SLASH Says GUNS N' ROSES Reunion Question Is 'Dumb' And 'Annoying'

Legendary guitarist Slash was asked in a recent interview with the Italian newspaper La Repubblica if he minds constantly still getting questions about his former band GUNS N' ROSES even though he hasn't been in the group for almost twenty years.

"It doesn't necessarily annoy me," he responded. "I mean, the reunion question annoys me because no one has done anything about trying to get a reunion… None of the guys in the band have gone public and said there was gonna be a reunion or anything like that, and it's just for lack of imagination to ask me this dumb question which they know what the answer is."

He continued: "I don't mind GUNS N' ROSES questions, but I… And the other thing that I can't stand is when people are looking for, sort of, a negative response so that they can use it for making press seem more interesting or whatever."

Slash was asked about the possibility of a reunion of the classic GUNS N' ROSES lineup on the May 7 edition of "CBS This Morning" and gave a somewhat surprising answer. He replied: "I've got to be careful what I say there. I mean, if everybody wanted to do it and do it for the right reasons, I think the fans would love it. I think it might be fun at some point to try and do that."

Asked what the "right reasons" might be, Slash said: "I mean, that's a hard one. That just starts to get into a whole complex thing... It's really between the guys in the band." But pressed on whether he thought it was likely, Slash said, "Never say never."

Slash told The Pulse Of Radio a while back that the band's induction into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame three years ago — at which he performed along with GUNS bassist Duff McKagan, drummers Steven Adler and Matt Sorum, and others — gave him a sense of closure about the band. He said: "I never, in however many years it's been, ever planned or thought that there was gonna be any reunion. But now we've played the one gig as close to a reunion as it will ever get and done with it, and it did have… There was a definite feeling of closure and, you know, something that, when I got on the plane the next morning, it was like I never have to deal with that again."

Addressing the long-running feud between him and singer Axl Rose that many see as the main stumbling block to a reunion, Slash said, "We haven't really talked in a long time, but a lot of the tension that you were talking about has dissipated. We don't have all those issues anymore. It's not a lot of controversy. It's something that is more perpetuated by the media, more than anything."

Axl famously called Slash a "cancer" in a 2009 interview, saying that the chances of him and Slash getting onstage together at any point in the future were next to impossible.

Slash and Axl have reportedly not spoken since Slash left the band 19 years ago. Axl and guitarist Izzy Stradlin did not attend the Hall Of Fame induction.