Slash: 'I was as sceptical as anybody about Axl Rose fronting AC/DC'
Slash says he was initially “as sceptical as anybody” about his Guns N’ Roses bandmate Axl Rose fronting AC/DC in 2016.
Axl, of course, performed vocals on the final European and North American legs of AC/DC’s Rock or Bust World Tour in 2016 when Brian Johnson was ordered by doctors to quit touring or risk going deaf.
Commenting on Axl fronting AC/DC, Slash said: “The Axl-doing-AC/DC thing. I went and checked that out and it was awesome. I was probably as sceptical as anybody because of the iconic status of the band, and he pulled it off and it was great.”
Asked by the Los Angeles Times if there was a dream band he’d personally like to perform with, Slash responded: “I’m probably a little bit more intimidated about the idea of having to fill someone's shoes – someone I look up to or had a big influence on me.
“If I was going to get that phone call, I'd want to do it in a band that no one would expect me to be in.”
In his wide-ranging interview in Issue 10 on Planet Rock Magazine, we asked Slash whether he plans to record his first album with Gun N’ Roses since "The Spaghetti Incident?" quarter of a century ago.
He replied: “I couldn’t tell you right now whether there’s gonna be a record or not. I think in everybody’s heart of hearts we want to do a record, but we’ve been working so hard on the road that we haven’t really had the chance to sit down and focus on new material or anything like that.”
Describing the chemistry within the Guns N’ Roses camp as “amazingly harmonious”, Slash says that they didn’t expect their reunion to last so long.
“We have another leg of the tour to do in November. So, yeah!,” Slash said. “One thing I can tell you is that when we started this, we didn’t have any aspirations to go beyond two shows for Coachella, plus the warm-up shows at the Troubadour (in Los Angeles) and in Vegas (the T-Mobile Arena).
“I didn’t know, really, what was going to happen; it was very Guns N’ Roses-esque in that manner. And then we went and did it and it was just a f***ing blast. But Axl breaking his leg on the first show was just so us!”
You can read our full interview with Slash in Planet Rock Magazine, which is on sale now, where he also talks about being recognised by The Queen, battling his addictions, Slash ft. Myles Kennedy & The Conspirators’ new album ‘Living The Dream’ and more.
ORDER ISSUE 10 OF PLANET ROCK MAGAZINE ONLINE HERE