Les Paul will be honored with a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame tribute concert Nov. 15, featuring performances by the likes of Slash, Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top, The Ventures and Richie Sambora of Bon Jovi.
Slash said he agreed to appear at the event before he even saw the rest of the guest list. “I’m just coming with my guitar,” the Velvet Revolver member told the Associated Press, adding he would do just about anything for the 93-year-old Paul. “The legion of guitar players I grew up listening to would have been completely different had Les not been around.”
Paul, who built the first solid-body electric guitar in 1941, is expected to appear at the event. Slash famously played a replica of a 1959 Gibson Les Paul on Guns N’ Roses’ classic Appetite for Destruction.
Also on the tribute concert lineup are Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees such as James Burton, Dennis Coffey, Lenny Kaye, Steve Lukather, Barbara Lynn and Alannah Myles.
Paul was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988 in the Early Influence category and is still going strong as a live performer, playing two shows every Monday night at the Iridium Jazz Club in New York. Slash, Sambora and the Goo Goo Dolls’ Johnny Rzeznik appear on the just released Les Paul and Friends: A Tribute To a Legend.
Slash is still reeling from the last time he played alongside Paul. “He just cleaned the stage up with me,” said Slash.
The 13th annual American Music Masters tribute concert will take place on Saturday, Nov. 15, at 8 p.m. at PlayhouseSquare’s State Theater in Cleveland. Tickets are $30, $40 and $50 and can be purchased at
playhousesquare.org and at the PlayhouseSquare box office
(216) 241-6000 or by visiting
www.rockhall.com. A limited number of Rock Hall VIP event packages (priced at $250 and $500) are available by calling
(216) 515-1207 . ―Aidin Vaziri