Slash on the chemistry he felt when he and Axl reunited Guns N' Roses: "I missed him."

Axl Rose and Slash of Guns N' Roses perform onstage during the Power Trip music festival at Empire Polo Club on October 06, 2023 in Indio, California.
(Image credit: Photo by Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Power Trip)

Slash has revealed the overwhelming relief he felt when he and Axl Rose finally buried the hatchet and reunited in Guns N' Roses.

Having officially left the band in 1996, Slash was estranged from the vocalist while Rose performed with various lineups under the GNR banner.

Despite years of denials that a return to GNR would ever happen, Slash and Axl finally mended their burned bridges and a Slash, Axl and bassist Duff McKagan reunion under the Guns N' Roses banner was confirmed in 2016 through the Not In This Lifetime tour.

Recalling how he felt when he and Axl finally put the past behind them, Slash tells the Abe Kanan Show: "It was great. I mean, God, it's a long story, but it was great when Axl and I started talking again, because I missed him.

"We had developed so much animosity that it just got worse and worse as time went on. So when we finally spoke and I started talking about playing, God, it was a huge kind of weight lifted off of our shoulders and it was exciting to get back together.

"And there was that chemistry that happens that you sort of forget about. How intense that is when you get on stage together or just working together.

"So, yeah, it's really cool, and I'm really happy that we managed to get past all that."

With the band still a popular live offering, a new album could also eventually see the light of day.

Slash recently revealed the band are planning to make a new record – their first since 2008's Chinese Democracy.

When the band's eventual seventh album sees the light of day, it will be the first to feature Slash on guitar since 1993's The Spaghetti Incident?

New SLASH Interview | Talks About Blues, SERPENT TOUR & Guns N Roses | Abe Kanan Show - YouTube New SLASH Interview | Talks About Blues, SERPENT TOUR & Guns N Roses | Abe Kanan Show - YouTube
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Stef wrote close to 5,000 stories during his time as assistant online news editor and later as online news editor between 2014-2016. An accomplished reporter and journalist, Stef has written extensively for a number of UK newspapers and also played bass with UK rock favourites Logan. His favourite bands are Pixies and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Stef left the world of rock'n'roll news behind when he moved to his beloved Canada in 2016, but he started on his next 5000 stories in 2022.