To his legion of acolytes, Slash stands alone. But when it comes to making music, the certified guitar hero is still a team player.
From the enduring riffs and solos he created as part of Guns N' Roses to his current project Slash featuring Myles Kennedy and The Conspirators (SMKC), Slash remains a boy in the band."I'm just not really what you'd call a great solo artist; I work well in a band situation," Slash laughs.
"So, I treat [SMKC] a lot like it's just a group. It does have my name on the top of it and I kind of spearhead the whole thing, but we definitely work as a team and that's where I'm most happy."
This month, SMKC will release their fourth album aptly titled '4'.
"I'm really very lucky to have been able to find a bunch of guys that I work really well together with." - Slash
On first listen, the album plays like the essential rock record for 2022 – uninhibited in its approach, its intensity and insistence unyielding. Repeated listens only confirm this initial surmisal.
For Slash, the process of writing and recording '4' belies any assumptions of planning and intention. "I don't think we ever have any sort of real plans for what we're trying to achieve," he says.
"I think you just write material, work on it and put it together and you get it to a place where you're ready to go in and record it and you just do it.
"It's basically a snapshot of where you guys are at at that time, and you've got to kind of close your eyes and hope for the best."
In that spirit, the band opted for pure spontaneity and recorded '4' entirely live, allowing them to embrace the chaos and bring order to the album.
"There's not really what you'd call a set goal," Slash says. "One thing that did happen on this record that I wanted to do was I wanted to record it live, and more live than I've ever recorded a record, which is where you all play in the same room at the same time and you record that, and you keep that and that's the record.
"That's how we did this one, so that was a little bit of a premeditated idea going into it."
Slash's work with Myles Kennedy & The Conspirators now spans 11 years, 4 studio albums and multiple laps around the world. Even as an accomplished guitarist, Slash considers the opportunity to work with like-minded artists such as SMKC a privilege.
"Well, it definitely was a gift because I did a solo record in 2010 that had all these different singers on it and it was a really cool record, but I needed to figure out how I was going to go out and tour on that record," he recalls of the band's origins.
"I had just worked with Myles Kennedy, it was the first time he and I ever met, and he basically blew my mind. I didn't see it coming.
"I'd never heard him sing before, I'd just heard of him, and I had him sing a couple of the last songs I had left over from the record, the rest of the record was done.
"As soon as he sang the first one, I went to the producer and said: 'Is it just me or is this really f...ing good?' and that's how it started.
"So, when I was looking to put together a tour, I wanted to get one person who could sing all the variety of material I was doing that covered my whole career to that point.
"Myles was the guy that came to me in my mind that had such a great range that he could sing any of it. So I asked him if he wanted to do the tour and fortunately, he was on a break from Alter Bridge and said yeah."
After enlisting the talents of rhythm guitarist Frank Sidoris, bassist Todd Kerns and drummer Brent Fritz, Slash had assembled an ideal vehicle for creating new music that stands on its own.
"I'm really very lucky to have been able to find a bunch of guys that I work really well together with, and we all have a really great chemistry, which is the reason why we've been doing this I think for 11 years now.
"It's gone by so quick. It sounds like a lot but it's true; we've been doing this for 11 years and it's just been a blast," he says.
The new album from SMKC is another firm instalment in Slash's already indisputable legacy. As the lead guitarist for Guns N' Roses, Slash set a new standard in heavy rock guitar with his trademark and inimitable serpentine playing style.
His prowess as an axeman is as legendary as his party-animal antics during the wild days of GnR. While so many of his peers and colleagues have flamed out, succumbing to rock and roll excess, Slash has flourished and prospered.
Along with his post-Gunners work with side project Slash's Snakepit and supergroup Velvet Revolver, he has collaborated with a who's who of musical greatness throughout his career as a session and live player, catapulting him from grungy guitar giant to respected rock icon.
"As a musician, I like to work with a lot of different people," Slash says. "It broadens my own horizons; I learn how to adapt to different situations, and I learn a lot from the different musicians I work with.
"I find that if you're working with good musicians or singers, they're good at what they do so you figure out how to make it work so that you guys work well together.
"That's just something as a professional you just do, and if you do it a lot you gain more experience."
While Slash has enjoyed the latitude to explore new musical horizons, it's much rarer that he happens upon the right bandmates for creating new, original music, like he has with SMKC.
"Finding a band that you can put together and work with and have chemistry and it's your guys' group – that's not always as easy to find the right people," he says.
"I've been in different bands – I mean, I had two incarnations of [Slash's] Snakepit that for whatever reason didn't necessarily work out and that was because of one element that was wrong or something that just wasn't working out right.
"It happens where you can put together some great musicians but not necessarily the best chemistry, or maybe personality differences.
"So, this particular group of guys, we clicked from the first day and that's just how it went. It is a little bit of a blessing."
'4' is available digitally. The physical formats (CD and vinyl) will be released 25 February.
