SLASH: GUNS N' ROSES Recording Process Has 'Always Been A Democracy'

In a new interview with Pablo of the Minneapolis, Minnesota radio station 93X, Slash was asked if there is going to be a new GUNS N' ROSES album where he, bassist Duff McKagan and singer Axl Rose get into a studio and write an entire collection of fresh material. The guitarist responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Yeah, that's the thing. We haven't spent the time sort of compiling everything and narrowing it down or any of that yet. And so that's probably what — that's gonna be a lot of work. That's gonna be the hardest part, is trying to figure out what's what. And I think we're starting to get to that point where we're gonna actually do that.

"GUNS records are something that just happen," Slash explained. "And when it's happening, it happens really fast. But getting to that point of where we all sit down and focus on 'this is what we're doing 'has always been the hardest part. It just happens when it happens. But there's a lot of material to work with when it does."

Asked if everyone has a voice in the recording process with GUNS N' ROSES, Slash said: "Yeah, it's always been a democracy like that. It's always been really, really collaborative — from every song, all the way back to the very, very beginning, before [GUNS N' ROSES' debut album] 'Appetite [For Destruction]'. Everything has always been very collaborative, which is really cool because it gives every song — I don't know what the right word for it is, but you have a lot of interesting things going on in a song from different people in the band that come up with it."

Last month, Slash told longtime radio host Abe Kanan of Audacy that he, McKagan and Rose had "already written a ton of shit" for a possible new GUNS N' ROSES album. "So we just have to get together and actually get into the process of going through all the material and figuring out what the songs are gonna be and recording them and all that kind of shit," he explained. "And so that's something that's pending. It's probably gonna happen sooner than later, because we've gotten all this other stuff out and we've been touring for pretty much the better part of the decade. And so we've been wanting to do this. It's just a matter of buckling down. When is that gonna happen, where we're, like, 'Okay, no other distractions. We're just gonna do this.' Anyway. But it's coming."

Slash also talked about the band's recently released two new songs called "Atlas" and "Nothin'". When they were made available in December, the tracks marked the first new GN'R music since the 2023 singles "The General" and "Perhaps". Both "Atlas" and "Nothin'" were produced by Rose and Caram Costanzo (Janet Jackson, RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE); Costanzo co-produced GUNS N' ROSES' latest album, 2008's "Chinese Democracy", alongside Rose. Asked if it's true that he and Duff were instrumental in reworking some of those songs which were originally written before they rejoined the band, Slash said: "Well, there was a conversation that we had at some point after we got back together. Axl had a bunch of unreleased material, and so we listened to it. We said, 'We could redo the bass and the guitars for this song and this song,' and 'this one would be cool.' And we ended up doing that over time. We did a couple songs to begin with. I think 'Hard Skool' and 'Absurd' were the first two that we did, and then a couple of more after that. And 'Nothin'' and 'Atlas' were the last two songs that we did; everything's been done, and these are the last two that were left over. And, yeah, it's been fun, because they're all really cool songs. And it's not like writing it from its inception, but I still have to write stuff to go over the changes and everything. So it's a fun kind of a project for me — and I think for Duff too, just to come up with new ideas for something that's been pre-recorded."

Earlier in January, Slash told Sylvia Alvarado of the Las Vegas radio station KOMP 92.3 about "Atlas" and "Nothin'": "It's good to have a couple of songs that we're promoting and then a tour that's really a long tour. It's gonna go from the end of March until the end of December. And it's exciting, 'cause we're coming back to the U.S., which is the first time we've been in the U.S. in a while."

Asked if releasing standalone singles is how GUNS N' ROSES plans to make new music available going forward or if there are still plans to release a new full-length album, Slash said: "I think in this instance it's what we're doing, because we only re-recorded those songs — like a couple of songs here, a couple of songs there. These were the last two that are left to do, and we actually did them not even back to back. 'Nothin'' was one, and 'Atlas' was at a different time, but they hadn't been released yet. So, we're releasing 'em now. And then there's really no more of that sort of old rehash stuff to release. But I think what we're gonna do, we're gonna take all those songs and put them on something and release that as a package. And then the next record that we're gonna do is gonna be all new original stuff, and that'll be an actual album."

Slash added: "It's a really weird time for especially rock and roll and how it works in this industry and how it works for fans. I think most die-hard rock and roll fans would like to get an album and they love vinyl, but they would want a package of songs. But some of the younger kids who are sort of raised in this new fancy kind of digital era that we're in don't know about albums, really, being released as a whole. So it's a strange time. It's harder to navigate. But to me, it's a no-brainer. Make a record. You can do all the digital stuff in any configuration you want. But make sure that there's an album. Yeah."

Regarding the fact that all the recently released GUNS N' ROSES songs had existed in the GUNS sphere in the past, with "Atlas" having once gone under the working title "Atlas Shrugged", Slash said: "Well, we took a bunch of material that Axl had, and we all sat down and listened to it. And so we sort of picked out all the different songs that we wanted to do and what Axl wanted to do. And we just sort of took all the guitars and the bass off and redid it. And it was fun. And it was the kind of thing where we did one song at a time. We did one or maybe two in the same week. But for the most part it was spread out over a long period of time. So it was just something fun to do and go, 'Okay, what's gonna be my approach for it?' So each one of 'em has been an interesting sort of little project."

On the topic of what his approach was for recording "Atlas" and "Nothin'", Slash said: "'Atlas' has some really cool chord changes and time signatures, so that was interesting in itself. And then coming up with the right voicings for that. With 'Nothin'', it was a very spontaneous, very sort of simple, bare-bones approach. Not much thought went into it at all. It was just improvising."

Slash went on to say that he is looking forward to performing "Atlas" and "Nothin'" when GUNS N' ROSES returns to the road in March.

"Well, we were gonna [play] 'em [live] both — I guess it was a couple of years ago, or a little over a year ago," he explained. "And we were gonna do 'em both, and we actually rehearsed them and they sound great live and it was really fun. But then we decided that we didn't know when we were gonna release these songs and we didn't end up releasing them then. So we had to take them out of the set and wait. So we're excited to go to play 'em now finally the songs are released."

"Nothin'" and "Atlas" find GUNS N' ROSES showcasing two different sides of the band's personality. "Atlas" is GN'R in full surging rock mode, while "Nothin'" grows more introspective over floaty keys and an emotive guitar.

GUNS N' ROSES released a four-song EP, "Hard Skool", in February 2022. The effort, which was exclusive to the GUNS N' ROSES' official store, contained the two new songs the band released in 2021 — the title track and "Absurd" — as well as live versions of "Don't Cry" and "You're Crazy".

The legendary hard rock outfit has not released a full-length effort since "Chinese Democracy", which included only Rose from the band's classic lineup. McKagan and Slash reunited with Axl in 2016 and have since released several standalone singles — "Absurd" (stylized as "ABSUЯD"),"Hard Skool", "Perhaps" and "The General" — but have not made any announcements about another LP.

If and when it happens, the new GUNS N' ROSES studio album will be the first under the GUNS banner since "Chinese Democracy" and the first to feature Slash, Rose and McKagan since 1993.

Written by Rose and co-produced by Rose and Caram Costanzo, "Hard Skool", which had the working title "Jackie Chan", was originally recorded during GN'R's "Chinese Democracy" era but was eventually omitted from that album. Short clips of the song were later posted online and a full version was leaked in August 2019.

"Absurd" came out on August 6, 2021, three days after GUNS N' ROSES performed the tune live for the first time during its concert at Boston's Fenway Park.

GUNS N' ROSES last performed "Silkworms", which was also reportedly written during the "Chinese Democracy" sessions, in 2001.

"The General" was the B-side of GUNS N' ROSES' limited-edition seven-inch vinyl single titled "Perhaps", which was made available for pre-order in August 2023.

Like "Perhaps", "Hard Skool" and "Absurd", "The General" was written during the sessions for the "Chinese Democracy" album. It was previously talked about by ex-GN'R drummer Bryan "Brain" Mantia, who reportedly wrote some of the song's music and gave it its title, and former SKID ROW singer Sebastian Bach.

GUNS N' ROSES will hit the road again in the spring and summer 2026. This tour will see GUNS N' ROSES visit Mexico and Brazil, before headlining additional European markets, as well as stadiums across the U.S. and Canada. The upcoming run includes a special performance at Los Angeles's Rose Bowl, marking a historic return to the venue for the first time in over 30 years.

GUNS N' ROSES are Axl Rose (vocals, keyboards),Duff McKagan (bass),Slash (lead guitar),Dizzy Reed (keyboard),Richard Fortus (rhythm guitar),Isaac Carpenter (drums) and Melissa Reese (keyboard).