Slash Says He Would Have Been Cancelled In This Day And Age

If you're a Guns N' Roses fan be happy that they hit the scene when they did because even Slash thinks they would've been canceled today.

The band's top-hatted ax-slinger did an interview with Yahoo Entertainment to promote his new coffee table book that features pictures of his guitar collection (which, frankly, sounds awesome).

In the interview, he touched on how the band would've been canceled — so canceled — if they were trying to get established in the modern era of the internet.

(The cancelation talk starts around the 8:30 mark.)

"To be honest, I haven’t really thought about all that that much recently. But now that you mention it, most of everything that we did would’ve gotten us canceled in this day and age,” Slash said.

One of the controversies that Slash touched on was the one surrounding the band's song "One In A Million" off their album G N' R Lies. The song came under fire due to its lyrics which included racial and homophobic slurs.

“We would not have fared well in this environment, for sure; on so many different levels. But I mean, a lot of things from back then would not be what you consider acceptable at this moment in time," he said.

When pressed for examples, Slash said he couldn't think of a specific one because pretty much everything was cancelation fodder.

"I’m just glad that we didn’t have the internet back then! It would’ve been a different world altogether. But anyway, I don’t dwell on all that stuff. It just is what it is.”

Slash doing what Slash does best: wear top hats (he's pretty good at guitar too). (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

It's Not Just Slash Or Guns N' Roses, Practically Everyone Would've Been Canceled

Saul Hudson — that's Slash's real name — raises an interesting point.

It's an interesting thought exercise to try to think about what bands would've gotten canceled had they debuted today. Considering how butter-soft people tend to be you've got to think no one would be safe today.

What's so unfortunate is that we could be missing out on the next great band. That's because the margin for error is so small. The next Guns N' Roses could be canceled before they get a chance to make a go of it. Part of what makes for great music, comedy, art, etc. is the freedom to experiment and make mistakes.

That's an often overlooked aspect of wokeness and cancel culture is that it doesn't just threaten freedom of speech and thought, it'll have an impact on creativity.

That's a real bummer if you enjoy things that don't suck. At least we can hope for another Renaissance on the other side of this.

Follow on Twitter: @Matt_Reigle