Written by At some point in the mid-’90s, with rap-metal in the ascendancy, the US record industry began talking up Insane Clown Posse as the Next Big Thing for suburban white kids, the Detroit duo’s third album, 1995’s Riddle Box having sold half a million copies with little radio or MTV support.
In a bid to further help the ‘horrorcore’ duo, Violent J (Joseph Bruce) and Shaggy 2 Dope (Joseph Utsler), cross over to a rock audience, their new record label, the Disney-affiliated Hollywood Records, approached rock stars from three generations – Alice Cooper, Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones and Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash – to guest on the fourth album The Great Milenko, presumably hoping that their notoriety would further enhance ICP’s carefully cultivated ‘bad boys’ image, and lend them some credibility.
As it turned out, Slash was actually a fan of the band, and was only too happy to contribute, asking only for a fifth of Wild Irish Rose (a fortfied wine) as payment for his guitar playing on the song Halls Of Illusions.
“Slash was totally cool,” Violent J recalled in an interview conducted for US music writer Steve Miller’s book Detroit Rock City: The Uncensored History of Rock ‘n’ Roll in America’s Loudest City, hailing the guitarist as “a drinking ninja” for the casual manner in which he sunk the booze. “He called the next morning and was like, ‘Turn the radio on. I’m about to do this interview.’ He told me what station to go to. We tuned it in, and he’s sitting there talking all kinds of fresh shit about us on the radio, you know, giving us love, saying, ‘This group ICP is awesome.’ Then he called us to the concert that night, or the next night, and he wore a Riddle Box shirt when he was playing with Alice Cooper.”
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When their record label earmarked Halls Of Illusions. as the new album’s lead-off single, Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope understandably had hopes of Slash guesting on the song’s video, so the pair were delighted when he volunteered his services once more. However, their label had misgivings.
“The label’s like, ‘I don’t think that’s the right image for you guys’,” Violent J told Steve Miller. “They were saying, he’s yesterday’s news. You guys are something new. And I’m like, That’s fucking Slash, man. What’re you talking about? How you gonna tell Slash, No?”
In the end, Insane Clown Posse didn’t tell Slash ‘No’: they simply hid from him, panicking somewhat after the guitarist also volunteered to play the song live onstage with their band.
“I turned to [ICP producer] Mike E. Clark [and said], If Slash calls back, tell him I’m not there,” Violent J claimed in his memoir Behind The Paint.
Looking back, the rapper admitted, “That was a stale move”, but added, “but we had so much work to do, it was crazy.”
In the end, Insane Clown Posse did just fine even without an MTV boost from their famous fan: The Great Milenko went on to sell 1.7 million copies in the US alone. We understand that Slash survived the snub too.
