SLASH THE COLLECTION

He made his name with a 1959 replica Les Paul on Guns N' Roses' debut, Appetite for Destruction. Now, with hundreds of guitars in his collection, Slash selects the models he treasures most and traces their journeys through his career and hits.

- RICHARD BIENSTOCK

BACK IN 1988, that was how the man born Saul Hudson first came in contact with the Gibson guitar brand. Guns N' Roses had only recently released their debut effort, Appetite for Destruction, an album on which Slash, in what is now rock-guitar lore, recorded most of his parts using a 1959 Les Paul copy built by luthier Kris Derrig. As the band hit the road in support of the record, he took the Derrig with him. Not surprisingly, the axe, one of his only guitars at the time, quickly took a beating from intense onstage use. So Slash retired the Les Paul copy from live work and went looking for the real thing. 

Which is what led him to Gibson. "At that point, Guns N' Roses hadn't quite crested that wave. We were sort of still a fledgling L.A. club band that had a record deal, just like all the rest of 'em," Slash recalls. "But I called Gibson and they said, 'Yeah, we'll work something out.' They sold me two Les Pauls at dealer cost. And that's how our relationship started."

That relationship has grown into, arguably, the most visible and fruitful collaboration between an artist and guitar brand of the past 30-plus years. Slash has not only been instrumental in returning the Les Paul to unrivaled prominence in the guitar universe, he has also helped design some of the best-selling and most highly regarded artist models in the marketplace.

And the partnership has only gotten stronger and deeper with each year. In 2017, Gibson named Slash its first-ever Global Brand Ambassador, and today the Slash line of Gibson guitars continues to expand (see, for one, the signature J-45 acoustic offerings). What's more, the brand recently launched a record label, Gibson Records, which issued the 2022 Slash (featuring Myles Kennedy & the Conspirators) album, 4, as its debut release.