Slash plays music.
Saul Hudson ( born July 23 , 1965 ) , better known by his stage name Slash , is a British-American musician and songwriter . He is best known as the lead guitarist of the American rock band Guns N ' Roses , with whom he achieved worldwide success in the late 1980s and early 1990s . After leaving Guns N ' Roses in 1996 , he co-founded the supergroup Velvet Revolver , which re-established him as a mainstream performer in the mid to late 2000s . In 2012 , he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Guns N ' Roses ' classic line-up .