In 1992, Guns N’ Roses were touring with Metallica, playing stadiums around North America. During that tour, Guns N’ Roses’ guitarist Slash died for 8 minutes.
Slash Meets Renee Suran at a Bar in LA
During the making of Guns N’ Roses’ Use Your Illusion records, the band was in work mode and Slash admitted he wasn’t very social, staying mostly at home and drinking and listening to records or spending his time in the studio.
Bassist Duff McKagan coaxed Slash into coming with him to a bar in LA one night where the pair jammed with a blues band. Duff picked up a girl at that bar, who was there with a friend named Renee Suran. Renee was a model who worked campaigns all over the world for some pretty big companies and was now trying to become an actress.
Renee didn’t appear to show any interest in Slash but he wrote in his book, “Any girl that was going to make my life difficult was hard to get and that was the girl to go for in my mind. In Lemmy’s infamous words, ‘The chase is better than the catch.’”
Within a few weeks, the pair were soon living together and Slash admitted in his book that he liked the fact that Renee was independent and had her own life and really had no interest in rock music or Guns N’ Roses.
Fast forward to 1992, Guns N’ Roses were touring Europe with Faith No More and Soundgarden. Slash revealed the pair had split up because he had been unfaithful to her. While the band was in England that summer, he called Renee feeling lonely, wanting to reconcile and she flew out to see him.
Renee Gives Slash an Ultimatum
Slash hoped she would have stayed with the band on tour for that leg, but she gave the guitarist an ultimatum: we either get married or we’re not getting back together. Slash gave in. The pair got engaged and were set to marry in October of 1992.
Ahead of their nuptials, Slash wanted to protect his assets and pushed the idea of a prenup on her.
In an interview with Howard Stern in 2001, Slash would say, “The beginning of the end was when I said, ‘Sign this prenup.’ I remember exactly where that was. I was in San Francisco. Guns was touring the stadiums with Metallica and the phone call was made that there was going to be a prenup…
That was one of the biggest fights in our entire relationship over the phone… It stressed me out so bad that after the show was over, I ran into the wrong people at the wrong time after the gig and I ended up in the hospital, messing around cause I was so depressed from the whole argument that I ended up OD-ing that night.”
“I woke up when the defibrillators sent an electric shock through my chest and stunned my heart into beating again.” – Slash
Slash collapsed in the hallway of the hotel and was taken care of by the band’s security team until the paramedics arrived. He wrote in his book, “I woke up when the defibrillators sent an electric shock through my chest and stunned my heart into beating again. It was like being slapped in the face hard enough to wake you up from a deep sleep.”
Slash was taken to a local hospital where he was told to stay the night for observations. He admitted in his book that after a couple of hours he signed himself out and went back to the hotel, “I had no remorse whatsoever about my overdose, but I was pissed off at myself for having died.”
“We thought you were dead. I thought I’d have to look for a new guitar player.” – Axl Rose
Shortly after the incident, a band meeting was called where Axl told the guitarist, “You gave me a scare. We thought you were dead. I thought I’d have to look for a new guitar player.”
Years later, the BBC published a documentary on Guns N’ Roses called the Most Dangerous Band in the World.
According to A&R man Tom Zutaut, who signed the band to Geffen records, after the overdose, Axl thought a different Slash took over his body. He revealed, “Axl genuinely believes the soul of Saul Hudson, Slash’s legal name, left his body when Slash overdosed. That was the greatest stumbling block to getting the band back together.”
Slash married Renee a month later. It appeared the prenup was signed as Slash admitted to Howard Stern in a 1995 interview that an agreement had been reached.
“I couldn’t relate to any of it and my lack of interest made her very upset.” – Slash
Slash wrote in his book about getting married for the first time, “We definitely didn’t do it small. It was this really big production that I had very little to do with. My only memories of planning it involve Renee showing me an endless number of books full of gifts to pick out. I couldn’t relate to any of it and my lack of interest made her very upset.”
Slash admitted that ahead of getting married, Renee wanted the pair to have a co-ed bachelorette party so she could keep an eye on him.
“The first marriage I got into was an ultimatum and I don’t think I went in the right way.” – Slash
Earlier in 1992, during a show in Vegas, Slash had met the woman who would become his second wife, Perla Ferrar. Perla was at Slash’s co-ed bachelorette party.
In an interview with Howard Stern in 2007, Slash revealed, “The first marriage I got into was an ultimatum and I don’t think I went in the right way.
I didn’t go into it from the heart and so I had sort of dated this girl, that is now my wife. Not really dated but we saw each other on occasion and we always had a good time and she knew that. She knew that we had a connection…
So what happened was Perla heard that I was getting married. Actually, she came to my bachelor party, which was a co-ed bachelor party… I called my girlfriend up, who was going to be my wife and I said, ‘Let’s get back together and she said not unless we get married…
Then we did it and Perla, who had known me… came around… then somehow we ended up doing it the night before my wedding. The wedding was doomed from that point on. The marriage was doomed. You know, but I feel really bad because I put her through something. I’m not into hurting people’s feelings.”
Slash and Renee divorced in 1997 after 5 years of marriage. He married Pearla in 2001 but the couple divorced in 2014, just before Guns N’ Roses got back together.
Some sources have claimed that Perla and Slash split because she was also his manager and may have led to a Guns N’ Roses reunion or had some part to play in it.
Like this story? Check out Slaughter: The Tragic Story of the Band
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I wish slash was single and not gay I would marry him right now