With houseguests that included David Bowie (at one point his mom's boyfriend) and the Rolling Stones' Ron Wood, he began drinking regularly as an adolescent and was largely left unsupervised as he began exploring the Hollywood nightlife. Slash, born in London to parents who put their artistic talents to use in the music industry, landed in a show business environment in L.A. As noted in My Appetite for Destruction: Sex & Drugs & Guns N' Roses, Adler came with his big brother and single mom, who was seeking to rebuild her life after splitting from an abusive husband in Cleveland, Ohio. The first to Los Angeles were Steven Adler – born Michael Coletti – and Saul Hudson – soon to be known as 'Slash' – in the early 1970s. Adler introduced Slash to guitar in junior high In many ways, the rise of Guns N' Roses into one of the world's biggest bands in the late 1980s represents the quintessential Hollywood success story, a culmination of ambitions realized by five boys who left behind past lives and old names to reinvent themselves as rock royalty.