Although Slash originally wanted to play the bass and his first guitar had only one string, he somehow soldiered through his early days to become the rock icon he is today – and he credits one guy for motivating him to do it.

Slash says after a guitar teacher named Robert Wolin played a Cream song for him, he became determined to master the instrument. His first order of business: putting more strings on his guitar.

“He taught me how to put the other five strings on it, and then he started giving me what you’d call rudimentary lessons on guitar, where you use a little book and you use notation and all this stuff,” Slash says. “It was really tedious and boring, and he realized that.”

Wolin kept young Slash interested by teaching him a song he loved at the end of every lesson.

Slash says he was so impressed that he “subsequently quit my lessons and started playing.”

“I gotta give him a lot of credit. And I told him that after Appetite came out, we were on the road and at some point I got in touch with him. He was aware of the fact that I’d taken off, it was pretty cool,” said Slash while reflecting on Wolin.