If you had to do a countdown of the most eagerly anticipated band reunions of all time, the original lineup of Guns N’ Roses and the somewhat similarly named Stone Roses are on there without a doubt. But did you know the two bands almost came together?
According to a recently recounted and truly bizarre piece of rock trivia, after departing from Guns N’ Roses, six-string icon Slash was looking to join the legendary Manchester group to replace guitarist John Squire, and he almost did.
Speaking recently to the Stagelift Podcast (via Consequence of Sound), Aziz Ibrahim, who briefly replaced Squire in the Stone Roses, recounted how Slash reached out to the Mancunian group with the interest of becoming their new guitarist.
“Slash had offered to play,” Ibrahim told Stagelift. “There was a lot of bitterness and anger and so forth, maybe they wanted to piss [John] off, so they thought, ‘Let’s get the greatest rock icon of all time.’”
“Afterwards they thought, ‘Yeah yeah, we’ll get this big rock icon, that would really annoy John.’ Then they said something to the affect of, ‘We’re not going to work with a guy with leather pants, are we?'”
Apparently, Slash’s choice of clothing was the only thing that held him back, though we reckon leather pants splashed with paint would’ve looked kind of cool. Instead of recruiting Slash, the band broke up not long after Squire’s departure.
