By the dawn of the ’90s, Slash was on top of the world. His band, Guns N’ Roses, had conquered the globe with Appetite for Destruction, a love letter to ’70s boogie-rock with a healthy touch of Sunset Strip sleaze. It was so massive that the band remained a titanic force even after the grunge tidal wave had swept away many of their hard-rock contemporaries.
Slash, for his part, had almost single-handedly made the Les Paul cool again after a decade of Superstrat supremacy. His laid back, Stones-y approach to the instrument also stood cooly in contrast to the ever-more-histrionic shred wars that raged in the late ’80s, and made him a vital, refreshing guitar hero for those less technique-obsessed.
Still, though, he wasn't quite prepared when he got tipped to work with the single biggest name in all of music.
“I got a phone call from the guy who engineered all the overdubs on Appetite For Destruction,” Slash told Guitar World in a 1990 interview. “He said, ‘I'm working on the new Jackson project, and Michael asked if you wanted to come down and play.’
“I was in shock! I didn't know how to react. Like, ‘Why me?’ But what was then communicated to me was that Michael liked my playing and feel, and that's what he wanted.”
Slash would go on to make multiple contributions to what would become Dangerous, Jackson's third consecutive blockbuster full-length.
He’s often mistakenly given credit for playing the iconic opening riff to its lead single, the chart-topping Black or White (his contribution was more subtle), but where he did get to stretch out was on the swaggering Give In to Me.
Asked by Guitar World in 1992 about working with the King of Pop, the guitarist said, “I just finished helping him with his next video, Give In To Me. He gave me a lot of space.
“It's funny. Everybody thought I played the main riff in Black Or White, but that isn't me. To be honest with you, I don't know who the hell is playing that riff [ed: it's Tim Pierce]. Most people think that I played the whole thing because Michael really publicized that I played on the track. The only part I played is in the beginning, when the little kid is playing air guitar in the video.
“I played much more on Give In To Me,” Slash explained. “I played the whole rhythm part and solo. It was very loose. I was just jamming to the track, and Michael came down with Brooke Shields. I asked, ‘Is this cool?’ And he said, ‘Anything you want, Slash.’”
Slash and Jackson would go on to become frequent collaborators in the coming years. The Guns N' Roses man contributed guitar to every subsequent album Jackson released in his lifetime, and performed with him at the enormously successful Michael Jackson: 30th Anniversary Celebration concerts in 2001, two of the singer's final ever shows.
Writing on Twitter in the aftermath of Jackson's shocking death in 2009, at the age of 50, Slash wrote simply, “He was a talent from on high.”
