That festival is really important to me. In fact, UK gigs in general are important. The British fans are the ones you really need to win over, and they've been supportive ever since the early days."

Read the intire interview with Slash at this location.