‘He Starts Playing Guitar, And He Brings Out His Snake’: Duff McKagan Recalls The Time He First Met Slash

Duff McKagan reflected on the first time he met Slash, recalling how the Guns N’ Roses guitarist treated his pet snake as if it were a dog.

Growing up as a Seattleite punk, Duff McKagan must have undergone quite a culture shock upon moving to LA with the intention to start afresh, but nothing could have prepared him for the meeting with his future Guns N’ Roses and Velvet Revolver bandmate, Slash. As the bassist recalls in a recent interview with Stereogum, Slash and drummer Steven Adler were among the first people McKagan met after relocating to the City of Angels. In addition to his undeniably impressive chops, the one thing about Slash that surprised Duff the most was the guitarist’s love for snakes. He said:

“When I first met him, like the night I met him, was at Canter’s, a deli in LA. He was living in his mom’s basement because he’s like 18. And he starts playing guitar, and then he brings out his snake. And I’ve never been around a snake.”

“That was Clyde, one of his first snakes. It was a girl. And he’s like, ‘She’s so sweet.’ It was like his dog, you know? By the time we had a snake handler in our trailer, we weren’t at all freaked out by it because we’ve been around snakes because of Slash. He’s a foremost expert on the planet on snakes.”

The snake handler episode Duff refers to occurred on the set of the Dirty Harry flick “The Dead Pool,” where the yet-to-really-break-out Guns N’ Roses made an uncredited cameo appearance in the scene showing the funeral of rock singer Johnny Squares, played by Jim Carey. Duff said:

“So [Carey’s character] sings ‘Welcome To The Jungle.’ He’s in a band, right? So, we shared a trailer with him. And there was a snake in the movie. I forget what scene, but the snake handler was in our trailer. It was us, the band, and Jim Carrey for the couple of days that we filmed there.”

Reflecting on the experience, the bassist noted how Clint Eastwood was forward-thinking enough to realize the potential of GN’R at a time when the mainstream was yet to come to the same conclusion:

“And Clint Eastwood, I mean, he was ahead of his time on wanting to use ‘Jungle.’ We were not a big band. MTV was not playing that video. It was not being played on the radio. So we just thought, ‘Okay, this guy’s fucking pretty cool for picking us,’ like some little band. And I don’t know if he could see a bigger picture, but he had us in the movie, the whole thing. And it was just super fun. Who’s going to say no to being in a Dirty Harry movie? None of us fashioned ourselves as actors at all. It’s like it was like this cameo thing. ‘Okay, fuck it. Let’s do it.'”

Duff McKagan’s recollection of his first meeting with Slash paints a vivid picture of the early days of Guns N’ Roses. It highlights the unique bond and experiences that would go on to define one of rock’s most iconic bands. The story of Slash’s pet snake Clyde, treated with the affection typically reserved for a beloved dog, adds a layer of charm and eccentricity to the legendary guitarist’s persona. This meeting was just the beginning of a journey that would see Guns N’ Roses rise to global fame, with each member bringing their own quirks and talents to the mix.