Slash plays for Bill Gates at show

Velvet Revolver and former Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash appeared onstage at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Sunday (January 6th) to play the intro of the G N' R classic "Welcome to the Jungle" at the end of a keynote speech by Microsoft chairman Bill Gates. Gates and Microsoft Entertainment and Devices President Robbie Bach challenged each other to a Guitar Hero III duel. Bach brought out a Guitar Hero champion as his ringer to play the song on the game, while Gates went one better and got Slash himself to play the real thing on his Les Paul through a pair of Marshall speakers.

Video of Slash's appearance has surfaced on YouTube and the official Microsoft web site.

Although initial reports suggested that Slash and Gates would play Guitar Hero against each other, Slash told us that the man behind the Xbox wouldn't necessarily be great at the game: [ Click to listen if you have a backstage pass] "It's one thing to invent something or co-invent it or whatever you want to call it, and get the idea down, it's another thing to master it altogether. It takes time to master something, and I'm having a hard time imagining Bill Gates putting the hours in (laughs). There's at least 20 people on Activision staff that can play Guitar Hero better than I can, only because that's their job."

Velvet Revolver will begin a new U.S. tour on January 24th in Chicago, with dates confirmed through February 9th.

Velvet Revolver frontman Scott Weiland was recently charged with driving under the influence of drugs after being pulled over by police in late November. His case will be continued on January 17th in Los Angeles.
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