Guns N' Roses Rifts Caused By Outside People Says Slash

10-22-2018

Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash says that most of the difficulties between him and frontman Axl Rose were caused by other people in the band's entourage, but it was good that they finally were able to talk about their differences after 20 years of not speaking with one another.

When the guitarist reconnected with Rose in 2015, it gave both rockers a chance to sort out and settle old differences before considering the possibility of working together again.

During an appearance on Chris Jericho's "Talk Is Jericho" podcast, Slash said, "There was definitely some new ground to cover as to some of the catalysts who were causing... and a lot of it was not really between he and I - it had to do with outside parties that were part of the entourage, so to speak - and that explained a lot.

"But then there was different things between he and I that we needed to talk about because of how we handled those outside influences. So it was just good that we finally did talk, because, man - it was 20 years that we did not say one word to each other... You're talking about two of the stubbornest people you could ever come across."

Slash, Rose, Duff McKagan and most of the Axl-led GNR lineup from the past decade went on to launch a reunion tour with a rare club show at The Troubadour in Los Angeles on April 1, 2016; now in its third year, the trek is among the top five biggest-selling concert tours in music history with sales of more than $500 million.

Beyond the sizable payday for all involved, Slash reveals things really boiled down to the fun of playing music with his former bandmates again. "I think that was part of the beauty of it - I didn't have any expectations," says the guitarist. "I think it was more of a positive thing for me to go in and just be in a room with Axl and Duff and actually just play. And so that was in and of itself the coolest thing about it.

"And so the desire to go and do those couple of shows at Coachella and the warm-up shows, that was just gonna be a blast. It wasn't really about how big of a response there was gonna be or how well it was [gonna be received] - I don't think we were thinking about that. It was just fun to go out and get together and play.

"And then, all of a sudden, the response became something that we had - at least for me personally - I had no idea it would be like that. And that was throughout the whole tour. So it was pretty special." Read more here.