“I was just jamming to the track, and Michael came down with Brooke Shields. I asked, ‘Is this cool?’ He said, ‘Anything you want, Slash’”: The surreal beginning to Slash’s musical relationship with Michael Jackson

Michael Jackson (left) and Slash perform onstage at the 12th Annual MTV Video Music Awards.

By the dawn of the ’90s, Slash was on top of the world. His band, Guns N’ Roses, had conquered the globe with Appetite for Destruction, a love letter to ’70s boogie-rock with a healthy touch of Sunset Strip sleaze. It was so massive that the band remained a titanic force even after the grunge tidal wave had swept away many of their hard-rock contemporaries.

Slash, for his part, had almost single-handedly made the Les Paul cool again after a decade of Superstrat supremacy. His laid back, Stones-y approach to the instrument also stood cooly in contrast to the ever-more-histrionic shred wars that raged in the late ’80s, and made him a vital, refreshing guitar hero for those less technique-obsessed.