SLASH Talks VAN HALEN, Next Album, COREY TAYLOR Rumors And RONNIE JAMES DIO (Audio)

On May 17, Tom Russell of U.K.'s Rock Radio conducted an interview with legendary guitarist Slash (VELVET REVOLVER, GUNS N' ROSES). You can now listen to the chat using the audio player below. A couple of excerpts follow.

On VAN HALEN:

Slash: "They're finishing [up their new album right now], actually. I don't wanna speak on their behalf, but one of the guys that works for us works for VAN HALEN in the studio and he told me that they're in the mixing stages."

On his current touring band and next solo album:

Slash: "We have the same exact band [as the one that was on tour last year], with Myles [Kennedy of ALTER BRIDGE] on vocals. The band is so great and Myles is one of the most fantastic singers I've ever worked with or even seen or heard; he is amazing. So we are actually knee-deep in writing for the next record. We're all going to perform on it. It's gonna be really, really good; the material we have is awesome."

"The turnaround between records is a little slow because weve been touring so much, but [the next album] will come out next year."

"The thought [of debuting some of the new tracks on tour this summer] has crossed my mind, so if there's something that's developed enough to the point where we can pull that off, then we will, 'cause I think that'd be a cool thing to do. But we haven't had a chance to actually go into a studio and rehearse this stuff. Lately it's just been a lot of writing, and I'll send a copy of something I wrote to Myles and he writes lyrics to it, but we haven't gotten in as a band and started doing pre-production yet."

On the rumor that SLIPKNOT/STONE SOUR frontman Corey Taylor was being seriously considered for the singer position in VELVET REVOLVER:

Slash: "There is a lot of controversy over this one. Corey came down and we had kept it pretty quiet and then word got out that we had worked with him. And we did write some songs with him and made demos and all that kind of stuff, but it just didn't end up working out. But then word got out about him coming down way after the fact. So then it became this new rumor that was six months behind schedule. But it didn't end up working out."

On the one-year anniversary of Ronnie James Dio's death:

Slash: "Ronnie was awesome, one of my favorite singers of all time. It only seems like yesterday [that he died]. I never worked with him but we both got our hands in the [Hollywood] RockWalk in L.A. at the same time. And that was the first time we ever met. He was a true gentleman one of the nicest, unassuming rock stars you'll ever meet."

Interview (audio):