'I F***ing Thrive On It': Why Guns N' Roses Guitarist Slash Is Still Obsessed With The Chaos Of Touring

Mary Varvaris

From blues solo records to film producing, Slash reveals what keeps his passion alive for Guns N' Roses live shows before returning to Australia - and recalls being humbled by Aussies on their first visit.

Guns N' Roses(Credit: Supplied by Guns N' Roses)

Guns N' Roses

You know all the songs; you’ve heard about the antics; your parents have probably seen them live; you might have gone to the reunion tour.

Guns N’ Roses are one of the best-selling musical acts of all time, with estimated worldwide sales of over 100 million records. And in November and December, they return to Australia and New Zealand.

During their breakthrough in the ‘80s, Guns N’ Roses projected an air of danger, a cool attitude, and a legitimacy that made it impossible to argue with their impossibly catchy tunes.

Led by the enigmatic, curly-haired, sunglasses- and top hat-donning guitarist Slash and vocalist Axl Rose, with a massive range and attitude to match, today, the band is also joined by classic-era bassist Duff McKagan and keyboardist Dizzy Reed, plus guitarist Richard Fortus, multi-instrumentalist Melissa Reese (not currently touring), and drummer Isaac Carpenter.

McKagan and Slash rejoined Rose when Guns N’ Roses announced their shock reunion in December 2015; it was officially announced that they’d returned to the band a month later, when it was announced that the rockers would headline Coachella.

Ten years later, Guns N’ Roses are still going strong. They embarked on the Not in This Lifetime... Tour from 2016 to 2019. By December 2018, the run had grossed $563.3 million, making it the then second-highest-grossing tour, only behind U2’s 360° Tour.

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In August 2021, the band released the single Absurd – their first new material since 2008’s Chinese Democracy and the first to feature Slash and McKagan since the 1994 release of Sympathy for the Devil.

Guns N’ Roses have since released a handful of additional singles: Hard Skool in September 2021, Perhaps in August 2023 (along with the “R-side” of The General), and, last December, Nothin’ and Atlas.

Slash tells The Music, Zooming from his home studio ahead of attending the premiere of the recently released crime thriller television miniseries, Lucky, that there’s more to come.

“Those two songs are cool, and I love them. And when we did them, it was actually a while ago, and we just hadn’t released them yet,” he shares. “So, playing them live now is great.

“The inspiration for writing and all this stuff that’s going into what will be the next Guns record is a constant need to write. It’s always there; it’s just a matter of us going into the studio and going, ‘OK, we’re going to focus on just doing this record at this time.’”

The November Rain guitarist adds that the band “haven’t gotten to that place yet, but it’s pretty close.” “We were in the studio recently recording some stuff, and so I see it sort of coming around the bend, you know?”

There’s an obstacle, though: getting everything they’ve worked on thus far onto one release.

“There’s a lot of material,” Slash muses. “I mean, we’ve been out on the road for literally the last ten years. And so, in that time, there’s been a lot of stuff that’s been written and a lot of shit on my phone, a lot of stuff in Duff’s studio, a lot of stuff in my studio, a lot of stuff in Axl’s.

“We have to put it all together, and that’s just going to take us sitting down and going, ‘OK, now we’re going to do this.’ That’s the challenge.”

Away from Guns N’ Roses, Slash has plenty to keep his hands full, with solo music and even a foray into film.

In May 2024, he unveiled his sixth solo record, Orgy of the Damned, a collaborative blues cover release starring Gary Clark Jr., Billy Gibbons, Chris Stapleton, Iggy Pop, Paul Rodgers, Demi Lovato, Brian Johnson, and others.

Listening to Guns N’ Roses, though, or even seeing them live, it’s clear that the blues of Slash’s solo albums isn’t far removed from his main project.

“What I do with Guns, it’s all relative, right? I mean, there’s always been a lot of bluesy stuff in Guns, but Guns isn’t a blues band, per se; it’s a very soulful, bluesy band in a lot of ways,” he explains.

Outside of Guns N’ Roses, Slash has performed with other bands in bars, just playing the blues, as it’s what got him started as a guitarist in the first place. Orgy of the Damned provided an outlet to pay tribute to the music he loves, but “that kind of playing is still very prevalent in the Guns set,” he tells.

“There’ll be another blues record at some point, as soon as I see the window to do it, and hopefully do an international tour with it, because it’s a really good band, and it’s really a fun throw-together thing that is no bells and no whistles. It’s just a handful of amps, a piano, a drum kit, and us going out there. It’s very raw, so it’s cool.”

A self-described “film buff” and horror aficionado, Slash has been busy executive producing two projects this year: a documentary called Black Zombie, and a vampire film entitled Sundown.

Slash explains that Black Zombie follows the influence of voodoo and describes the documentary as “very informative, if you’re into that kind of thing. But it tells you a lot of stuff that a lot of people didn’t know about zombie lore and its origins. It’s really cool; a lot of stuff that I didn’t know until I met the producers and stuff.”

Meanwhile, Sundown offers something very different. “Sundown is a really cool vampire movie,” Slash says, having recently presented it at the film festival circuit.

“I’ve been producing consistently since 2013, and that was when the first movie I produced came out [supernatural horror film Nothing Left to Fear],” he adds. “But it’s a tough business. Features that actually get made and financed are few and far between, but I’ve been doing it a lot more lately. I’ve got more stuff actually paid for; I’ve got a lot of stuff happening.”

Some of the things happening include a series called The Crow Girl, which Slash produced and premiered in July. He’s also involved in a movie called The Night House, “that I just finished doing some music for last night, so that’s coming out sometime next year. There’s a lot of stuff going on in the film side.”

Slash’s busy itinerary makes his stamina as a touring musician all the more impressive.

Guns N’ Roses have been touring across the globe again this year – a tour that began in March and concludes in the US in September before the Australia and New Zealand leg commences. They’ve travelled and played shows amid a packed schedule, even headlining this year’s Download Festival in the UK. One wonders: where does the band’s energy come from?

“Just the crazy passion for doing it,” Slash says, looking to contemporaries who dislike the touring game at this stage of their careers, and still loving it.

“I think I’m actually pretty fortunate because a lot of my contemporaries just do it as a job, and they hate it, and they just can’t wait to get done once they start. I’m just the complete opposite.”

Slash misses the touring life when Guns N’ Roses are having some kind of quiet time, and even when he’s meant to be on a holiday.

“I fucking thrive on it, and I can’t not be doing it for too long,” he shares. “It’s like, ‘Why don’t you take a vacation?’ Okay, I take a vacation. I was gone for two weeks. Let’s go!

“That hour and a half to three hours, whatever the gig is, is something that I fucking love from the deepest part of my, you know, whatever [laughs]. I don’t want to sound cliché, but it’s something I really, really love fervently.

“So, as a musician, that’s where I really feel the most comfortable, where I feel like I’m really in a spontaneous kind of musical environment. I love to write, I love to be in the studio, but it’s all a means to get to that place where you’re actually performing live.”

And being on stage reminds Slash of what got him into live music in the first place. “I used to always buy everybody’s live records, because to me, that was the true testament of a really great band: if they had a good live performance,” he says. “And if they didn’t have a good live record, I would be a little disinterested in the studio stuff, you know?

“So, that’s what keeps me doing this. I just love getting out there and playing, and trust me, the travelling is a fucking pain. It’s no joke, but it’s worth it to be able to go out there and stand on stage for however long the fans let you.”

Slash was last in Australia in February 2024, touring with Alter Bridge singer Myles Kennedy and their live band, The Conspirators. That tour stopped in arena venues across the country. With Guns N’ Roses, though, Slash is returning to stadiums.

“I like to mix it up,” Slash admits, looking back on a European summer that’s consisted of a bit of everything: stadiums and multiple nights in arenas.

“It’s been great because it’s something very personal about being in a smaller venue where you can really see the people you’re performing for, and the energy is very palpable,” he starts, but concedes that stadiums also offer something special.

“Stadiums can be fucking great, too,” he notes. “I mean, we did a couple of festivals on the European tour and, you know, that many people in one place can be really powerful.

“Also, a festival has such a festive environment: the field and the concessions are out there, and everybody’s hanging out for three or four days of music, and there’s just this great vibe in the air, you know, of a good time and rock and roll and that whole sort of thing.

“It’s great to do that too. I love being able to mix it up where you’re doing a couple things in this size venue and then a show over here in this size venue and maybe down to doing like a club size thing or whatever. So, yeah, I like to do it all.”

He adds, “I think the thing that keeps you doing it and what you’re striving for is that connection with whoever you’re playing to. It could be one person, or it could be 10,000 people, or it could be 100 people. But when you make that connection with somebody and that sort of energy reciprocates, that’s really what you’re in it for.

“That can happen anywhere. If you can get it, it can happen in any size venue.”

Guns N’ Roses have a unique relationship with Australia, having played their first shows on our shores in 1988 and returning intermittently until their most recent visit in December 2022.

They’ve toured with homegrown legends like Cosmic Psychos, The Chats, Wolfmother, Rose Tattoo, The Angels, and Kings of the Sun on their Australian runs, and this time around is no different.

For their upcoming return, Guns N’ Roses will be joined by special guests Airbourne, the hard rockers who formed in Warrnambool and have gone on to great success, particularly internationally.

“Aussie bands are great. There’s a history for me of Aussie bands with The Angels and AC/DC,” Slash recalls. In a 2024 interview with The Music, Slash revealed that he was asked to collaborate with The Angels.

He told The Music at the time, “I talked to one of the original members recently, and they were going to do some sort of greatest hits record or something like that and asked if I’m interested and seeing if I wanted to play on it, but I haven’t heard from them since.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Slash talked about AC/DC’s Angus and Malcolm Young and their influence on his guitar playing.

“Angus and Malcolm, guitar-wise, have been and always will be a couple of my favourites,” he said before revealing one of his favourite bands of the 80s: “Believe it or not, in the ‘80s, I really did think that INXS was one of the best pop bands that came out of anywhere.

“I especially hated the ‘80s back then [laughs], so there were very few artists that I liked, but I did like INXS.”

Guns N’ Roses previously paid tribute to The Angels in 2014, cranking out a rocking version of the band’s 1978 song Marseilles following singer Doc Neeson’s passing. Axl Rose said at the time, “This one’s for Doc… from The Angels to the angels.”

Continuing his current chat with The Music, Slash remembers “a bunch” of different rock bands who were “always very down to earth.”

“I’ve always just remembered the first time that Guns ever played Australia,” he continues, “It was in 1988, and when we got there, no one knew who the fuck we were.

“No one really gave us too much of the time of day, but we did have a couple of gigs. But we had the best time in Australia, and I just always have that feeling of you deliver, you know, good, from the heart, rock ‘n’ roll in Australia and they fucking love it. That’s the truth.”

Discussing that first fateful time visiting our shores, Slash admits that it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows: Guns N’ Roses were humbled by Aussies.

“I remember being in Australia, and we just sort of conquered the rest of the world as a young upstart band,” he tells. “We got to Australia, and it was like, ‘Okay, these guys don’t give a shit about us. All right. So, we’re gonna have to really impress these people.’

“At the end of the day, it worked out. But I remember that feeling of, you know, riding that high of, ‘Oh, yeah, we just kicked ass in Europe, and we did some kick ass shows in Japan.’ And we got to Australia, and everybody was like, ‘Yeah, and?’ It was great,” he chuckles. “It was very humbling.”

Revisiting more current memories, he adds, “So, I’ve always had a great relationship with Australians on a music level, especially, but just as people in general, and just hanging out.

“For me, also, when I did The Conspirators, one of the first places that really took us under their wing was Australia, and we did some of our shows in Australia. It means a lot to me. So, I’m looking forward to coming back and doing this Australian leg with Guns N’ Roses. It’s going to be cool.”

Guns N’ Roses are touring Australia and New Zealand in November and December. Tickets are now available.