New Slash interview for USA Today (GNR new album, Axl and Living The Dream)

[GNRfanMILO]

https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/music/2018/09/20/slash-living-dream-guns-n-roses-and-axl-rose-feud/1356821002/

Slash on going solo, new Guns N' Roses and why that Axl Rose feud almost didn't end

Slash discusses new album 'Living the Dream'

USA TODAY reporter Patrick Ryan sat down with legendary guitarist Slash to discuss his new album, "Living the Dream" and more.

 

No, another Guns N' Roses album is not on the way – at least not yet. 

"It's something that we would love to do," says lead guitarist Slash, who after two decades of strife with frontman Axl Rose, reunited with the group in 2016 for an ongoing reunion tour. "We just need to come together and start working that out, so it could definitely happen." 

In the meantime, the 53-year-old rocker, whose real name is Saul Hudson, is gearing up for the release of "Living the Dream," out Friday, his third album with singer-songwriter Myles Kennedy and band The Conspirators. Largely written in 2014 and 2015 prior to the GNR reunion, and recorded this past spring, the album is "leaner" and "more uptempo," he says, than his previous studio effort, "World on Fire," which was "more densely populated with random riffs and had a lot going on." 

———————

Slash sat down with USA TODAY for a wide-ranging chat about the new music, the current state of mainstream rock, and the phone call that ended his feud with Rose. 

Question: What's the significance of the title, "Living the Dream?"

Slash: It was just a tongue-in-cheek remark about domestic and global politics, but people have been looking into it as being something about what it is that I do. Which it applies, but that's not where it came from. 

Q: Was any of the new music inspired by what's going on in the news? 

Slash: This one is actually less political than the last one. It's more about personal experiences for Myles and a couple shared experiences, but not so much politics. But I did have to say something, so I titled the record the way I did.

Q: "Civil War" is arguably GNR's most political song. What do you remember about writing and recording that with Axl? 

Slash: That was something I just came up with on acoustic and an idea that Axl had, and the two just came together. It’ll be interesting to see what's on the next Guns N' Roses record if we get around to doing that. I'm not wanting to be a political advocate myself, but it'd be interesting to see what Axl comes up with. He definitely is more outspoken in that area.

Q: For the first time this past year, R&B/hip-hop overtook rock as the most popular genre in terms of total consumption. How do you feel about the state of the genre? 

Slash: Rock isn't mainstream anymore, and in some ways, I like that. It harks back to when rock 'n' roll was more of an underground concept, when people were speaking about things that they weren't necessarily comfortable saying in the mainstream arena. As far as hip-hop is concerned, it's become so generic at this point. It's definitely taken on a very top-40 thing. 

Q: Who are some of your favorite rock acts right now? 

Slash: I love Foo Fighters. My favorite band consistently has been Queens of the Stone Age because they always put out cool, interesting records. But I still listen to a lot of old stuff because the rock 'n' roll that turned me on as a kid, not too much of it exists.

Q: I understand that it was Axl who reached out to you a few years ago, after a couple decades of not speaking. Was that cathartic? 

Slash: It was nice that it happened. I don't know if I would have had the wherewithal to call him, just because I'm introverted and it might have been hard for me. Not during that initial phone call, but after that, it was really good to be able to get rid of some of the negative baggage that we'd been carrying around for a long time. It'd been 20 years of not talking and letting this bad blood continue to be perpetuated by the media. It turned into something way bigger than what was really going on, so it was good to get past that.

Q: I understand that it was Axl who reached out to you a few years ago, after a couple decades of not speaking. Was that cathartic? 

Slash: It was nice that it happened. I don't know if I would have had the wherewithal to call him, just because I'm introverted and it might have been hard for me. Not during that initial phone call, but after that, it was really good to be able to get rid of some of the negative baggage that we'd been carrying around for a long time. It'd been 20 years of not talking and letting this bad blood continue to be perpetuated by the media. It turned into something way bigger than what was really going on, so it was good to get past that.

 

 

Edited September 20, 2018 by GNRfanMILO

[Nick85]

Slash seems cautiously optimistic about recording with GNR sometime next year.  There's even a hint in his recent comments that he may know something we don't (studio time scheduled already?).  Hope there ends up being something to it!

Edited September 20, 2018 by sofine11
typo

[IncitingChaos]

I would say based on his comments that he’s quietly nudging Axl towards talking about recording together. He knows Axl is reading each interview he does and so I think he’s trying to throw the ball into Axl’s court. 

[janrichmond]

52 minutes ago, GNRfanMILO said:

It’ll be interesting to see what's on the next Guns N' Roses record if we get around to doing that.

That's a big fucking if  to my mind. 

For we read Axl 

[Tom-Ass]

"Slash: That was something I just came up with on acoustic and an idea that Axl had, and the two just came together. It’ll be interesting to see what's on the next Guns N' Roses record if we get around to doing that. I'm not wanting to be a political advocate myself, but it'd be interesting to see what Axl comes up with. He definitely is more outspoken in that area."

The LAST thing I want to hear is a political album from Guns N' Roses.  Everyone is so divided these days and it is tiring. If Guns release a new album I just want to listen to it, rock the fuck out out and get away from all that shit. 

Edited September 20, 2018 by Tom-Ass

[Gordon Comstock]

2 hours ago, Tom-Ass said:

"Slash: That was something I just came up with on acoustic and an idea that Axl had, and the two just came together. It’ll be interesting to see what's on the next Guns N' Roses record if we get around to doing that. I'm not wanting to be a political advocate myself, but it'd be interesting to see what Axl comes up with. He definitely is more outspoken in that area."

The LAST thing I want to hear is a political album from Guns N' Roses.  Everyone is so divided these days and it is tiring. If Guns release a new album I just want to listen to it, rock the fuck out out and get away from all that shit. 

Haven't you heard? People want #woke Axl.

https://www.vogue.com/article/woke-axl-rose

[WAR41]

4 hours ago, IncitingChaos said:

I would say based on his comments that he’s quietly nudging Axl towards talking about recording together. He knows Axl is reading each interview he does and so I think he’s trying to throw the ball into Axl’s court. 

I didn’t get that vibe at all.  That seems sneaky.  I think he’s being honest.  He’d like to do a new album if the stars align. If not that’s cool too.  

[wasted]

3 hours ago, Tom-Ass said:

"Slash: That was something I just came up with on acoustic and an idea that Axl had, and the two just came together. It’ll be interesting to see what's on the next Guns N' Roses record if we get around to doing that. I'm not wanting to be a political advocate myself, but it'd be interesting to see what Axl comes up with. He definitely is more outspoken in that area."

The LAST thing I want to hear is a political album from Guns N' Roses.  Everyone is so divided these days and it is tiring. If Guns release a new album I just want to listen to it, rock the fuck out out and get away from all that shit. 

They’ve always written off truth or what’s halpening to them. I think the drinking and drug songs might be over? But they could dig something up like Crash Diet. 

It’s a definite problem of sorts. Aerosmith managed it on Pump though. They opened with some sexy songs I think. But Guns seem way more grown up than Aerosmith were?

Which songs do you think were outright party Nightrain, Easy, Brownstone, Rocket, Bad Obsession?

Axl has always been pretty serious. You get rant songs and politics and songs about chicks. 

I think a song about their private jet might be cool. 

Izzy is good for lyrics outside of politics. 

I’m not sure Guns would do a song like Play Ball or Rock N Roll Train. 

I’m pretty stumped. 

Slash is right Axl probably is good for something political but relatable to personal struggle like Civil War or Madagascar. 

[wasted]

21 minutes ago, WAR41 said:

I didn’t get that vibe at all.  That seems sneaky.  I think he’s being honest.  He’d like to do a new album if the stars align. If not that’s cool too.  

Probably better to talk to Axl first?

I think in the end it will be Slash reworking CD era material with Axl’s 99 vocals mostly. 

Then maybe one or two new songs.

Terminator by Guns N Roses. 

Then you start thinking they could do a Best of album for the Terminator movie. Have one new rocker on it. Like DC’s Iron Man 2 soundtrack. 

Edited September 21, 2018 by wasted

[DieselDaisy]

Neil Young's last few albums have been turkeys, having embraced (anti-Trump, anti-corporate) politics so vociferously.

[Stro]

38 minutes ago, DieselDaisy said:

Neil Young's last few albums have been turkeys, having embraced (anti-Trump, anti-corporate) politics so vociferously.

He's been writing songs like that since the 70s, and did an entire album against GWB in the 00s. He embraced politics vociferously in his music decades ago.

[DieselDaisy]

Just now, Stro said:

He's been writing songs like that since the 70s, and did an entire album against GWB in the 00s. He embraced politics vociferously in his music decades ago.

I am a Rusty you know?

[IncitingChaos]

1 hour ago, WAR41 said:

I didn’t get that vibe at all.  That seems sneaky.  I think he’s being honest.  He’d like to do a new album if the stars align. If not that’s cool too.  

I don’t think it’s sneaky to put it out there that you want to do an album with gnr. It’s ultimately up to Axl on if he wants to do it. 

Theres no magical formula that creates a gnr album for them. They are both going to have to have that talk and put down the groundwork to make it happen. And maybe they have already but I just get the feeling from the interviews that Slash just needs a commitment from Axl 

but who knows. Like you said it seems genuine. We’ve heard statements like this before in the past and gotten nothing. So the situation remains the same for the forseable future. 

[ludurigan]

7 hours ago, IncitingChaos said:

I would say based on his comments that he’s quietly nudging Axl towards talking about recording together. He knows Axl is reading each interview he does and so I think he’s trying to throw the ball into Axl’s court. 

my thoughts also!

[ChristmasFnatic]

7 hours ago, Tom-Ass said:

"Slash: That was something I just came up with on acoustic and an idea that Axl had, and the two just came together. It’ll be interesting to see what's on the next Guns N' Roses record if we get around to doing that. I'm not wanting to be a political advocate myself, but it'd be interesting to see what Axl comes up with. He definitely is more outspoken in that area."

The LAST thing I want to hear is a political album from Guns N' Roses.  Everyone is so divided these days and it is tiring. If Guns release a new album I just want to listen to it, rock the fuck out out and get away from all that shit. 

Imagine an album totally anti-Trump/right-wing. Supporting me-too. Mass immigration. Anti Brexit. Wonder if Slash will just go alone.

[Jordan Rose]

6 hours ago, ChristmasFnatic said:

Imagine an album totally anti-Trump/right-wing. Supporting me-too. Mass immigration. Anti Brexit. Wonder if Slash will just go alone.

FUCK that. #SnowflakeAxl

[soon]

People getting triggered and offended by a hypothetical scenario of their own design is one of the most fascinating things happening online these days.

[Stro]

18 hours ago, DieselDaisy said:

I am a Rusty you know?

Why would I know that

[Azifwekare]

9 hours ago, soon said:

People getting triggered and offended by a hypothetical scenario of their own design is one of the most fascinating things happening online these days.

Great source of lulz too

[Azifwekare]

16 hours ago, ChristmasFnatic said:

Imagine an album totally anti-Trump/right-wing. Supporting me-too. Mass immigration. Anti Brexit. Wonder if Slash will just go alone.

I would love this simply for all the people it would piss off. Trump getting his tiny fingers in a twist sending pissy tweets to Axl and giving the album huge free promotion would be fucking hilarious.

[Pedrolg]

On 9/20/2018 at 4:40 PM, IncitingChaos said:

I would say based on his comments that he’s quietly nudging Axl towards talking about recording together. He knows Axl is reading each interview he does and so I think he’s trying to throw the ball into Axl’s court. 

That's my impression too. He is clearly letting Axl know he is up for that.

[Azifwekare]

4 hours ago, Pedrolg said:

That's my impression too. He is clearly letting Axl know he is up for that.

So are they still doing that thing where they can't speak to each other face to face like grown ups?

Has Paul Tobias been let out of the vault to be the go-between messenger? He sure deserves it after all the success of the SOYL single.

Edited September 22, 2018 by Azifwekare
Typo

[Stro]

9 hours ago, Wagszilla said:

1. 60% of his posts are about Neil Young

2. the other 40% are about Axl's inability to make music which leads back into #1

Snakes eats own tail

Oh I've never seen one of his posts