When she was a teen in Kansas City, Missouri, blues singer-songwriter/guitarist Samantha Fish was a big fan of Guns N’ Roses and its top-hatted lead guitarist Slash.
On Sunday, July 14, she will share the AVA at Casino del Sol stage with the famous rocker as part of the supporting cast for his “S.E.R.P.E.N.T. (Solidarity, Engagement, Restore, Peace, Equality N’ Tolerance) Festival Tour,” showcasing Slash’s longtime love of blues.
“There’s a lot of people out there who know Slash who maybe aren’t terribly familiar with contemporary blues or even the history of blues,” said Fish, 35, who has been performing professionally since she was 18. “It’s kind of cool to think that Slash could be the gateway to people discovering this music, which is so important to our history and to making music that is authentic with feelings and real people playing real instruments.”
The tour, which kicked off July 5 in Montana and runs through mid-August, comes six weeks after the release of Slash’s debut blues album “Orgy of the Damned,” a project, he told Los Angeles Magazine, that had been “percolating” for 30 years.
The album features collaborations on classic blues and soul hits with artists including Iggy Pop, Demi Lovato, Chris Robinson, Chris Stapleton of the Black Crowes and ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons.
Fish is on the supporting lineup with Warren Haynes Band and Eric Gales for eight dates before the cast changes.
“There’s going to be different artists and everybody will play their slots, and Slash is the headliner,” she explained.
Fish was drawn to the blues as a teen, catching shows at Knuckleheads Saloon, the famous Kansas City venue that regularly hosted traveling blues, country and rock artists.
Grammy-nominated blues rocker Samantha Fish is on the lineup for Slash’s “S.E.R.P.E.N.T. Festival” on Sunday. The show features an all-star blues lineup including Warren Haynes Band.
It was on that stage that Fish made her professional debut at age 18. Two years later, in 2009, she recorded a live album that landed her a record deal with a German independent label that launched her career.
Fish joins the S.E.R.P.E.N.T. Tour on the heals of capping off 16 months of touring to support “Death Wish Blues,” her critically-acclaimed collaboration with Texas outlaw country singer/actor Jesse Dayton.
“I’m really proud of it,” she said of the album, released in 2023. “We’re really kind of in awe of how far that album has reached and the success we have had off of it. But we really believed in it when we made it. We knew we had something special together.”
The project, long on Fish’s wish list, came together over the summer of 2022 after she saw Dayton play a show in her adopted hometown of New Orleans. She had been a fan since her Knuckleheads teen days and had watched his career from afar for years.
When her manager pitched the idea of a collab to Dayton’s people, he jumped on board.
“He’s perfect. He’s fearless,” Fish said. “He takes on so many projects and roles. I felt like he would be the perfect fit and I think he was.”
Once she wraps up with Slash, Fish will do a dozen shows this summer with the Zac Schultze Gang and a handful of solo dates in the U.S. and Europe. She also hopes to put out a new solo project sometime this year.
“I’m just trying not to be too much of a goof around these people,” she said of going on the “S.E.R.P.E.N.T. Tour.” “I’m really excited to be … doing this with Slash; this is pretty cool for me. It’s going to be a lot of fun.”
Sunday’s concert begins at 8 p.m. at the AVA, 5655 W. Valencia Road. Order tickets ($35-$150, with VIP packages available) in advance online at casinodelsol.com.
Percheron on South 12th Avenue and West Irvington Road on the south side, home of the bacon-wrapped burrito, adds the unusual but subtly delicate fresh avocado to its Sonora dogs.
