SLASH's Version Of 'Paradise City' Featuring FERGIE Gets Withdrawn

[anythinggoes]

Due to legal reasons, Slash's collaboration with BLACK EYED PEAS singer Fergie (a.k.a. Stacy Ann Ferguson) on a new recording of the GUNS N' ROSES classic "Paradise City" (hear audio below), also featuring CYPRESS HILL, has had to be withdrawn from the limited-edition deluxe version of Slash's upcoming self-titled solo debut. Fans should note that a brand new track, "Back From Cali" (featuring Myles Kennedy) has now been added and that the exclusive "Baby Can't Drive" (featuring Alice Cooper and Nicole Scherzinger) still remains.

Slash took to Twitter last fall to defend Fergie's vocal performance "Paradise City". A copy of the recording surfaced online last year while Slash was contemplating whether to include it on his new solo album. The former GUNS guitarist tweeted, "Until now, not too many people have heard Fergie sing rock & roll but she sings it better (than) most dudes I know. She's a screamer at heart."

Slash recently released the first single from his upcoming solo album, a song called "By The Sword" featuring vocals from WOLFMOTHER's Andrew Stockdale. However, the initial choice for first single was "Crucify The Dead", with Ozzy Osbourne singing. Slash explained why the switch was made. "The problem with this record is, because I do have all guest singers, you run the risk of, you know, getting singles rights and interfering with the release of other people's records," he said. "So that's really what the issue was, is making sure that whatever single I was using wasn't sort of stepping on the toes of that artist's own record. And Ozzy's got a new record coming out."

Slash's album, his first official solo outing, is due out April 6.

The guitarist uses a different guest vocalist on each track, including Fergie, M. Shadows, Kid Rock, Chris Cornell, Dave Grohl, Lemmy Kilmister, Myles Kennedy, Iggy Pop and others.

Slash has also tapped Kennedy, lead vocalist in ALTER BRIDGE, as the singer for his upcoming solo tour, which will take place this spring. Slash's touring band will also appear at Ohio's Rock On The Range festival in May.

http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=137054

[RKD]

That sucks! Fergie did a great job. Oh well another Myles Kennedy song can't be bad!

[2NaFish]

good. she does a good job on the song she does for the album, but PC sounded rank.

[Robbie]

Glad they didn't try to blame Axl for a change

[anythinggoes]

After more than two decades in two superstar groups, Slash should be an expert in music-business savvy. Surprisingly, the guitarist tells Spinner that the opposite is true. "I still have a certain amount of naïveté about things," he says. "I'm just not aware or spending a lot of time thinking what other people are thinking."

What he's referring to specifically is what fans suppose of him musically. They see him as the hard-rock guy, and despite the fact he's played with the likes of Michael Jackson -- he's even included Fergie and Maroon 5's Adam Levine on his debut solo album, 'Slash' -- fans are surprised, which has caught the axeman off-guard. "It's been very recently, since I started working on this record, the amount of expectations people have of me," he says. "And I thought, 'Since when did I become that guy that represents something?'"

Probably since he played on one of the most influential hard rock albums of all time: Guns 'n' Roses' 'Appetite for Destruction.' That brings up an interesting question -- as the most visible member of the original lineup, with Axl Rose keeping a lower profile, does Slash bear the brunt of that legacy? "I know that in some way, shape or form I am responsible for partly carrying that torch, as with any of the other guys," he says. "But I'm the one that's most active, and so I do -- as far as [fans are] concerned -- represent."

Still, Slash is aware of those fans who do question his musical collaborators. "When I f---ed with 'Paradise City', I heard about it. Trust me," he says, referring to his remake of the song with Fergie. Still, he wants everyone to know he's still the rock kid he was growing up.

"All things considered, as a rock 'n' roll fan, I think I'm more of a rock fan and more representative of what I thought was cool and uncool and all that when I was a kid," he says. "So I stand behind the fact I'm a rock guy. That's where I come from."

http://www.spinnermusic.co.uk/2010/03/24/slash-guns-n-roses-legacy-solo-album/