Slash has demonstrated time and time again that he is aware of the elements needed to create a riff that will live on forever. Slash believes that no one has since approached their level of genius. He grew up on a diet of rock ‘n’ roll, having learned the craft from one band and one guitarist.
Slash learned early on that songs need the best possible riffs, played loudly and with the utmost intensity, growing up in the 1970s. Slash, whose real name is Saul Hudson, would never grow tired of hearing some of these powerful riffs. However, this hard-hitting rock genre comes and goes in constant vogue.
Slash was questioned about the components needed to create a powerful riff in a 2009 interview with Music Radar. He declared: “I guess a killer riff is something that’s just fucking attractive to hear—something that’s memorable, something that digs in, and something that has the right note selection. It must, however, have a fantastic attack and sound.
Slash has produced numerous songs that meet his requirements both with and without Guns N’ Roses. However, even he would acknowledge that his catalog isn’t as extensive as Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin’s. The English guitarist was producing work at a rate never seen before during the band’s ten-year reign of supremacy.
When Hudson first saw the grandeur of Page’s guitar work, he was a young, impressionable boy, so it makes sense that he was in awe. The original member of Led Zeppelin brought the instrument to life in ways that he had never thought possible. Slash feels that this standard has never been exceeded.
Slash listed his two all-time favorite riffs in the same interview with Music Radar; both came from Page’s unpredictable mind. Recalling himself as a young child when “Whole Lotta Love” first blasted onto the scene, the guitarist mused, “That song just popped into my head.” “Black Dog” is another one, too,” he added. Zeppelin likely possessed the greatest collection of catchy guitar lines of any group, but I could go on.
In addition, Slash once again praised “Black Dog” from Led Zeppelin IV, calling it his favorite riff, in a 2010 interview with Paste. Hudson gave this succinct and straightforward explanation: “I guess this one (‘Black Dog’) seems obvious. This song is incredible. Extremely weighty.
As a young guitarist, Slash channeled his inner Jimmy Page and played “Black Dog” nonstop, driving his family crazy. When I used to misbehave around the house, my grandmother would come after me and chase me around the couch. In 1992, he told Rolling Stone, “She would get excited when I played ‘Black Dog’ really loud.”
Led Zeppelin’s powerful forces of rock ‘n’ roll have kept Hudson in a chokehold for the past 50 years. Slash wouldn’t exist without the band’s back catalog of songs, although his infatuation with them occasionally annoyed his family.
Slash’s two favorite riffs of all time:
- Led Zeppelin – ‘Whole Lotta Love’
- Led Zeppelin – ‘Black Dog’
