Best known as the lead guitarist for the legendary rock band Guns N’ Roses, Slash has influenced and inspired legions of players around the world. An iconic presence both in image and ability, he deftly wrangles soaring, bluesy, and often-improvised melodic guitar work that is always honest and skilled. A true guitar hero in every sense, he’s even a playable avatar in the wildly successful video game Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, where motion capture technology was employed to record his actual movements.

Slash also inspires fans and music lovers with his ability to reinvent himself with every new musical project he undertakes. Never one to sit idle, he devoted his time to a new side project called Slash’s Snakepit when Guns N’ Roses went on hiatus in the mid ’90s. This would prove to be a very successful endeavor, with the band’s debut album, It's Five O'Clock Somewhere, receiving critical praise for carving a unique musical path that bucked the alternative-rock trends that were popular at the time. He officially left Guns N’ Roses in 1996 and continued on with Snakepit for the next few years.

After reuniting with Guns N’ Roses bassist Duff McKagan in 2002 for a tribute concert for a friend, the two discovered some untapped musical chemistry together and decided to form a new band. With the addition of Stone Temple Pilots’ former lead singer Scott Weiland, the supergroup Velvet Revolver was born, and their debut album, Contraband, launched onto the charts at Number One. The record went on to sell over two million copies, putting Slash at the top of mainstream music once again.

When Velvet Revolver took a break due to Scott Weiland exiting the band, Slash turned his attention to a solo record. Simply titled Slash, the album entered the U.S. charts in the Top Ten. Featuring a diverse roster of all-star guest musicians ranging from Ozzy to Fergie, the effort received much critical praise. After finishing his first solo world tour, Slash released Apocalyptic Love in May 2012.

A self-described film buff, Slash has had many small acting roles in both film and television. This has naturally progressed into a new side venture: the business of making movies, and horror movies in particular. His production company, Slasher Films, is currently finishing work on its first release titled Nothing to Fear, a horror thriller about a small-town family haunted by a bloodsucking demon. Also in production is Wake the Dead, a reimaging of the Frankenstein story, based on the graphic novel written by Steve Niles. Set in the present day, it stars Haley Joel Osment (from The Sixth Sense) as Victor Franklin, a college student who discovers a way to reanimate the dead.

Among his many projects, Slash will be taking on the role of musical director for his fledgling movie production company, scoring much of the film music himself. To extend his capabilities on his primary instrument in this new realm, he’s turned to the Roland GR-55 Guitar Synthesizer to help generate and create the many sounds required to bring a movie production to life. “The GR-55 has been a great tool for me to use in a movie scoring capacity. There is an endless range of sounds/instruments I can transpose onto the guitar very effectively,” says Slash. “This is a way for me to record synth sounds without using a keyboard. I can also use the GR-55 to trigger soft synths in my computer via the USB output on the GR-55.”

With over 900 synth sounds to choose from, including orchestral voices and sound effects such as screaming people and blowing wind, any guitarist/composer using a GR-55 can find the sounds they’re looking for. The GR-55 also features COSM® tube amp and humbucker-pickup guitar models, spot-on emulations of the classic sounds that Slash has built a career on.

Slash has shared some of his custom patches for the GR-55, and you can download and play them yourself. Grab ’em now at the GR-55 Artist Patches site!