Slash quit drinking and taking drugs because it "wasn't fun" anymore.

The former Guns N' Roses guitarist - real name SAUL HUDSON - admits he has curbed his partying ways as he has got older because trying to get drunk or high has become too much of a "burden".

He explained: "Quitting drinking was very gradual. It's not that much fun anymore anyway. With drugs and drink you're always chasing some memory of having a really good time which is hard to recreate.

"And my tolerance is so high that I had to drink so much or do so many drugs to make it worthwhile that it became a burden."

The 44-year-old rocker has also quit his 60-a-day cigarette habit after being spurred on by the death of his mother Ola, who passed away from lung cancer last August, despite admitting it was his only vice during her illness.

He explained: "I smoked through the whole thing. I'd be sitting with her at the hospital and go out to spoke. Her illness was so sudden and the suffering went on for seven months and I was there through it all.

"Every five minutes I needed a cigarette - it had became such a habit. But then I became ill with a severe case of pneumonia. I couldn't smoke for two weeks so I have quitting a shot but I am finding it hard."