“AVALON”
It’s just a good up-tempo track. We have all these different songs to choose from at this point, but this one works really well as the opener.
“GHOST”
It’s one of the songs off my first solo record [2010’s Slash] that people really identify with. Plus, Myles [Kennedy] likes singing it because it’s right in his wheelhouse, vocal range-wise. We actually sound check with this one because it’s a really easy track for him. And the audiences love it, too. They’re all familiar with it.
“MY ANTIDOTE”
It’s the first new one we play from Living the Dream [which had not yet been released at the time of this show]. I can’t remember the exact origins of this one. But I do know there was this whole scratching thing I did with my guitar that just caught my ear when we were fucking around. And from there it turned into a cool little song.
“SERVE YOU RIGHT”
Another Living the Dream track. It’s got a pretty effective groove, and you can see people lock into it right away — which is cool, because they’ve never heard it before!
“MIND YOUR MANNERS”
It’s a good live song, because it’s just relentless. In general, I do the thing you’re not supposed to do on tour, which is that I’ll play new songs all night long. I don’t have any fear about that. But I do watch to see the reaction, just to see if everybody looks like they’re feeling it. And overall the new stuff has been going over pretty well. You couldn’t ask for it to go any better.
“ROCKET QUEEN”
It’s the only Guns song we’re doing. We could do something like “Welcome to the Jungle,” but, I don’t know, that’s a Guns N’ Roses thing. “Rocket Queen” is one of those riffs that’s very indicative of me. It’s not a hit, but everybody knows it. Plus, I have a solo [spot] in it, so it keeps me from having to do another one.
“STARLIGHT”
This was the first track I ever did with Myles. I sent him the music and he wrote the lyrics. I had never met him before, and I had never heard him sing before. But I had heard a lot about him. So I sent him this music, and a few days later he emailed it back to me, and I was all apprehensive about clicking on the email because I didn’t know what to expect. But it was amazing. I called my producer, Eric Valentine, and I said, “Is this really good, or is it just me?” And he said, “No, this is great!” So we flew Myles to L.A. to record the studio version of the song, and that kickstarted this whole thing.
