is slash on tour with gnr

• Manage Account

Guns N’ Roses Welcomed New Jersey to ‘Paradise City’ With a Hard-Hitting Concert

The three-hour set — complete with fan favorites and deep cuts — proved the band can still rock.

By Rob Levine

• Share this article on Facebook
• Share this article on Twitter
• Share this article on Flipboard
• Share this article on Pinit
• + additional share options added
• Share this article on Reddit
• Share this article on Linkedin
• Share this article on Whatsapp
• Share this article on Email
• Print this article
• Share this article on Comment
• Share this article on Tumblr

Quick: Which summer stadium tour features a singer in a shiny outfit, a special guest and a three-hour set that includes a few surprise curveballs? Would you believe Guns N’ Roses ? The band is back on tour again this summer — it plays North American stadiums until mid-October — with Slash, original bassist Duff McKagan, longstanding keyboardist Dizzy Reed and, for many concerts, a surprisingly sincere cover of the Jimmy Webb classic “Wichita Lineman.”

Guns N’ Roses Announce Dates For 2023 World Tour

Trending on billboard, guns n’ roses classic crowns top tv songs chart after ‘the summer i turned pretty’ synch.

At a time when critics seem positively shocked at the idea that a stadium show can run for more than three hours and include two surprise songs, it’s worth remembering that this was once simply what rock fans expected — play for a while and surprise us a bit. Guns N’ Roses went beyond this to give each member a chance to shine: McKagan sang a powerful “TV Eye,” Slash snuck pieces of “Voodoo Child” and “People Get Ready” into other songs and “Dizzy f–king Reed,” as Rose called him, showed off his keyboard work. There were plenty of covers, too: “Down on the Farm” (the U.K. Subs song the band covered on The Spaghetti Incident? ), “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” and, yes, “Wichita Lineman.” It’s hard to think of a song that seems less suited for a hard rock band – sincere, minimal, tasteful – but it worked well enough to make up for Andrew Dice Clay.

• “It’s So Easy”
• “Bad Obsession”
• “Chinese Democracy”
• “Slither” (Velvet Revolver)
• “Hard Skool”
• “Mr. Brownstone”
• “Welcome to the Jungle”
• “Pretty Tied Up”
• “Absurd”
• “Double Talkin’ Jive”
• “Estranged”
• “Down on the Farm” (U.K. Subs)
• “Live and Let Die” (Wings)
• “Rocket Queen”
• “Reckless Life”
• “You Could Be Mine”
• “T.V. Eye” (The Stooges)
• “Anything Goes”
• “Civil War”
• Slash guitar solo
• “Sweet Child o’ Mine”
• “November Rain”
• “Wichita Lineman” (Jimmy Webb)
• “Catcher in the Rye”
• “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” (Bob Dylan)
• “Nightrain”
• “Coma”
• “Walk All Over You” (AC/DC)
• “Patience”
• “Paradise City”

Get weekly rundowns straight to your inbox

Want to know what everyone in the music business is talking about?

Get in the know on.

Billboard is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2024 Billboard Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

optional screen reader

Charts expand charts menu.

• Billboard Hot 100™
• Billboard 200™
• Hits Of The World™
• TikTok Billboard Top 50
• Song Breaker
• Year-End Charts
• Decade-End Charts

Music Expand music menu

• R&B/Hip-Hop

Culture Expand culture menu

Media expand media menu, business expand business menu.

• Business News
• Record Labels
• View All Pro

Pro Tools Expand pro-tools menu

• Songwriters & Producers
• Artist Index
• Royalty Calculator
• Market Watch
• Industry Events Calendar

Billboard Español Expand billboard-espanol menu

• Cultura y Entretenimiento

Get Up Anthems by Tres Expand get-up-anthems-by-tres menu

Honda music expand honda-music menu.

Slash on GN'R, Axl, Izzy, Scott and the rest - the ultimate interview

Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash talks about his career: Guns N' Roses, Axl Rose, Izzy Stradlin, Scott Weiland, Myles Kennnedy, and the good, the bad and the ugly that came with all of them

After all this time, getting on for a seemingly unlikely 35 years, Slash still can’t quite believe what happened. 

“I thought the band was fucking great,” he says of Guns N’ Roses . “It would have been a band that I would have listened to had I not been in it. I would have had the T-shirt, right?” he says with a laugh. “But I saw it as being a cool cult band. I didn’t have any fantasies of it being anything super-huge. 

"So none of us, I think, was prepared for what it turned into when it did. I thought it was a great band with a certain energy and a certain chemistry, but I didn’t know that one record would become what it became – that it would sort of transcend…” 

When Guns N’ Roses’ debut album Appetite For Destruction was released on July 21, 1987, Slash, the cat in the top hat on lead guitar, was just two days shy of his twenty-second birthday. Two weeks after he turned 23, the album hit No.1 in the US. It would become the biggest-selling debut album of all time. It made Slash rich and famous, and defined him as the guitar hero of his generation. 

All these years later, as he talks to Classic Rock via a Zoom call from his home in Los Angeles, he is in buoyant mood ahead of the release of the new album he has made with singer Myles Kennedy and The Conspirators . 

“We recorded everything live in five days,” he says enthusiastically. “I’ve always wanted to do a record like that.” 

He is also still buzzing from his latest tour with Guns N’ Roses. It’s now six years since he reconciled with singer Axl Rose and rejoined the band, along with bassist Duff McKagan , after an absence of 19 years. “All things considered,” he says, “it’s been fucking awesome.”

Classic Rock Newsletter

Sign up below to get the latest from Classic Rock, plus exclusive special offers, direct to your inbox!

Over the course of our hour-long conversation, Slash speaks openly about his life and his career, the good times and the bad. He’s always had a kind of unruffled cool about him, and after all the interviews he’s done – more than he could ever remember – there is nothing much that can faze him. 

He has a soft speaking voice and a sharp mind, his voice rising only when he laughs at one of the many absurdities that come with a life in rock’n’roll. There is only one subject that disturbs his easy flow, a subject he is reluctant to discuss – the new Guns N’ Roses album, currently a work in progress.

It was all so different when this writer first interviewed Guns N’ Roses in Los Angeles in March 1987 , four months before Appetite For Destruction was released, when no one outside of the band’s inner circle had heard the album. That interview was with all five members of the band: Slash, Axl, Duff, rhythm guitarist Izzy Stradlin and drummer Steven Adler. 

When the talking was done, Slash took out his Walkman to play a track for me – a rough mix of It’s So Easy . Some time later, during a photo session at the band’s infamous communal home, known as The Hellhouse, I heard other songs from the album, played at deafening volume on Duff’s ghetto blaster. 

As Slash recalls to me now: “I remember you came in really early on. At that time we hadn’t even mixed the record.” 

But that was then. Now, wary that whatever he says is ripe for clickbait, he declines to go into any kind of detail about the album that Guns N’ Roses are making. He does, however, answer every other question head-on: questions about his relationship with Axl; about the supergroup Velvet Revolver and the death of their singer Scott Weiland ; about his dual roles with GN’R and The Conspirators; and about his long struggle with alcoholism and drug addiction, of which he admits, 15 years after he got sober: “I’m really fortunate that I’m still here.” 

He begins by recalling how his journey in music started – of how the young Saul Hudson, a mixed-race kid, born in London, relocated to LA, found his calling.

You’ve portrayed your childhood in LA as being chaotic – your parents separating; your mother Ola dating David Bowie; a bohemian atmosphere in the home; you becoming, in your own words, a “problem child”. It reads like the classic rock’n’roll rebel’s story. 

Yeah, I suppose there’s stuff about how I came up that sort of points in the direction of how I ended up turning out. Looking back on it, as a kid I had problems with stereotypes of regular society, at least here in the neighbourhoods I was growing up in. So yeah, Ithink I was a problem child in that context. But as a person… I was a decent person. I just had problems with parents, teachers and policemen. 

Really, the only thing that made me into being a musician was music. I don’t think it was escapism from life, that whole cliché. It was just that suddenly I discovered the passion to play music, and the music I was turned on to was the hardest rock I could get my hands on. 

And that just took me in the direction I went in. I don’t think it had a hell of a lot to do with my upbringing. But at the same time, I never had any kind of therapy back then, so who knows? I’ve had therapy since then, but not about that. 

When I first interviewed you, in 1987, you said how much you hated LA . 

Actually, I have wonderful memories of LA from when I was seven years old all the way up to when I was twelve. I was kind of raised in the LA music scene and it was great. I watched it go through these music trends in my short little lifetime up to that point. But what it turned into in the eighties was something that was unrecognisable from an integrity point of view and a creative point of view. 

The whole thing had just sort of been diluted. I have to say, in hindsight, that at least it was exciting in the eighties, at least there was a scene. Right now there is no LA scene. But there was a huge scene going on in the sixties and right through the seventies. It was really identifiable and really musically revolutionary. And in the eighties it just turned into this other thing.

You’re talking about hair-metal. But let’s be truthful, in the early days of Guns N’ Roses you had the big hair and the make-up too.  

I fucking hated the whole scene, man. At least if you were in the UK you had some cool bands that represented the eighties, at least from a rock’n’roll and metal point of view. You had some really cool, credible music coming out. But in Los Angeles it was just bullshit. And we were coming up in the midst of all that. 

Everybody was fucking converting to the industry standard to get a record deal and get girls, this whole thing. Where our band was coming from was the antithesis of all that, and it’s something I’m really proud of.

Back then, it was the five of you against the world, a real gang. 

Yeah! Shit, every so often I’ll think about that. In passing it will pop into my mind how we managed to get wherever we managed to get to, and I’ll go back to the beginning. It was this collective drive that we had, this camaraderie, and this passion for the kind of music that we did, and also this attitude of fuck everything else that’s going on and all the obstacles and all the bullshit in the music business in LA at that time. 

There was a thing that we had that drove us, you know? And it was unsaid. It wasn’t like we sat around and talked about it. It was complicated and simple at the same time. And it was really cool because it was one hundred fucking percent genuine. 

Guns N’ Roses were known as The Most Dangerous Band In The World. In reality, you were mostly a danger to yourselves. You personally could have died many times. Steven Adler’s drug addiction got him fired from the band. Duff McKagan almost bled to death when years of heavy drinking led to a burst pancreas. It seems like the smartest guy in the band was Izzy Stradlin, who got clean and then had the balls to walk out of the biggest band in the world in 1991. I interviewed Izzy then, when he was making his solo album with the Ju Ju Hounds, and he was so happy to be out of Guns N’ Roses, away from all the drama that was around the band. How did you feel when Izzy quit? 

At that time, the fact that he quit wasn’t an issue. There was no judgement about any of that. With Guns N’ Roses it was basically just show up and play. I don’t think anybody judged anybody else on how they behaved outside of being able to show up and do the gig. I was admittedly resentful of that whole trip with Izzy leaving, because whatever had gone on for him that forced that sudden change, I was like, man, I died eighteen times prior to that! It didn’t faze me! But when he quit, he was looking at us going: ‘These guys are gonna fucking die!’ 

My whole attitude was like: ‘I’ll get on with it. Don’t fucking worry. I’ll manage.’ So there was a certain kind of resentment there – of not really understanding or appreciating where Izzy was coming from. In hindsight, I still sort of feel the same way, I guess, about that. Like, don’t worry about me. But it’s hard to really understand exactly what that was all about.

It’s a good turn of phrase: ‘I’ll manage’. 

Ha ha. But there was an issue, obviously, with Steven too, right? And with Steven we knew that he was not gonna make it. And still to this day, looking back on it, he would not have made it. Steven is only now just starting to get a grasp on things. So different people have different reactions, different people handle things differently. 

There’s that line in Welcome To The Jungle: ‘ When you’re high you never ever wanna come down .’ Do you miss all of that? 

I don’t miss it. I have fond memories of it all. But also, having finally wrapped my head around why I wanted to get sober, and really getting a grasp on that whole concept, it was a really positive change in my life. Had I not changed course when I did, I wouldn’t have been able to do what I’ve done in the last fifteen years. So I fully appreciate that, and I’m humbled by the fact that I was able to get some clarity. So I don’t miss it, but I don’t have any regrets about it.

What was the motivation to clean up? Was it having kids? 

No, it wasn’t so much having kids, although that definitely played a part. You know, it was all fun and games until it wasn’t. And then you’re trying to figure out why you couldn’t keep going down that road. You’re having a good time and everything’s great, and then without knowing it you cross a line somewhere where it becomes a mental and physical burden that you have to deal with, and you start to become so completely dependent and your life just starts to spiral out of control. And as a musician you start to lose focus of what it is that you’re supposed to be doing. 

It wasn’t easy, then?  

No, it was fucking hard! And it took a long time, it really did. It took from the realisation of being that person somewhere in the mid-to-late nineties, all the way up until 2006. Going through that realisation that you’re just too fucked up and dysfunctional, you really struggle with that reality. You’re in denial. 

You say you don’t have any regrets about all those wasted years, but surely there must be some things in your life that you look back on with remorse . 

Well, there’s definitely moments that I have memories of that I don’t savour – things that I’ve done, which I’m not gonna get into. But there’s nothing catastrophic, and nothing that I would wish I could go back and fix, because it’s just not realistic. I just don’t believe in carrying regrets for things that happened in life that don’t have a massively negative effect on somebody else. 

You know that one thing that changed the trajectory of your life that you wish you hadn’t done because you wish you’d gone in another direction? I was fortunate, I didn’t have that. I ended up doing what it is that I wanted to do. So I have personal moments that I don’t really appreciate so much, and they’ve stuck in my mind and I’m reminded of them from time to time. But you just have to chalk it up to experience and you move on. And I have done. All things considered, I don’t believe in harbouring regrets for the rest of my life.

When do you remember being happiest? 

There’s lots of periods when you’re the happiest, and then there’s periods when you’re not. You have those moments of elation, however long they are, and then you have those periods which for whatever reason are the opposite of that, and that’s just life. You just have to hang in there and stay in the boat.

And what about your lowest point? Was there ever a moment when you didn’t care if you lived or died?  

Yeah. There was definitely a marked period from 2000 going into 2002 that was like that. And then there was another period like that around 2005, 2006. Prior to that there was a lot more… chemical control. So you could drown your sorrows a little bit easier. 

I was going through struggles with getting sober from 2000 through 2006. There was a lot of topsy-turvy shit going on during that time. Trying to sort your life out. That was definitely a period of unknowing. But in the nineties, if you ever felt like that you could fix it.

Your decision to get sober and drug-free was in the last days of Velvet Revolver. And some years later, in 2015, the singer in that band, Scott Weiland, died of an accidental drug overdose. Looking back on those years you spent with him, what emotions do you have?  

Velvet Revolver was always a difficult situation. I’m proud of the fact that we managed to pull that together and had a couple of cool records. But it was difficult because I never really managed to establish a solid footing with that band. There was a lot of shit going on, man. A lot of people involved with the band had a major agenda. And Scott was difficult. 

All things considered, he was irretrievable. Everybody had told me about that when the band first started, but I just did not know anything about Scott up until I started working with him. It was sad to go through that and how that all turned out. But like I said, we had some good times in that band too. 

A year ago, your son London and Scott’s son Noah formed a band together, Suspect208. But the band has split now . 

Yeah, it didn’t last for very long. I think they had stylistic differences. But it was cool in the moment. 

It was just a couple of years after Velvet Revolver split that you made your first solo record with a bunch of guest-star singers, one of whom was Myles Kennedy. You’ve now made four albums with Myles Kennedy And The Conspirators. After all the trouble you’ve experienced with singers in the past, it must be so easy to work with him . 

Myles is just a really nice, very mild-mannered guy, and extremely gifted. One of the reasons we got on so well from the very beginning was that he’s really a guitarist who sings. And we have very similar laid-back, low-key personalities that gel really well. 

I’m a glutton for punishment – I love singers. You have to work around some of their idiosyncrasies or whatever. I understand that. Because to be a singer and stand in front of audience with nothing but a microphone, there’s a psychological thing there that I can’t imagine trying to do. 

So I give singers full space to be able to do what it is that they do. But with Myles, he’s basically very much guitar player-like, so we relate to each other on that level, and then he also has this incredible voice and range. So I understand how Myles works, and we’ve just had this very cool, smooth kind of relationship since 2010.

When you were first getting to know him, you never feared that there must be something wrong with him? 

Ha ha. Actually I don’t think that ever crossed my mind. He and I met over text and email at first. I sent him some music, and he sent it back. And I was so enthralled with that recording that I flew him out to LA and we did a couple of songs on my first solo record. And he was just a pleasure to be around. And that’s just evolved into working together in the context of a band. I don’t think I ever really thought about, like, when’s the shoe gonna drop, you know?

This new album, 4 , has a lot of energy to it. 

It was the first record I’ve been able to do in my career where we set up a back line in a big room and just mic’d it up and recorded it. Myles was in a booth right next to us, so you could actually see him, and we just did it like that. So this is the result, warts and all. It is a live record, basically.

You’ve also been touring with Guns N’ Roses – and working on a new Guns album, as Duff McKagan confirmed to Classic Rock some time ago. How do you juggle that with working with Myles Kennedy And The Conspirators? How do you separate the two? 

It’s something that you just figure out. Doing a Guns tour, the focus is all on Guns N’ Roses. And as soon as that’s over, I switch gears and go into preparing for whatever the Conspirators are doing. So by force of necessity, you have to be able to juggle all of that. With this particular record, after the Guns tour that we did back in 2018, 2019, I went out with the Conspirators and we wrote a bunch of stuff on the road. 

I was about to do another Guns tour and then come back and then do the Conspirators record, but then the Guns tour got cancelled because of covid, so during this endless break I got busy in the studio and we got this record done in Nashville. That was done last fucking April, but I had the Guns tour, and Myles had a solo record and a tour to support that. So we had to put it on the back burner till now. 

You’re going back on the road with the Conspirators this year. Why not spend some time at home?  

I did! Ha ha. Because of covid we had a forced break, and historically I’m not good with time off. I’ve had a lot of issues with that in the past. But I’ve finally learned how to deal with it. I was basically centred at home, and actually for the most part enjoyed it. Fortunately my significant other and I get along really well, so that was kind of a revelation. I thought: “God, man, if I was with my ex-, one of us would be in prison!”

Were there any songs or riffs on the new Conspirators record that you thought: “Maybe I should save this for the Guns N’ Roses album”? 

No. Guns is a completely different process. That happens more like collectively sitting around and Guns going: “Okay, we’re gonna make a record”, and sort of compiling ideas in that moment. But we haven’t really done that yet. So I just did the Conspirators thing because I’d written all this material for it.

Two new Guns N’ Roses songs, Absurd and Hard Skool , were posted online in 2021. These are songs from the Chinese Democracy era. What was the thinking behind that? 

You know, that’s a whole other interview!

Can we at least get the story straight – were these songs re-recorded with the current GN’R line-up?  

The bass and the guitars are all re-done, for the most part, but the original drums are still intact, and the vocals. 

Will these songs be on the new Guns N’ Roses album? Or do they at least give an indication as to how that album is shaping up?  

Hmm. I don’t know. Like I said, that’s another interview. That involves a whole other mind-set to get into. Basically, the material [ Absurd and Hard Skool ] was there, and I just got in there during covid and re-did the guitars, Duff did the bass, and we went from there and just put it out. 

And there’s some more stuff coming out too. But there’s not sort of a mental trajectory. It’s just that Axl wanted to get this material done because it was sitting there. He said: “Okay, we can rehash it.” So there you go. 

It’s six years since you rejoined Guns. When this reunion happened, did you believe, deep down, that it would it last this long and that everything would go as smoothly as it has? 

Um, no. When we got together, Axl and I really got over this major sort of hump of negativity that we’ve been carrying around for years and years. It was a real simple, relatively short conversation that we had, which pointed a lot of fingers in the direction of shit that we were going through in the past, and people we were working with at the time. 

So we got past that, and we decided that we would honour these requests to play [annual US festival] Coachella that we’d been getting for years. That was really the main driver – to get together for the fun of it, and do the Coachella gigs. I didn’t really have any expectations, but it was such a magical kind of thing, such an overwhelmingly positive experience, that we just started doing it in earnest across the planet. And it’s continued for a pretty long time.

When you were first planning this reunion, Izzy was going to be involved, but he pulled out, just as he did when Velvet Revolver was starting up. Izzy was such a key figure in Guns N’ Roses. Did he explain why he didn’t want to be a part of it again?  

I haven’t really talked to him since then. There were a lot of different issues that I’m not really going to get into. We wanted it to work out, but we couldn’t seem to meet eye to eye on the whole thing. So it just never happened. 

You’re able to juggle Guns N’ Roses and the Conspirators, but how did you react when Axl did the same back in 2016 – stepping in for Brian Johnson on AC/DC’s Rock Our Bust tour just as Guns’ Not In This Lifetime tour was starting?  

In the moment, when it first came up, it was a little jarring, I have to say. I was super-proud that he was doing it, but how that was gonna happen and go right into the Guns thing, I really didn’t know. But anyway, it worked out. So it wasn’t like a big deal. I don’t think we ever really discussed it, but in the back of my mind I was wondering how this was all going to come together. 

Most people say Axl did a great job in AC/DC . 

Yeah, he did. I came out to a gig in London, and it was phenomenal. I was blown away, especially when he sang the Bon Scott stuff. That was a very proud moment, actually. You didn’t feel weird seeing your singer with another band? Not at all. It was AC/DC , man! The fact that he got asked to do that was very cool. And he worked his ass off doing it, too. He really adhered to the whole AC/DC regimen and pulled it off.

The big question is whether Guns N’ Roses can pull it off with the new album you’re making. You’ve said you can’t really talk about it, but can you say, for sure, that it’s definitely happening?

Yeah! There’s new Guns material coming out as we speak, and we’ll probably keep putting it out until the entire record’s worth of stuff is done and then put it out solid.

Nobody is expecting another Appetite For Destruction , of course. But how does this sound: fifty per cent Use Your Illusion I and II and fifty per cent Chinese Democracy ? Is that the kind of thing we can expect?

I really don’t have the vantage point to be able to have that perspective. I’m just not able to sort of objectively look at it like that. It’s just what it is. But it’s cool. I’m enjoying working on the stuff and having a good time doing it.

Finally, let’s talk about you and Axl. You’ve said that from the first time you met him he was an enigma. You just had to learn to live with his volatile nature. Has that changed at all? Has he mellowed with age? 

Well, without getting into a long diatribe about that, we got together and started working again, and he’s the same person, but… I consider myself to be pretty professional. In all these years that we’ve been apart, he’s become super-fucking professional. 

And he’s never missed a beat during this whole time. So it’s been great. There has been a sort of synergy that’s been happening this last six years that we never had in our first incarnation. Everybody is older and wiser now. 

Is it really that simple? 

You know, I haven’t really stopped to think about what it is. It’s just happening, so let’s just move on with it.

Slash Featuring Myles Kennedy And The Conspirators’ new album 4 is rout now .

Freelance writer for Classic Rock since 2005, Paul Elliott has worked for leading music titles since 1985, including Sounds, Kerrang!, MOJO and Q . He is the author of several books including the first biography of Guns N’ Roses and the autobiography of bodyguard-to-the-stars Danny Francis. He has written liner notes for classic album reissues by artists such as Def Leppard, Thin Lizzy and Kiss, and currently works as content editor for Total Guitar . He lives in Bath - of which David Coverdale recently said: “How very Roman of you!”

“As far as the 80s are concerned, we’re in for some very good heavy metal years”: Judas Priest’s Rob Halford predicted the future of metal in 1979

Robert Trujillo reflects on first Metallica shows: “What I remember most was not knowing what the setlist was gonna be each night”

Epica singer Simone Simons announces debut solo album Vermillion, lead single Aeterna now streaming

Most Popular

Slash Reflects On How He Reconciled With Axl Rose Years After GNR Breakup

By Andrew Magnotta @AndrewMagnotta

January 6, 2022

It's hard to believe that Slash and Duff McKagan have been back in Guns N' Roses for nearly six years, and the rekindled partnership with Axl Rose has resulted in no drama.

Slash and McKagan feuded with Rose for longer than the entirety of their first go-around in GNR, but all three parties grew up in their years apart and were able to pull off a seamless reunion (and one of the most lucrative tours of all-time).

Despite some setbacks along the way, Slash tells Classic Rock magazine that his career has "been f---ing awesome." It's a realization that no doubt played into his and Rose's reconciliation and the optimism around the future of their partnership.

Slash looked back at his earliest jam sessions with what became Guns N' Roses. He says the early components of the band were exactly what he was looking for at the time.

"It would have been a band that I would have listened to had I not been in it..." he explained. "But I saw it as being a cool cult band. I didn't have any fantasies of it being anything super-huge. So none of us, I think, was prepared for what it turned into when it did [take off].

"I thought it was a great band with a certain energy and a certain chemistry, but I didn't know that one record [ Appetite for Destruction ] would become what it became — that it would sort of transcend..."

GNR's story from there is a well-worn tale of too much, too young, too fast. Drugs, fame and money fueled the band's rise, it's eventual breakup and the hard feelings that lingered for some 20 years.

The reunion, on the other hand, came from a more mature place. Slash says he agreed to the initial run of shows with no expectations for how it would work long-term. But after taking the stage at Coachella in 2016, he says the new GNR felt like "a magical kind of thing... an overwhelmingly positive experience."

“When we got together, Axl and I really got over this major sort of hump of negativity that we’ve been carrying around for years and years,” he said. “It was a real simple, relatively short conversation that we had… In all these years that we’ve been apart, he’s become super-f---ing professional. And he’s never missed a beat during this whole time. So it’s been great. There has been a sort of synergy that’s been happening this last six years that we never had in our first incarnation.“

Slash has often praised Rose's work ethic in recent years, and he's not alone. In a 2019 interview with Q104.3 , McKagan described the singer's conduct as "inspiring."

The good feelings helped the band bring to fruition their first new material in years — a pair of singles released this past fall .

Slash says the band is continuing to work on new material and will have an "entire record's worth of stuff" ready before long.

© 2024 iHeartMedia, Inc.

• Privacy Policy
• Terms of Use

• Search Please fill out this field.
• Manage Your Subscription
• Give a Gift Subscription
• Newsletters
• Sweepstakes
• Entertainment

Guns N' Roses Announce 2023 Tour Across North America, Europe and Israel — See the Dates!

The rockers last hit North America in 2021

Guns N' Roses is hitting the road!

The rockers will embark on a lengthy tour in June that will see them play nearly 40 dates across stadiums, arenas and festivals around the world.

The band — which includes Axl Rose , 61, Duff McKagan , 59, and Slash , 57 — will kick things off in Tel Aviv, Israel on June 5 before heading to Europe for 15 concerts.

On Aug. 5, the "November Rain" rockers will head back to North America for 22 more dates before wrapping in Vancouver on Oct. 16. The band last hit North America in 2021, on its We're F'N Back! Tour.

For longtime fans, the end of each show will look a bit different, as Rose announced in December that he will no longer throw his microphone into the crowd after a fan claimed the move injured her.

"It's come to my attention that a fan may have been hurt at r show in Adelaide Australia possibly being hit by the microphone at the end of the show when I traditionally toss the mic to the fans," he wrote on Twitter.

RELATED VIDEO: Axl Rose, Alanis Morissette and More Deliver Emotional Performances at Lisa Marie Presley's Memorial

He continued: "Having tossed the mic at the end of r show for over 30 years we always felt it was a known part of the very end of r performance that fans wanted and were aware of to have an opportunity to catch the mic. Regardless in the interest of public safety from now on we'll refrain from tossing the mic or anything to the fans during or at r performance."

Rose recently celebrated his birthday with a heartfelt Twitter message to fans that thanked them for their longtime support.

"I'm very fortunate n' privileged to have such great friends, fans n' people in my life!!" he wrote. "I'm extremely grateful for ALL the people I n' Guns n' Roses r privileged to play for n' all those we meet, know n' work with around the world!! I mean that sincerely from the bottom of my heart n' don't take anyone n' their love, friendship n' support along with any of our success for granted!!"

Presale tickets for the tour will be available on Wednesday at 10 a.m. local time, while the general on-sale begins Friday at 10 a.m. local time at gunsnroses.com .

See Guns N' Roses' upcoming tour dates below.

Mon June 05 – Tel Aviv, Israel – Park Hayarkon

Fri June 09 – Madrid, Spain – Civitas Metropolitan Stadium

Mon June 12 – Vigo, Spain – Estadio Abanca Balaídos

Thu June 15 – Dessel, Belgium – Grasspop Metal Meeting

Sat June 17 – Copenhagen, Denmark – Copenhell

Wed June 21 – Oslo, Norway – Tons of Rock

Tue June 27 – Glasgow, UK – Bellahouston Park

Fri June 30 – London, UK – BST Hyde Park

Mon July 03 – Frankfurt, Germany – Deutsch Bank Park

Wed July 05 – Bern, Switzerland – BERNEXPO

Sat July 08 – Rome, Italy – Circo Massimo

Tue July 11 – Landgraaf, Netherlands – Megaland

Thu July 13 – Paris, France – La Defense

Sun July 16 – Bucharest, Romania – National Arena

Wed July 19 – Budapest, Hungary – Puskás Arena

Sat July 22 – Athens, Greece – Olympic Stadium

Sat Aug. 05 – Moncton, NB – Medavie Blue Cross Stadium

Tue Aug. 08 – Montreal, QC – Parc Jean Drapeau

Fri Aug. 11 – Hershey, PA – Hersheypark Stadium

Tue Aug. 15 – East Rutherford, NJ – MetLife Stadium

Mon Aug. 21 – Boston, MA – Fenway Park

Thu Aug. 24 – Chicago, IL – Wrigley Field

Sat Aug. 26 – Nashville, TN – GEODIS Park

Tue Aug. 29 – Charlotte, NC – Spectrum Center

Fri Sep. 01 – Saratoga Springs, NY – Saratoga Performing Arts Center

Sun Sep. 03 – Toronto, ON – Rogers Centre

Wed Sep. 06 – Lexington, KY – Rupp Arena

Sat Sep. 09 – St. Louis, MO – Busch Stadium

Tue Sep. 12 – Knoxville, TN – Thompson-Boling Arena

Fri Sep. 15 – Hollywood, FL – Hard Rock Live

Wed Sep. 20 – Biloxi, MS – Mississippi Coast Coliseum

Sat Sep. 23 – Kansas City, MO – Kauffman Stadium

Tue Sep. 26 – San Antonio, TX – Alamodome

Thu Sep. 28 – Houston, TX – Minute Maid Park

Sun Oct. 01 – San Diego, CA – Snapdragon Stadium

Sun Oct. 08 – Sacramento, CA – Aftershock Festival

Wed Oct. 11 – Phoenix, AZ – Chase Field

Mon Oct. 16 – Vancouver, BC – BC Place

Related Articles

Classic interview: Slash on the story of Guns N' Roses's Use Your Illusion I & II

Looking back on a double barrel of rock 'n' roll, 30 years on

In 2011, Total Guitar featured Slash as its cover star as he looked back on the creation and release of Guns N' Roses' Use Your Illusions album for their 20th anniversary. A decade on we revisit  a remarkable time for the band…  

There's a black limousine creeping along Sunset Boulevard late in the evening of 16 September 1991. It stops short of Tower Records, which looks like Dracula's castle under siege, with a rowdy mob of people drinking, swearing and banging on the locked doors.

Although he's risking a full-scale riot by doing so, a dark figure slips from the limo, sneaks unnoticed into the store's trade entrance and takes up position behind the same two-way mirror through which he was spotted shoplifting cassettes as a teenager. It's voyeuristic of Slash , but you'd do the same.

At the stroke of midnight, 4.2 million copies of Use Your Illusion I and II will be released to the US public, marking the largest album shipment in history. The releases also draw a line under a period that dragged Guns N' Roses through hard drugs, firings, food fights, public nudity and - let's not forget - some of the best guitar riffs of the decade.

We were pulling ourselves out of the f•••ing quagmire and going back to work

Looking down on the ringing tills, Slash doesn't know it yet, but these records will be the last great statements his band makes before it fractures, falls and mutates into the freakshow that trades under the Guns N' Roses banner circa 2011. That's all to come. For now, everyone is listening to Use Your Illusion. Everyone, that is, except Slash himself.

"I don't know which one I prefer," he tells us straight out of the blocks. "I haven't listened to the Use Your Illusion albums for so long, I don't even know what's on each. I know people like the blue one over the red one… Or maybe it's the other way around."

Er, right. It's a worrying start to an interview that's based around the 20th anniversary of these twin albums, but things soon warm up. It's not that Slash doesn't care. It's that while making the Illusion records, he cared about nothing else, losing himself to these 30 songs while holed up in Studio B of LA's Record Plant as a kind of heroin withdrawal programme.

Get the MusicRadar Newsletter

Want all the hottest music and gear news, reviews, deals, features and more, direct to your inbox? Sign up here.

There are memories in this music - musical, personal, glorious and painful recollections- and you sense that listening to it is like sifting through the old photos from a failed marriage. "I don't like to go back and look at stuff, because I find it mesmerising," Slash says. "It freaks me out. So I avoid it."

Push him on it, though, and the dam breaks: "I was just totally obsessed with the creation of the Illusion records and when I got into that studio, I was completely absorbed with everything to do with them, all the time. Because it had been so long.

"We'd made Appetite [For Destruction] and then toured for years and - for me, and I know for a couple of the other guys - we'd crashed and burned. So we were pulling ourselves out of the fucking quagmire and going back to work."

Chicago Roses

It was definitely exploratory compared to Appetite

How bad did things get pre-Illusion? Try rock bottom. An on-and-off heroin user since the late '80s, Slash cleaned up for Guns' first serious stab at the albums: a residential preproduction session in June 1989 that saw the band and crew relocate to Chicago.

If this was intended as a team-building exercise, it tanked; Guns' troubled second guitarist, Izzy Stradlin, often failed to show and Axl Rose drifted by sporadically to jam at the piano. While kicking their heels, Slash and Duff McKagan managed to combine a daily half-gallon of Stolichnaya vodka with an unlikely interest in weightlifting. This wasn't going well.

Still, Chicago wasn't a total flop. The seeds of a few songs emerged, notably Bad Apples, Garden Of Eden and Estranged, with Axl pounding the rehearsal-room piano and Slash wringing rich vibrato from long, hanging notes. But it was becoming clear this new project's grandiose ambition was a sticking point. Making an album to soundtrack fighting and fucking was no longer enough for Guns' lead singer.

"We want to define ourselves," Rose told Rolling Stone. "Appetite was our cornerstone, a place to start. That was like 'Here's our land and we just put a stake in the ground. Now we're going to build something.'"

Slash had misgivings, but didn't want to start rocking an increasingly precarious boat. "It was definitely exploratory compared to Appetite," he explains. "I mean, honestly, I'd have preferred to do a record with just 10 fucking songs that were a bit more straightforward, but it was an opportunity to finally get the band to work again."

According to his autobiography, we remind him, Axl was starting to communicate with the band through management. "Me and Axl were doing okay," he sighs, diplomatically. "The only catch with the Illusion records was the introduction of synthesizers. I disagreed with synthesizers - and I still do."

By the time the Chicago sessions collapsed, the band had become boorish and bad tempered, with Axl dumping the band's Italian buffet on hecklers beneath their apartment and ejecting groupies for failing to deliver.

Back in Hollywood

One by one, Guns N' Roses trickled back to LA, where it was Slash's turn to lose the plot. The period would see him shooting speedballs, blowing a hole in his roof with a .44 Magnum, spraying Izzy's bathroom with arterial blood during a clumsy tie-off and - most spectacularly - running naked and sobbing around an Arizona golf course, hallucinating that he was being chased by the monster from Predator.

It's an episode we gloss over today. However, the fact remained: something had to give. Ultimately, after a hellish withdrawal period, Slash returned from the brink. Then a string of jams at the Mates rehearsal space confirmed that even without chemicals, GN'R had chemistry.

"How was I doing personally?" ponders Slash of the moment when Illusion started to pull together. "Well, by then, I was off smack, so that was good. That was like the motivator for me. So I was having a good time just doing my regular heavy drinking, as normal."

How about the band as a whole? "We reconvened. I think the Guns N' Roses chemistry was a natural thing that was always there if we could just get past other distractions. When we dropped all the bullshit and just started playing, there was a natural synergy between us.

"It was a positive time. We started going out, playing shows, opening for the [Rolling] Stones. We'd gone from fourth on the bill at Donington and all of a sudden we're headlining stadiums."

"I remember thinking my playing had gotten to a point on those Illusion records where I was really happy." Slash

In the end, it was a marathon two-night writing session at Slash's house that broke the back of Illusion, turning the screws on countless half-finished doodles, including pivotal moments such as The Garden, Duff's ferocious Get In The Ring and So Fine, plus a number of songs by the underrated Stradlin.

"I always thought Izzy's Double Talkin' Jive had a cool vibe," reflects Slash of the sneering track about a dismembered body found in a dumpster behind the studio. "And I got to play that little Spanish flamenco part on it." For the first time since '86, it was all so easy.

"It had just been so difficult to get into that groove," reflects Slash. "Finally, Axl, Duff, myself and Izzy had that acoustic session and basically sewed it up."

There was also a sense of closet-cleaning about the Illusion records. Many of the albums' songs had histories that stretched back years: Dead Horse was an old Axl tune, Back Off Bitch predated Gun N' Roses' formation, You Could Be Mine was just a whammy solo away from the version bumped from Appetite, while the long-incubated November Rain had the same soaring solo as its 1986 incarnation.

"Right from its inception," recalls Slash, "when Axl and I first played November Rain, the same guitar melodies that are in the recorded version came through. There was definitely a spark between the two of us.

"It was hard to arrange that song and Estranged, because they were so open-ended and we had to cut November Rain. But those were Axl's epic piano pieces and they were both breakthrough guitar solos for me. Real melody solos, y'know? I had some good sounds and they were melodically very spontaneous."

Before the difficult Chicago sessions, a messy month spent house-sharing with Izzy had yielded Locomotive, plus the song that arguably stands out as the most ambitious guitar moment on either of the Use Your Illusion records.

I'm not what you'd call a 'technique guy'

"I wrote Coma in my heroin delirium," admits Slash of the 10-minute-long opus. "That's a song that I'm still proud of. There's not a lot of 'technique' - it's a pretty straight up kinda Slash approach.

"But the thing that's really interesting was the vamp-out, which was this circular rotating chord progression that never ended: the same chord progression every time, but it just kept changing key. That was my mathematical musical discovery. I just stumbled on it and it's very much me doing my thing… but it worked."

Did Slash try to put his technique under the microscope for Illusion? "I don't know if I had a particular aim with my style," the guitarist considers, "but I do remember thinking my playing had gotten to a point on those Illusion records where I was really happy. I'm not what you'd call a 'technique guy'.

"I've always taken it seriously when I'm actually doing it, but I just go for it: I don't spend a lot of time thinking about that stuff. I don't go, 'Oh, I held my finger this way on the pick and this happened', or 'I stood 14 inches to the left of my cabinet to get this sound'. I mean, I do shit like that… but I don't know what I'm doing!"

[Civil War] was the first song where we went in the studio with Steven and realised that he wasn't really playing up to par

Still, it worked, both on the ambitious Coma and the play-in-a-day arpeggios that kick off Civil War. "That was actually one of the first songs Axl and I wrote after Appetite," Slash explains. "The tour wasn't even finished, Axl heard me playing this acoustic thing and we started rehearsing it with the band in Australia. It was also the first song where we went in the studio with Steven and realised that he wasn't really playing up to par."

Ah yes - Steven Adler . A childhood friend of Slash's, the drummer had taken a similar slide into junkiedom, but with the crucial difference that he could neither kick the habit nor maintain his chops while under the influence. Civil War, a tempo-shifting number with a double-time crescendo, was the final nail in his coffin.

"I did the demo tapes for Use Your Illusion," Adler told this writer in an interview with Classic Rock . "We'd go in, play the songs, go to the listening booth and say together, 'This is gonna be bigger than fuckin' Appetite'. And it would have been. But because of my fuck up, we didn't finish what we started."

Interview: Steven Adler & Matt Sorum, the Guns N' Roses story

With Matt Sorum bumping Adler from the drumstool, GN'R's last-gang-in-town image had its first hairline crack, but as a functioning band they were ready. The five men headed into A&M with producer Mike Clink to lay the foundations of the twin albums.

"It was fucking great," grins Slash. "I'd already spent time in pre-production on all that stuff, where we'd sorta play the song from one end to the other, so when we went in, I basically knew it. When I'm in the studio, I don't want to fuck around. I want to move on. I don't dwell on it too much. Before you know it, we were doing the basic tracks. We did 36 songs in 36 days."

If the music was ambitious, the process of making it was relatively straightforward. "We did what we always did," recalls the guitarist, "which was to go in the studio with the band in one room and just play the songs live, and that's what goes on the record. But because I don't like using headphones, I'd go in there and play along with the band just for the vibe and the energy, then I'd go back into the studio afterwards, get in the control room and do my guitar parts there."

Guitars, guitars, guitars

When you have 30 different songs, different approaches, written at different times, you want to paint each song a certain colour

Working on the guitar and vocal overdubs respectively, Slash and Axl took over Studios A and B at the Record Plant, where the guitarist sank his royalties into a less destructive habit than girls or drugs.

"That was the first time I had enough money to buy some new guitars," he says. "I was like a kid in a candy store, because there was so much material and I wanted all kinds of different guitar sounds, just whatever my vision was for that song. As tumultuous as it was to make those records, the one thing I really enjoyed was those three weeks doing guitars [and] just having a great time down at the Record Plant."

Was he consciously trying to depart from the Appetite tone? "Well, no," he counters. "You have to digest the concept of recording almost three records' worth of material! So it wasn't about anything other than making 30-plus songs sound interesting.

"With a band like Guns N' Roses when we first went into it, we had pretty much one direction. But when you have 30 different songs, different approaches, written at different times, you want to paint each song a certain colour. It called for a more intellectual approach."

I also had a '58 Flying V, I was using Strats, a few different acoustics… Very specific guitars for different sounds

Guitar hopping doesn't seem very 'Slash', we tell him. He's so associated with the Les Paul. "Yeah," he agrees. "I went from using one guitar to… God knows how many on those albums, back to one guitar again now. It was fun at the time and it worked then, but it's never worked for me since. I've found it's very unsatisfying to use multiple guitars trying to make a record…

"Actually," he continues, "when it came to Les Pauls on those records, I basically used my main one that I always play [a handmade Kris Derrig '59 replica with Seymour Duncan pickups].

"I didn't use, like, 10 different models, because at the end of the day a Les Paul sounds like a Les Paul. But I also had a '58 Flying V, I was using Strats, a few different acoustics… Very specific guitars for different sounds. For You Could Be Mine, I think I used a BC Rich Mockingbird."

All good fun, but if you squinted, there was trouble on the horizon. As Slash wrapped up his work and vacated the studio, Axl continued to polish his vocals and lay down those contentious synth parts (the horns in Live And Let Die and November Rain's strings are all synth-generated).

5 guitar tricks you can learn from Slash

Before long, the process stagnated and tempers started to fray. In the mixing stages, Bob Clearmountain was fired for a covert plan to use sampled drums and Sex Pistols producer Bill Price was brought in, with Slash mailing daily samples out to Axl's house in Malibu for his approval.

The obsession that would later define Chinese Democracy was already starting to warm up and so too was the level of alienation, with outside writers such as West Arkeen and Paul Huge complicating the royalty split.

"The problem was with Izzy," recalls Slash. "Because the album reached such gargantuan proportions as far as the production and complexity and the massive expectations [that] Izzy started to bow out. He was harder to find, because that was against his rock 'n' roll philosophy, which I totally agree with.

"We got through the basic tracks and I think that's what gave the albums such a natural feel. But when we started getting into the time it took to do overdubs and vocals, he sorta disappeared."

"When we started getting into overdubs and vocals, [Izzy] sorta disappeared..."

Sure enough, just a week after the Use Your Illusion albums dropped, Izzy announced he would no longer tour with Guns N' Roses, with his departure made official in November. His was the most significant name on a growing list of leavers; after Adler, manager Alan Niven had been fired earlier that year and Slash's autobiography ruefully notes the appointment of Doug Goldstein as "one of the catalysts" for the band's downfall.

To the bean counters at Geffen, everything was roses, with the Use Your Illusion albums storming to number one and two on the UK and US album charts, and the band selling out a residency at New York's Madison Square Garden by the year's end.

"Technique can become the main aspiration, but for me, it’s more about expressing some sort of emotional content"

None of that could disguise the sense that the rock 'n' roll guard was changing. In October, Nirvana 's Nevermind led grunge out of the shadows, with Kurt Cobain cast as Axl Rose's nemesis and Smells Like Teen Spirit doubling as the ultimate guitar-shop riff and a death knell to the old scene.

By contrast, starting with the limp 1993 covers album The Spaghetti Incident?, the world's most dangerous band simply melted away. Slash quit in 1996. McKagan and Sorum were out the following year.

As as we wrap up our interview, it's clear that he's enjoyed the flashback, exorcised a handful of demons, and remembered that, beneath the mayhem and the madness, this is music to be proud of. He gives a smoky chuckle: "There's a lot of good crap on those Illusion records…"

"I can't stand them": Slash reveals he isn't a fan of using in-ear monitors live, but he does like using guitar plugins in the studio

“A monstrous amplifier that transcends the boundaries of imagination”: Neural DSP launches upgraded Fortin Nameless Suite X plugin – your new digital solution for atom-smashing chug

“I have never experienced anything like that. It was like piano strings, and it was so far off the neck”: Lee Ritenour on the time BB King invited him to play Lucille and the guitar made him work for every note

Most Popular

You are using an outdated browser. Please upgrade your browser to improve your experience.

• Free Beer & Hot Wings
• Contest Rules
• Concerts & Events
• Locals Only
• Our Partners
• Advertise With Us
• Join Our Team
• How We Serve
• Online Public File

Slash’s Blues Festival Tour Adds Another Date

Slash the iconic, Grammy -winning artist and songwriter has added Salt Lake City, July 16 to his S.E.R.P.E.N.T. Festival Tour . The name stands for S olidarity, E ngagement, R estore, P eace, E quality N ’ T olerance.

The Guns N’ Roses guitarist commented: “It’s a great vehicle to bring people of all kinds together during these divisive times to have a fun and entertaining afternoon and evening of live music, away from all the chaos that’s going on.”

The Blues Festival lineup includes Warren Haynes Band , Keb’ ‘Mo , Eric Gales , Christone “Kingfish” Ingram , Robert Randolph , and several others.

The first show is July 5 in Bonner, Montana.

More Info Here

You are using an outdated browser. Please upgrade your browser to improve your experience.

• 96.3 Classic Rock
• Local Sports
• Closings & Cancellations
• Lost/Found Pets
• Community Calendar
• Entertainment Calendar
• National News
• National Sports
• Trading Post
• Police Blotter
• Advertise With Us
• Help Wanted
• Effingham Digital
• Contest Rules
• Community Outreach
• Cromwell Ag

Slash’s Blues Festival Tour Adds Another Date

Slash the iconic, Grammy -winning artist and songwriter has added Salt Lake City, July 16 to his S.E.R.P.E.N.T. Festival Tour . The name stands for S olidarity, E ngagement, R estore, P eace, E quality N ’ T olerance.

The Guns N’ Roses guitarist commented: “It’s a great vehicle to bring people of all kinds together during these divisive times to have a fun and entertaining afternoon and evening of live music, away from all the chaos that’s going on.”

The Blues Festival lineup includes Warren Haynes Band , Keb’ ‘Mo , Eric Gales , Christone “Kingfish” Ingram , Robert Randolph , and several others.

The first show is July 5 in Bonner, Montana.

More Info Here

Top Stories

The New Blues Album From Slash Orgy Of The Damned Available May 17th, 2024

• Pre-Order Now
• Brian Johnson
• Chris Stapleton
• Demi Lovato
• Paul Rodgers
• Gary Clark Jr.
• Billy Gibbons
• Chris Robinson

You are using an outdated browser. Please upgrade your browser to improve your experience.

Slash’s Blues Festival Tour Adds Another Date

Slash the iconic, Grammy -winning artist and songwriter has added Salt Lake City, July 16 to his S.E.R.P.E.N.T. Festival Tour . The name stands for S olidarity, E ngagement, R estore, P eace, E quality N ’ T olerance.

The Guns N’ Roses guitarist commented: “It’s a great vehicle to bring people of all kinds together during these divisive times to have a fun and entertaining afternoon and evening of live music, away from all the chaos that’s going on.”

The Blues Festival lineup includes Warren Haynes Band , Keb’ ‘Mo , Eric Gales , Christone “Kingfish” Ingram , Robert Randolph , and several others.

The first show is July 5 in Bonner, Montana.

More Info Here

Stories You May Have Missed

Listen Live

“It was very tense – he wasn’t at rehearsal... there's too much mystery around him”: Slash almost missed the I’m Just Ken performance at the Oscars

Speaking to Jimmy Kimmel, Ryan Gosling revealed that the Guns N' Roses guitarist barely made the show, and disappeared as quickly as he came

Ryan Gosling has revealed that Slash nearly didn’t make it to the showstopping I’m Just Ken performance at the Oscars earlier this year . 

Gosling’s technicolor showcase of his song from the Barbie movie – beaten to an Oscar by Billie Eilish’s track, What Was I Made For? , from the same film – stole the headlines. And not just for Gosling's charm – it also featured the electric guitar talents of Slash and Wolfgang Van Halen. 

However, guesting on Jimmy Kimmel Live! to promote his latest film, Fall Guy , Gosling revealed that – due to his gigging commitments on either side of Oscars night – Slash nearly didn’t make it. 

“We had to have Slash, but he’s an enigma, there’s too much mystery around him,” says Gosling. “It was very tense. He had a gig in China the night before and then one in Thailand the night after. So it was like, ‘Slash is never going to be able to be here.’ He wasn’t at rehearsal.”

Thankfully Slash, who has a blues solo album on the way, did make the performance, as part of a band that featured Wolfgang Van Halen – playing a pink prototype EVH SA-126 Wolfgang signature guitar – and super-producer Mark Ronson on bass guitar . 

“Suddenly, as I was walking into dress rehearsal, I saw a guitar case and it had a skull with a top hat on it,” the actor recalls. “And I knew that Slash had arrived. Then after the show, he was gone.”

Slash recently talked to Total Guitar to discuss why he used a Strat to cover Fleetwood Mac's Oh Well (which features the legendary Peter Green on guitar) on his forthcoming blues album, Orgy of the Damned . 

Get The Pick Newsletter

All the latest guitar news, interviews, lessons, reviews, deals and more, direct to your inbox!

The whole record has allowed the guitarist to give his Les Paul a well-deserved rest and try out some different guitars, with a Gibson 335 used for its lead single, Killing Floor .  

The Guns N' Roses man also recorded with Fender and Dumble amps, despite recently launching a signature, British-voiced Magnatone amp .  

• Slash's Orgy of the Damned  is set for a May 17 release via Gibson Records, and can be  preordered now .

Thank you for reading 5 articles this month**

Join now for unlimited access

US pricing $3.99 per month or $39.00 per year

UK pricing £2.99 per month or £29.00 per year 

Europe pricing €3.49 per month or €34.00 per year

*Read 5 free articles per month without a subscription

Prices from £2.99/$3.99/€3.49

A freelance writer with a penchant for music that gets weird, Phil is a regular contributor to Prog , Guitar World , and Total Guitar magazines and is especially keen on shining a light on unknown artists. Outside of the journalism realm, you can find him writing angular riffs in progressive metal band, Prognosis , in which he slings an 8-string Strandberg Boden Original, churning that low string through a variety of tunings. He's also a published author and is currently penning his debut novel which chucks fantasy, mythology and humanity into a great big melting pot.

“I was going for a sound where it’s like, ‘Is this person virtuosic, or do they totally suck?’ That’s kind of where I live”: St. Vincent on channeling Neil Young and embracing a less-is-more approach to guitar solos

“Nobody cares about new material anymore. They just want to hear the old stuff from guys like us”: Alex Lifeson says he’s jamming with Geddy Lee again – but they sound like a “really bad tribute band”

“I was trying to do the ultimate guitar solo”: Lou Reed once recorded a double album consisting solely of guitar feedback – but his label took it off sale after three weeks

Most Popular

Slash to Lead S.E.R.P.E.N.T. Blues Festival Tour Raising Money for Equal Rights Charities

By Kory Grow

Slash and some of his famous friends will celebrate the blues this summer on the Guns N’ Roses guitarist’s upcoming touring S.E.R.P.E.N.T. festival. In addition to Slash, who recently announced a new album , the lineup will variously include the Warren Haynes Band, Keb’ ‘Mo, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, Robert Randolph, Samantha Fish, Eric Gales, ZZ Ward, Jackie Venson, and Larkin Poe, depending on the night.

The tour, which kicks off in Montana in July, will help raise money to fight racism and fight for civil rights. The titular acronym stands for Solidarity, Engagement, Restore, Peace, Equality, N’ Tolerance. Tickets go on sale Friday at 10 a.m. local time. Full details are on the tour’s website .

The charities Slash is working with for the tour include the Equal Justice Initiative , which focuses on criminal justice reform, Know Your Rights Camp , which provides “education, self-empowerment, [and] mass-mobilization” resources to Black and Brown people; the Greenlining Institute , which provides support to communities of color, and War Child , which helps children affected by war. He will donate a portion of sales to them with help from the Plus1 organization , which connects artists to social justice initiatives.

Editor’s picks

Every awful thing trump has promised to do in a second term, the 250 greatest guitarists of all time, the 500 greatest albums of all time, the 50 worst decisions in movie history.

“I just think that [this album] is coming from a different place [than usual],” Slash told Rolling Stone in an interview. “Looking back on it, there was definitely a laidback, spontaneous approach to what I was doing. There was definitely a difference-making this record compared to some of the other stuff that I’ve done.”

The Results Are In: Kendrick Lamar Won the Great Rap War

Trump posts — then deletes — rant about stormy daniels testifying, everything that's happened in the drake-kendrick beef, hear the journey tune steve perry re-recorded with steve lukather's son.

* Warren Haynes Band, Samantha Fish, and Eric Gales ** Keb’ ‘Mo, Samantha Fish, and Jackie Venson *** Keb’ ‘Mo, ZZ Ward, and Jackie Venson **** Keb’ ‘Mo, ZZ Ward, and Robert Randolph ***** ZZ Ward and Robert Randolph ****** Larkin Poe, ZZ Ward, and Robert Randolph ******* Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, ZZ Ward, and Robert Randolph

South by Southwest Expands to London

• Across the Pond
• By Charisma Madarang

50 Cent Sues Daphne Joy Over 'Defamatory' Rape Claim

• Courts and Crime
• By Nancy Dillon

Sierra Ferrell, Tyler Childers Lead 2024 Americana Honors & Awards Nominees

• Americana Honors
• By Joseph Hudak

Megan Thee Stallion Will Keep Hip-Hop Python Era Going With New Single 'Boa'

• Hip-Hop Python
• By Larisha Paul

Catfish and the Bottlemen Are Coming Back Stateside

• comeback tour
• By Maya Georgi

Most Popular

Victoria justice shot 'first ever sex scene' on day one of filming new movie and thought: 'really we're gonna schedule this for the first day', king charles’ latest appearance has body language experts predicting a 'problem' in future events, jerry seinfeld's 'unfrosted' divides critics: "one of decade's worst movies", ancient egyptian pyramids, sphinx close to public for tech billionaire's lavish wedding, you might also like, bollywood star kriti sanon on turning producer with netflix film, ‘crew’ success and playing a robot (exclusive), exclusive: brendan hoffman forms p180 firm with caastle’s christine hunsicker; invests in elyse walker, the best yoga mats for any practice, according to instructors, south by southwest to expand with sxsw london edition in june 2025, world’s 50 most valuable soccer clubs 2024 rankings.

Rolling Stone is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2024 Rolling Stone, LLC. All rights reserved.

Verify it's you

Please log in.

Gilby Clarke is selling his Guns N’ Roses, Slash’s Snakepit and Heart gear on Reverb

G ilby Clarke has launched a Reverb store featuring a “cache of beautiful gear the guitarist used in the studio and on tour with Guns N' Roses, Heart, and more.”

The guitarist – who replaced Izzy Stradlin in GNR during the Use Your Illusion tour in 1991 – has listed over 60 items, including mint condition guitars, guitar amps , and stomped-on effects pedals.

Two standout listings include a custom-made ESP Telecaster-style guitar, modeled after Clarke's much-loved '68 Telecaster , and a pristine condition 1975 Gretsch White Falcon. Notably, the ESP was used by Clarke during his Guns N’ Roses and Slash's Snakepit days, and also starred in the former's performances of Wild Horses .

There's another Snakepit axe in the form of an ESP Custom Shop Hybrid II that Clarke played on the Late Show with David Letterman . It features a bridge humbucker and a “typical Fender-style” neck pickup. 

“It's an interesting combo,” says the listing, “but it sounds great.”

There are several Fender amps listed, including a Deluxe combo and multiple Bassman heads, though the one that Clarke used during Heart's '03 tour has already sold. 

18 pedals had also been put up for sale, but they have already been sold. The list included a Dunlop 535Q Cry Baby, an Electro-Harmonix Screaming Bird, and a Coffin Case BDFX-1 Blood Drive “used on many recordings in Gilby's studio.” 

If blowing your life savings on a '70s Thinline Tele isn't your bag, cheaper listings still available include a Kustom '72 Coupe ($690) – because who doesn't want an amp on wheels?! – and a signed poster ($400).

Check out the full listings over on Reverb . 

Kiko Loureiro also recently opened up a Reverb store to sell off a load of his Megadeth equipment.

SLASH Wants To Record New Full-Length Album With GUNS N' ROSES

During an appearance earlier today (Wednesday, October 19) on SiriusXM 's "Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk" show, Slash was asked about GUNS N' ROSES ' plans for new music in the coming months. He said: "I wanna go in and cut a whole brand new record at some point, probably sooner than later. But other than that, we have stuff that we've still got to come out. So that's gonna be coming out piecemeal over the next — I don't know — over the next few months or something like that. So that's basically it. We have one more tour left to do next summer, and then that'll free us up to be able to go in and work on a new record."

GUNS N' ROSES ' most recent release was a four-song EP, "Hard Skool" , which came out in February. The effort, which was exclusive to the GUNS N' ROSES ' official store, contained the two new songs the band released last year — the title track and "Absurd" (stylized as "ABSUЯD" ) — as well as live versions of "Don't Cry" and "You're Crazy" .

In September 2021, the guitarist and his bandmates dropped "Hard Skool" , which came more than a month after their performance and subsequent official release of "Absurd" , a reworking of GUNS N' ROSES previously unreleased "Silkworms" .

According to Slash , several other older GUNS N' ROSES tracks have also been reworked during the pandemic. "There's a handful of those songs that we actually fixed up and did when we were in lockdown," he explained to "Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk" . "So those have yet to be released. So those are gonna come out. They're really good, too. So I'm excited for those. We're just gonna put out like one or two songs, and another one or two songs. And I think that's gonna be pretty much all of 'em. I'm not sure exactly how many we did in total."

When host Eddie Trunk noted that "Hard Skool" in particular was a strong cut, Slash said: "These other ones, they don't have the same kind of amount of history, 'cause I know 'Hard Skool' seriously has… [it] goes way back. But there's a couple of epic ones coming out, so I'm excited about that."

If and when it happens, the new GUNS N' ROSES studio album will be the first under the GUNS banner since "Chinese Democracy" and the first to feature Slash , singer Axl Rose and bassist Duff McKagan since 1993.

Slash previously spoke about "Hard Skool" , one of the first two songs he recorded with GUNS N' ROSES in more than 25 years, this past February in an interview with Rolling Stone . At the time he said: " 'Hard Skool' , in essence, was a completed song when I was first introduced to it. And Duff and I went in and redid the bass and the guitars. It's a simple song, so it didn't take a hell of a lot of thought and analysis. I think it was a lot of fun just because it was part and parcel of a bunch of stuff that we were working on that was all sort of new — at least to Duff and I — so we had a good time."

In October 2021, Slash told Audacy Check In host Remy Maxwell that GUNS N' ROSES had yet to begin writing new material after releasing the two reworked songs from the "Chinese Democracy" -era sessions.

"As far as new GUNS is concerned, we haven't even gotten to that point of really in earnest sitting down and writing," Slash said. "We've been doing a lot of material that's been sort of sitting around for a while. So that will be a whole focused endeavor unto itself."

As for how "Hard Skool" and "Absurd" came about, Slash said: "They both have a lot of history. What happened was Axl has all these songs that he recorded at some point along the way. And so Duff and I went in and re-did them, basically… Like, I wrote my own kind of parts to what else is going on, and [we] just sort of took the drums and re-did everything else."

Written by Rose and co-produced by Rose and Caram Costanzo , "Hard Skool" , which had the working title "Jackie Chan" , was originally recorded during GN'R 's "Chinese Democracy" era but was eventually omitted from that album. Short clips of the song were later posted online and a full version was leaked in August 2019.

On "Hard Skool" , Axl sings: "But you had to play it cool, had to do it your way/Had to be a fool, had to throw it all away/Too hard school and you thought you were here to stay/ If that were true, it wouldn't matter anyway."

"Absurd" came out on August 6, 2021, three days after GUNS N' ROSES performed the tune live for the first time during its concert at Boston's Fenway Park.

GUNS N' ROSES last performed "Silkworms" , which was also reportedly written during the "Chinese Democracy" sessions, in 2001.

Photo credit: Katarina Benzova

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).