Slash and Ozzy play charity gig
Monday November 23 2009
Slash says he called in some favours to persuade Ozzy Osbourne, Billy Idol and some of rock's other biggest names to join him in a "killer" fundraising gig in Hollywood.
Fans packed out the Avalon in LA for a one-off concert which included performances by all three musicians, plus Travis Barker, Andrew Stockdale, Tom Morello (Rage Against The Machine), Chester Bennington (Linkin Park) and Dave Navarro.
Speaking before the show, the curly-haired axe man explained: "I know all these guys and I've worked with a couple of them recently... I just made some phone calls and said 'it's going to be great'... There's a way of doing it so that you convince them, but it's such a good cause that they all wanted to be involved."
The idea of the gig was to raise money for The Los Angeles Youth Network, a charity which provides emergency shelter, transitional housing, counselling, education and support services for homeless young people.
Slash says his involvement with the charity came about in a rather un-rock like way.
"I'm actually friends with the mayor and someone that works for the mayor told us about different things we could get involved with in LA and I really related to LAYN.
"These were the kind of kids I hung out with and they didn't have many options. I picked up the guitar and I was really lucky, but a lot of these kids were so screwed up and they didn't have an organisation that would provide them with housing and the options that LAYN provides."
The legendary guitarist added he was looking forward to getting up on stage with one of his heroes.
"I love jamming with Ozzy, he's killer, he's one of the best performers I've worked with."
Press Association
