(Credits: Far Out / Kreepin Deth)
Thu 7 August 2025 15:00, UK
Despite being a member of The Beatles and famously one of the greatest songwriters of all time, John Lennon didn’t have the easiest life. One of his most difficult periods was his lost weekend.
He had a childhood riddled with loss, and he managed to find solace in music and writing. However, even though he enjoyed writing and making music, this was also taken from him (or at the very least impacted) by the pitfalls that came with touring and the pressure to have hit songs. Lennon felt like he was offering the public a version of himself that wasn’t authentic in a bid to stay in line with the way The Beatles wrote.
He was one to hold on to the good things in his life when they came around because he was prone to so much loss. If you were to ask Lennon what one of the best things in his life was, he would likely say Yoko Ono. This is why, when the two of them split up for a brief period, he was particularly lost. He referred to this period as his lost weekend.
The term is now used frequently by artists who find themselves in a tricky situation without any kind of direction. It won’t surprise you to hear that this applies to a lot of different creatives, one of whom was the Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash. He was ready to leave Guns N’ Roses when they split up the first time because the tension within the band was growing too hostile. However, despite leaving being a breath of fresh air, Slash was left unsure where his career would go next.
In hindsight, it was a great decision for the guitarist, as he wound up finding his own voice as a musician and working with plenty of his favourite artists. It took him a while to work out that he had this kind of freedom, and before he explored it fully, he worked in a few different bands and put his body through its paces.
One of the first bands he joined after Guns N’ Roses was the supergroup Slash’s Snakepit, which had started life as a side project but then became a full-blown outfit. During this period, Slash was working with people he hadn’t worked with prior and was also overindulging in drink. This led to him feeling lost, not knowing where his career would take him next.
“The last incarnation of Snakepit was just a huge mess; as much as I liked it, I was all fucked up—I almost killed myself drinking too much—and I had a lot going on,” said Slash, “And I did this record [2000’s ‘Ain’t Life Grand’] with a bunch of guys who’d never been around the block before.”
He highlighted how the experience differed among them, with Slah being a veteran of the game: “For me, it was like revisiting what it was like to go out and start your first band; for them, it was their first band! One was strung out, blah blah blah; we were always getting guys out of jail for stupid shit […] It had its moments, but it was like John Lennon had his lost fuckin’ summer, right? For me, it was like my lost four or five years!”
Luckily, Slash overcame his lost weekend of years and was able to establish himself as a successful solo artist. However, it did take him some time to do this.
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