Perla Hudson Interview: Slash, Dinosaurs and Helping the Youth of L.A.

By: Rick Landers

We thought we’d click back to one of our favorite articles, one we had with Slash’s wife, Perla Hudson. So, here you go and enjoy the ride! Original posting was nearly eight years ago.

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Perla Hudson, the wife of Velvet Revolver’s legendary guitar player, Slash, has navigated the depths and ridden the crests of the rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle for a decade. And no one would be surprised if she simply wrapped herself in that self-indulgent lifestyle that we hear about that beckons and, sometimes, overcomes the rich and famous. But, we spoke to Perla, and she let us know that she and her husband had more important things to take care of and nurture.

As much as she enjoys the raucous highlights of the rock ‘n’ roll fantasy, Perla has invested time and effort into being a mother to her two growing boys, keeping the home fires burning with her husband, and helping the disenfranchised youth of Los Angeles. She has supported the work of L.A.’s Department of Children’s Services. She’s also served on the Board of Directors, and more recently on the Advisory Committee, of the L.A. Youth Network (LAYN). And when she talks about it, she’s not only committed, she’s passionate.

And now, both she and Slash are offering up a treasure trove of their possessions to help fund LAYN programs to benefit children who are homeless and need the kindness and guidance of caring adults. Their Slash and Rock Legends Auction will be held by the famous Julien’s auction house beginning March 26, 2011, and will feature some of the hippest and coolest prized possessions owned by the Hudsons.

On this list is some Slash signature gear, like a stage-worn Chrome Hearts leather top hat; his GNR silver cuff, a one-of-a kind custom Stravinski Fender Stratocaster, his B.C. Rich Red Mockingbird axe, pieces from his prized dinosaur collection and the coup de grace, Slash’s beloved 1966 big block Corvette coupe.

The Slash and Rock Legends auction should rake in some serious cash, all for a good cause. We at Guitar International tip our black leather top hats to Slash and Perla, for reflecting not only the best in rock ‘n’ roll, but the best in all of us.

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Perla and Slash – Image courtesy of Gibson Guitars.

Rick Landers: Hey, I just found out that you’re Cuban. Do you dance salsa?

Perla Hudson: Of course I do! I’m cooking Cuban food for dinner tonight, too.

Rick: Are you really? Good for you. I guess Cuba should be opened up fairly soon, right? Do you think you’ll ever go down there?

Perla Hudson: I’ve been. We want to take the kids, but just finding the right time and you know how that all goes. Hopefully we’ll be there soon.

Rick: A lot of people think rock stars are always self-indulgent, even rock couples, I suppose, but I saw that in the auction that’s coming up this month you have a passion for the L.A. Youth Network.

Perla Hudson: Absolutely.

Rick: I was wondering how you ended up choosing that particular charity?

Perla Hudson: Well, I’ve been on the Board of Directors for LAYN for about three years. I only, in the past couple of months, stepped down because there’s a lot of decision making when you’re on the Board of Directors and it was very time-consuming for me. I’m still on the Advisory Committee and on the Fundraising Committee for them, which is where this comes in.

We did a lot of charity work with the Department of Children’s Services. Every Christmas we would fulfill their wish lists. One year we rolled up on the Gibson tour bus and gave everybody Gibson guitars. Another year we actually gave the kids what they were hoping for. These are Children’s Services children. The woman from DCS told me about LAYN, which is a homeless shelter for children. It serves with emergency housing, temporary and permanent housing for kids in the L.A. area. So, we started focusing our efforts on LAYN.

It’s really important because a lot of people ask Slash to donate a top hat, donate a guitar, donate this, donate that, and he’s been extremely generous and giving, but you don’t necessarily always see where all that stuff is going to. With LAYN we see it. I’ve been there for kids’ birthdays. Slash has been to their talent shows. We’ve sponsored the kids to go to prom. It’s pretty amazing.

These are kids that have been living on the streets, have been kicked out of their homes because either they’re gay or lesbian or abused. Kids that got a birthday cake for the first time when they were 13 and didn’t know what to do with the candles. So, I think the work they do is amazing and the W.O.O.W. [We’re On Our Way] program is basically what your parents did for you.

When you were going through college, they paid for your housing, paid for your food, and that’s what the W.O.O.W. program does with these kids that are out of high school, up to the age of 22, even 25. There’s still a kid that age in school. It’s a great organization. It’s a home. We’re very hands-on with them, and as a matter of fact, they’re honoring us in June at their gala for a lot of the work that we’ve done for them.

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Rick: What surprises me is that most missing children weren’t reported missing by their parents. That’s kind of heartbreaking.

Perla Hudson: Isn’t that horrible?

Rick: I can’t believe it. Looking at the auction, there are some pretty cool items that are obviously cool, whether they’re associated with Slash or not. One in particular caught my eye and probably caught a lot of people’s, and that’s that ’66 big block Corvette.

Perla Hudson: Oh, yeah. That was a really hard one for him to part with. [Both laughing] We’re all about minimizing now and he’s a bit of a pack rat. There was a time when I first met Slash he had like 10 cars. That was one of them, one of his big purchases when he first made a lot of money with Guns N’ Roses. He bought that car and recently he got an Aston Martin. There are only so many cars one can drive. We have kids now. We’ve got the SUV, so we’re parting with it. That one’s even harder for me.

Rick: Was that a driver or did you just keep it in the garage and keep it pristine?

Perla Hudson: Oh, no. We drove it. He didn’t drive it every day, but he did drive it on a regular basis.

Rick: Is it a coupe?

Perla Hudson: Yes, it is.

Rick: Oh, nice. I had a ’65 convertible, so I know they’re great cars.

Perla Hudson: Right. He had the whole thing, this was way back in the day when he bought it, I guess the late ’80s, had the whole stereo system tricked out to where the panel where you press the buttons for the stereo that was on the visor. After that I believe he put everything back to its original condition. But, it still has a pretty kickin’ stereo system in there, too. [Both laughing]

Rick: How tough was it then to give up some of those other auction items?

Perla Hudson: It was pretty tough. Getting him to go through his list of guitars was really difficult for him, and in a way I don’t blame him. The ones that he did part with, it was a lot for him. But, he has over 150 guitars, as it stands, so he’s getting rid of, I think it was 13 or 14.

Rick: If you had an opportunity, or maybe it would be a better question to ask him, to buy one of those auction items, which one do you think you or he would grab?

Perla Hudson: Well, I think that there’s a painting in there that we didn’t mean to put in there that we might have to buy back. [Both laughing]

Rick: What is it?

Perla Hudson: It’s the Ain’t Life Grand album cover artwork. It wasn’t supposed to go and if Slash hears this interview, he’ll kill me, because it went on accident; one of those things that got put into the wrong pile.

Rick: Oh, it happens.

Perla Hudson: Once they’re up for auction, we’ve got to buy them back.

Rick: It’ll go to a good cause, right?

Perla Hudson: Absolutely.

Rick: I was wondering how Slash ended up with the dinosaur collection that’s to be auctioned?

Perla Hudson: He’s been enamored of dinosaurs ever since he was a child and he’s a big collector, as you can see, with guitars and dinosaurs, cars. There are a few things that he’s interested in, but when he does get interested in something, he takes it to the next degree.

The dinosaurs…he’s probably just as schooled on paleontology as actual paleontologists are. This man is the encyclopedia of dinosaurs and that’s just his thing. A lot of those models he made himself. A lot of them he bought when he was in Japan touring in the early ’80s with Guns and put them together.

A lot of that stuff is all stuff that we got on different tours, but the dinosaurs in particular, when he and I originally hooked up, he had like a 10,000 square foot bachelor pad filled with pinball machines and dinosaur models. We’ve been keeping these in storage ever since and it was just time to unload them. They’re pretty cool.

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Rick: I think it probably takes a lot of true grit to really be married to somebody who’s moved up so far in the world of rock ‘n’ roll. Did you know what you were getting into when you first met him?

Perla Hudson: You know what? It takes true grit, as you said, to be in any relationship long-term, regardless of with a rock star or not. Did I know what I was getting into? Not necessarily, but I had no expectations, and I still don’t and I just deal with things as they come. There are no expectations and nothing really shocks me.

Rick: I would think that you’d really have to be true to yourself at the same time.

Perla Hudson: Absolutely, and keep each other grounded and keep him grounded, specifically. Slash is such an introverted person that it’s very easy for him to get into his little world of music. We’re completely polar opposites, him and I, and it’s up to me to bring him out of that on a regular basis and be part of the real world. He’s kind of like a mad scientist in his lab, creating his music. Left to his own devices, he would be there 24/7.

Rick: How do you deal with all the noise, the media and the hysterics that surround the rock star thing?

Perla Hudson: It doesn’t really bother me. I’m not married to a politician, so what can they say that can bother us? [Both laughing] I’m a pretty open-minded person and nothing really shocks me, to tell you the truth.

Rick: The last time I interviewed Slash, after the interview he was going to a soccer game, taking your two kids to a soccer game. He sounds like he’s a pretty normal guy.

Perla Hudson: You know, we try to be. Recently, someone started working with us that couldn’t believe that he and I actually drive the carpool. He does too, with the rest of the kids. We have a carpool with two other families.

We try to be normal and as grounded as possible because at the end of the day, we’re all just human and you can’t escape your reality. Our reality might be a little different than others, but we have two really young boys that we want to keep grounded and have them grow up and be normal.

Rick: People tend not to like to brag about themselves. I actually taught a course with a psychologist and he said that people have no problem denigrating themselves, but when it comes to bragging about themselves, they tend not to like to do that. How about it? Would you mind bragging a little bit about who you are and what you think people should know about you? Things that you’re proud of…

Perla Hudson: Oh, okay. Goodness, I’m proud of my character, my survival skills. My parents were Cuban immigrants that, speaking quite frankly with you, were drug dealers when I was growing up. To have overcome that and have any sense of being normal was difficult. I grew up to be very loyal, but I had this entire crazy part of my life going on growing up.

I just think being a survivor and being open-minded are among the things I’m most proud of when it comes to my character. I’m very proud of my two children, that I have these two amazing little boys, and I’m really raising them to make a difference in the world when they grow older. I’m proud that I’ve been married 10 years this October. That’s a stretch!

Rick: Congratulations! Hey, your sons are really handsome little boys, really cute.

Perla Hudson: Thank you. They’re tough.

Rick: I bet.

Perla Hudson: When the older one was six months old and I had this baby nurse help me. She looked at me, she goes, “Oh, Perla,” she’s a little Irish lady, “This one is definitely not gonna be a wallflower,” and she was right. [Rick laughing]

Rick: A lot of guys who play, and I play guitar a lot, they often find that their spouses get a little bit tired of them playing guitar, maybe too loudly, and it’s happened to me and other friends of mine that when we’re playing, we kind of notice that the door gets closed on us. The wives are thinking, “That’s enough.” Tell me that Slash ends up experiencing the same thing, that he’s normal.

Perla Hudson: Yeah, but I love it when he plays around the house on his acoustic guitar. He does have a studio that’s completely soundproofed in the basement though. But, when they first built it, you could hear him blaring in the kitchen. It was okay for a minute, but after a while it got old, so we had to have it fixed. [Both laughing] But, he’s got like a soundproofed room down there.

Rick: That’s a good fix.

Perla Hudson: But, I love hearing him play acoustic guitar around the house, especially around the boys because one of them is taking guitar lessons. God, if he heard this, he’d probably kill me. I don’t know if he’s got that music gene, the older one, but the little one is extremely talented and self-taught to play piano and he’s in a little violin class. The little one is just amazing, so he’s enamored when he sees his father playing guitar. He just sits there and stares at him, so I love it, to tell you the truth.

Rick: Let me see if you’re willing to do an exchange with me here. If you’ll tell me what Slash’s favorite meal is or food, I’ll tell you what Les Paul told me his favorite food was and you can tell Slash.

Perla Hudson: Great! Let’s do that.

Rick: Les Paul’s favorite food was macaroni and cheese.

Perla Hudson: Slash’s favorite food is something spicy. Anything spicy.