Racking Out With Slash from Guns 'n Roses

Rock icon Slash appeared on a national radio show on Tuesday, April 6, 2010, taping the broadcast here in Los Angeles. He arrived to the studio at 9:58 pm, just in the nick of time as the show begins taping at 10 pm. Slash waved to us and told us that he would sign on his way out. Now generally at this radio show there are no more than 2 or 3 collectors and maybe a few more than that for some of the bigger guests. There were 24 collectors waiting when Slash arrived! Of course, everyone waited around over the next couple of hours. Slash took two smoke breaks, opening the door he has entered through, propping it open slightly, as he smoked a cigarette. Some collectors aren't the most considerate people as they were yelling to Slash, asking him to sign autographs as he smoked. Slash is a good guy so I knew that when he said that he would sign later, he would deliver on that promise. I found it annoying that some collectors wouldn't leave the Slash alone so he could enjoy his cigarette.

A couple minutes after midnight a guy came out of the building, addressing the crowd. He told us to stand in one, single-file line and that Slash would sign and take pictures with us. He also asked that once we got our autographs to please leave the area. Knowing how collectors are, I knew there was no chance of the last request being followed - even by myself. I ended up third in line and after a minute or so, Slash walked out the door and began signing for each of us. He signed a couple of items for the first person, three for the next and three for me. He took each person's pen so I ended up with three beautifully signed photographs, each signed with my nice, blue Sharpie marker. By this time there were 29 people, by my count, waiting for Slash signatures. I knew it would take Slash some time to get to the end of the line plus, I was trying to not be obvious about getting back in line. I walked back to my car, putting away my three Slash autographs and came back, standing at the end of the line. Slash made his way through the rest of the line, signing four more photographs for me this time, two with a silver marker he was already holding and switching to a black marker he had in his hand for the other two. Others were getting additional autographs from Slash at this time, some collectors getting their 2nd or 3rd guitar signed. Slash was awesome about signing guitars as many musicians do not sign them as they are often resold on the secondary market for large sums of money. Slash even drew a self caricature on guitars that he signed when asked. Due to the large crowd, Slash unfortunately did not pose for any pictures with anyone but I can't blame him. Slash was great and quite generous to the assembled fans and collectors. I also snagged Slash on index card to make it an even 8 autographs from the guitar legend! Slash typically dates items when he signs them, notating the year. For example, when I met Slash in 2000 he signed my items with "2k" for 2000. I've seen other instances where he signs "2k9" for 2009. However, this evening he dropped the "k" notation, writing out "2010" for the year. As he got close to the end of the line, Slash had stopped dating items completely, as you can see on two of the photographs and the index card.