Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash has opened up about the internal mechanisms that led to the band’s infamous implosion in the 1990s, revealing in a new Guitar World interview that his legendary feud with Axl Rose was largely manufactured by outside forces.
Slash, who officially left the group in 1996, explained that the tension wasn’t a simple personality clash, but a deliberate strategy by their representation.
“I think a lot of the stuff that was an issue for Guns in the early days – especially in the Nineties – had to do with management issues and stuff that pitted me and Axl against each other,” Slash stated in the interview. “And it worked; it definitely worked.”
The guitarist explained that the removal of this “element” is precisely why the reunited band has been so successful and stable since 2016. “But without that element, he and I get along great,” Slash said. He also credited personal growth and maturity for the change. “…maybe the lack of massive substance abuse on my part. [Laughs]… It’s a perfect storm of a lot of things.”
Slash also revealed that the massive, decadelong “Not in This Lifetime” tour was never the original plan. The reunion began with a much smaller goal: playing a single festival.
“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 said. Before that could happen, he and Rose had to clear the air after nearly 20 years of animosity. “We… 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.’”
The tour, which “just kept going,” famously did not include original rhythm guitarist Izzy Stradlin. Slash confirmed that Stradlin‘s return was considered, but ultimately the chemistry with current guitarist Richard Fortus was the right fit.
“We did toy with the idea of Izzy coming back,” Slash admitted, “but Richard was there that first day we started rehearsals… I felt really at ease and comfortable with Richard staying in when Izzy didn’t work out.”
Slash also questioned how Stradlin would have fit in after so much time away. “We were all really eager to get better and just keep evolving,” he said. “But I don’t know where Izzy would have fallen in at that time… I don’t know what he’s been up to on a musical level.”
As for a long-awaited new studio album, Slash confirmed the band has “so much material” but remains characteristically elusive, citing the band’s chaotic nature.
“It’s a matter of having the discipline to sit down and f**king get into it,” he said. “But the thing with Guns is, in my experience, you can never plan ahead… It just spontaneously happens through some sort of inspiration that triggers it… I know it’s coming because everybody is thinking about it. It’ll just happen when it happens.”
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