London, England born Slash entered the rock music scene when he and Steven Adler formed the band Road Crew in 1976. They were looking for a good singer when he met Izzy Stradlin, who played him a tape of W. Axl Rose. Slash went to see Axl perform and immediately wanted to steal him from Izzy. Slash found his bass player, Duff McKagan when Duff answered an ad Slash had placed in the paper. All the players changed combinations, and the result was Guns N’ Roses. Slash performed and toured with Guns N’ Roses until he resigned from the band in October 1996.

After Guns ‘N Roses’ Use Your Illusions tour concluded in the summer of 1993, the group went on a well-deserved hiatus. Slash decided that immigration hassles and lost green cards were too time consuming, and became a U.S citizen. During this time, Slash became restless and decided to form a new band as a side project to his Guns N’ Roses work. Matt Sorum, Gilby Clarke, Mike Inez, Eric Dover, and Slash formed Slash’s Snakepit and recorded the album “It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere”. The album went platinum worldwide, and Slash promised that Snakepit would be back again.

Soon thereafter, Slash decided he would do a solo project from different countries. He would use guest musicians, but would write all the music. At the same time, he started jamming with Duff and Matt. Soon, this project went from “not a high priority” to the three ex-Gunners’ sole focus. In early 2003, they added Scott Weiland and called themselves Velvet Revolver, playing their debut gig in the summer of 2003 at the El Rey Theater in L.A. The band did some soundtrack work on The Hulk and The Italian Job and found a label (RCA). Velvet Revolver recently released their debut CD “Contraband” and was nominated for three Grammy awards, carrying away the award for Best Rock Guitar Performance ("Slither").

Taking Dawn will be opening the show. Taking Dawn’s Las Vegas upbringing helped shaped the band into what it is today: a rock 'n roll timebomb just waiting to explode on an unsuspecting public with its Roadrunner debut, “Time to Burn.”

Visit www.snakepit.org for more information about the band.