SMELL THE ROSES

After being back in GN'R for almost a decade, Slash is enjoying his time with the band he conquered the world with. “We all get along really well, and we have a good time doing what we do,” he says – and drops hints about a new album.

- Interview: Andrew Daly

Saul ‘Slash’ Hudson is one of the most fortunate men in rock. Having quit Guns N’ Roses in 1996 when they were on top of the world, he returned in 2016 for the ultimate victory lap, making peace with frontman Axl Rose, playing guitar at the peak of his powers. From the outside, of course, Slash’s return to GN’R seemed inevitable. Behind the scenes, though, he and Axl barely spoke after the guitarist left the band, let alone thought about teaming up to take on the world again. And even when he did agree to cozy up alongside Axl again, he didn’t exactly have the long haul in mind.

“It sounds crazy, but when I first got involved again it was just to do a couple of shows, one of which was Coachella,” Slash says. “We'd been getting these offers to do that event for years, so Axl and I got together, sat down and hashed out a lot of stuff that had built up over the years. That’s when he said: ‘We get these offers to do Coachella. Do you want to do it?’ I said: ‘Yeah, that would be fun.’”

So much fun, in fact, that Slash is still on board nine years later. But this isn’t your parents’ Guns N’ Roses; there are no more hardcore drugs, no more binge-drinking benders, no more infighting - factors that tore the band apart in the first place.

“That’s the best way to put it,” Slash says. “But other than changes in the way things were handled back in the day, it’s just maturing... and maybe the lack of massive substance abuse on my part [laughs]. I can’t speak on everybody else’s behalf, but all those things play into it. It’s a perfect storm of a lot of things.