“It’s Surreal”: Slash Talks About Being Back in Guns N’ Roses
Slash gave his first interview since teaming back up with Axl Rose and Duff McKagan for Guns N’ Roses’ “Not in This Lifetime” tour, and you can hear it below.
Slash spoke with Aerosmith drummer Joey Kramer on WZLX radio and said everything is going well, though it still feels “surreal” to be back in Guns N’ Roses. The group’s tour kicked off on June 23 at Ford Field in Detroit, and features classic lineup members Slash, bassist McKagan and Rose backed by drummer Frank Ferrer, guitarist Richard Fortus, keyboardist Dizzy Reed and new second keyboardist Melissa Reese.
“All the shows have been great that we’ve done so far,” Slash says. “Last night was only our third show on this leg and then we did seven shows prior to that.”
Kramer asked if everyone in the group is “playing nice.” Slash said, “Everybody’s getting along and everybody’s playing great, and the shows have been awesome.”
As for reuniting with his former bandmates, Slash says, “We all were pretty positive that that would never happen, so it’s still sort of blowing our minds. It seems so surreal to me, you know. But everybody’s really getting along great and I think everybody’s come a long way, and it’s all cool.”
After the Guns N’ Roses tour wraps up in August, Rose will head back out on the road with AC/DC to complete a handful of makeup dates the band was unable to fulfill last March when singer Brian Johnson was forced to quit touring due to his hearing problems.
You can hear Slash’s interview below. Remaining dates for the Guns N’ Roses tour are at bottom.
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Christopher Scapelliti is editor-in-chief of Guitar Player magazine, the world’s longest-running guitar magazine, founded in 1967. In his extensive career, he has authored in-depth interviews with such guitarists as Pete Townshend, Slash, Billy Corgan, Jack White, Elvis Costello and Todd Rundgren, and audio professionals including Beatles engineers Geoff Emerick and Ken Scott. He is the co-author of Guitar Aficionado: The Collections: The Most Famous, Rare, and Valuable Guitars in the World, a founding editor of Guitar Aficionado magazine, and a former editor with Guitar World, Guitar for the Practicing Musician and Maximum Guitar. Apart from guitars, he maintains a collection of more than 30 vintage analog synthesizers.
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