Slash Rocks Out With Bill Gates

In the Sunday finale for Bill Gates’ last keynote as head of Microsoft, Redmond’s king geek turned to a secret weapon for an onstage Guitar Hero III competition: Slash, lead guitarist of Guns n’ Roses and Velvet Revolver. Gates brought out the top-hatted ax-slinger after Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft’s entertainment and devices division, welcomed […]
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In the Sunday finale for Bill Gates' last keynote as head of Microsoft, Redmond's king geek turned to a secret weapon for an onstage Guitar Hero III competition: Slash, lead guitarist of Guns n' Roses and Velvet Revolver.

Gates brought out the top-hatted ax-slinger after Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft’s entertainment and devices division, welcomed Kelly "TipperQueen" Law-Yone of Team Pandemic to the stage to strut her stuff.

"Well, it turns out, I've got my own ringer here," Gates said, after acknowledging Law-Yone was "pretty good."

Unlike the gamer guitar goddess, Slash played some sort of new-fangled ax with strings instead of buttons on it:

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You can see the whole staged "battle" in the following clip.

Wonder how much Slash got for that brief but rifftastic appearance?

(We're posting on Gadget Lab this week for CES 2008; check out additional coverage here.)