Slash Says Guns N’ Roses Have Gone 10 Years Without a Fight And New Music Is Getting Closer
Ten years ago, one of the most improbable reunions in rock history actually happened. Slash and Axl Rose, whose spectacular falling out had helped fracture one of the biggest bands in the world, finally sat down together, buried decades of resentment and walked back onto a stage as Guns N’ Roses.
What was originally supposed to be a handful of shows turned into something neither man apparently expected: a second life for Guns N’ Roses.
Now, a decade after Slash and Duff McKagan rejoined Rose in 2016, Slash says the reunion has lasted longer, and gone considerably more smoothly, than he ever imagined. In a wide ranging new interview with Rolling Stone Australia, the guitarist reflected on repairing his relationship with Rose, revealed that the two have not had a single serious fight since reuniting, and offered one of his more encouraging updates yet about the possibility of genuinely new Guns N’ Roses music. For a band whose original rise was fueled almost as much by volatility as its music, that may be the biggest surprise of all.
Slash Says He Didn’t Even Realize the Reunion Had Reached 10 Years
When Guns N’ Roses announced in 2016 that Slash and McKagan were returning alongside Rose, the reunion immediately became one of the biggest events in rock music. The resulting Not in This Lifetime… Tour became a global juggernaut, eventually grossing hundreds of millions of dollars and proving that decades of separation had done little to diminish demand for the band.
But according to Slash, there was never some elaborate 10 year master plan. He told Rolling Stone Australia that he did not fully register that a decade had passed until early 2026. What began as a reunion built around Coachella and several introductory performances simply kept expanding because the musicians discovered that they actually enjoyed playing together again.
That is remarkable considering how Guns N’ Roses originally disintegrated. By the mid-1990s, the relationship between Rose and Slash had deteriorated badly amid disagreements over the direction of the band, management problems, personality clashes and the general chaos surrounding one of the world’s largest rock acts. Slash officially left Guns N’ Roses in 1996, beginning a separation that would last roughly two decades. The assumption for years was that the damage was permanent. It wasn’t.
The Reunion Started With a Dinner Between Slash and Axl
Slash said the path back to Guns N’ Roses began while he was touring South America with Slash featuring Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators. Rose reached out through management, opening communication between two musicians who had spent years apart.
Eventually, they met for dinner. There was no stadium audience, no press conference and no dramatic public reconciliation. Two former bandmates simply sat down and started working through the baggage accumulated during one of rock music’s most famous breakups. That meeting ultimately helped create the 2016 reunion.
Initially, the expectations were modest by Guns N’ Roses standards. The plan centered around the band’s Coachella appearances and several warm-up dates, including the intimate comeback performance at Los Angeles’ Troubadour and shows in Las Vegas. Then something unexpected happened. They had fun. So they kept going.
Slash Says He and Axl Haven’t Had a Single Fight in 10 Years
Perhaps the most striking revelation from the interview concerns Slash’s relationship with Rose. According to Slash, they have not had a single fight during the entire decade since the reunion. For almost any veteran band, that would be notable. For Guns N’ Roses, it borders on astonishing.
The original band became legendary for instability. Concerts started late. Shows descended into chaos. Members struggled with addiction. Personal relationships deteriorated. Management and record company disputes intensified existing tensions until the classic lineup effectively collapsed.
Slash now views some of those old conflicts differently. He suggested that the problems between himself and Rose were never as impossible to overcome as they once appeared and that people surrounding the band contributed to the tension. Many of those outside influences are no longer part of their lives.
The implication is significant: Slash and Axl may have spent years believing their relationship was irreparably damaged when at least some of the hostility was being amplified by the chaotic machinery surrounding Guns N’ Roses.
Time also changed them. Slash is now decades removed from the addiction and self-destructive lifestyle that defined portions of his early career. Rose has largely retreated from the constant celebrity spectacle that surrounded him during Guns N’ Roses’ commercial peak. McKagan has similarly transformed his life after surviving severe addiction. The men who reunited in 2016 were not the same people who imploded during the 1990s.
Now Comes the Question Every Guns N’ Roses Fan Keeps Asking
Touring successfully is one thing.
Making a new Guns N’ Roses album is another.
That remains the unfinished business of the reunion.
Guns N’ Roses have released several singles since Slash and McKagan returned, including reworked material with roots in the long Chinese Democracy era. The band also opened its 2026 tour with live debuts of “Nothin’” and “Atlas,” demonstrating that previously unheard or unreleased material remains part of the current Guns N’ Roses universe. Rolling Stone Australia reported on those live debuts as the tour got underway. (Rolling Stone Australia)
But fans have been waiting for something much bigger: a true new Guns N’ Roses record created by the reunited band. Slash now says there is real material to work with.
Slash Says Guns N’ Roses Have “So Much” New Material
In the new interview, Slash confirmed that Guns N’ Roses have been in the studio and indicated that substantial material has been written. He stopped short of giving a release date, an important qualification for a band whose history with album deadlines is practically legendary, but his description of the creative situation was unusually optimistic.
Slash compared the process to the period surrounding Use Your Illusion, when Guns N’ Roses accumulated an enormous amount of material before releasing the two albums simultaneously in 1991. His basic message was that once the current version of Guns N’ Roses fully locks into the recording process, things could move quickly.
For fans, the significance is not merely the possibility of another release carrying the Guns N’ Roses name. A genuinely new album would represent something the reunited Rose, Slash, McKagan core has still not delivered, a substantial body of newly created music reflecting who these musicians are together now. That would make the reunion creatively complete in a way that even years of sold-out stadium shows cannot.
But Guns N’ Roses Fans Have Heard “New Album” Before
There is good reason for caution. Guns N’ Roses and the phrase “new album” have a famously complicated relationship. Chinese Democracy became one of the most notoriously delayed albums in rock history, arriving in 2008 after years of personnel changes, recording sessions, rumors, leaked songs and shifting release expectations.
Since Slash and McKagan returned, talk of additional Guns N’ Roses music has surfaced repeatedly without producing a full studio album of newly written reunion-era material. Even the band’s fan community treats new album speculation with a mixture of excitement and gallows humor. Reaction to Slash’s latest comments has included enthusiasm alongside understandable skepticism from fans who have heard variations of the same promise for years. (Reddit)
This time, however, there is an important difference: Slash is talking about a functioning band that has now remained together for a decade. The volatile reunion many assumed would eventually implode simply hasn’t.
Slash Isn’t Waiting Around for Guns N’ Roses
One reason Slash remains extraordinarily productive is that Guns N’ Roses is only one part of his musical life. Slash confirmed that Slash featuring Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators have completed another album, with release planned for February. He expects the band to launch an extensive tour behind the record after the current Guns N’ Roses commitments conclude.
The Conspirators have become far more than a side project. They have provided Slash with a stable creative outlet for years, allowing him to write, record and tour on a timetable considerably more predictable than Guns N’ Roses historically offered. Slash has repeatedly described himself as someone who thrives inside a band environment. In an earlier Rolling Stone Australia interview, he emphasized how important collaborative chemistry and musicians having meaningful input are to his creative process.
He also isn’t finished with the blues. Following 2024’s Orgy of the Damned, which featured an extraordinary guest list including Brian Johnson, Iggy Pop, Gary Clark Jr., Chris Stapleton, Demi Lovato and Billy Gibbons, Slash said he is considering another blues project and hopes to eventually take it internationally when his schedule allows. At 61, Slash appears less interested in slowing down than figuring out where another tour can fit on the calendar.
Slash Reflects on Ozzy Osbourne and a Collaboration That Never Happened
The interview also turns considerably more emotional when Slash discusses Ozzy Osbourne. Slash participated in the massive Black Sabbath and Ozzy farewell event in Birmingham, a gathering of rock and metal royalty organized with major involvement from Tom Morello. For Slash, the occasion became even more memorable when he helped arrange for Rose to meet Osbourne backstage.
According to Slash, it was the first time Axl and Ozzy had actually met. That alone is an extraordinary footnote in rock history considering how long both men occupied the same musical universe. But Slash’s recollections become much heavier when he describes conversations with Osbourne about potentially recording together. Slash said the two had discussed getting into the studio roughly a week after the concert. Osbourne’s death turned what had sounded like another future collaboration into something that would never happen. For a guitarist whose career has intersected with multiple generations of rock legends, the loss carried obvious weight.
Slash Has Become One of Rock’s Great Survivors
There is a larger story running through the interview that goes beyond Guns N’ Roses. Slash survived an era that killed many of his contemporaries. His early life and career included severe drug and alcohol abuse, medical crises and periods of extraordinary personal instability. He has spoken openly about being diagnosed with cardiomyopathy and experiencing periods when his health and lifestyle placed his life in serious danger. In earlier interviews, he has also discussed the suffocating circumstances surrounding his original departure from Guns N’ Roses.
Yet decades later, Slash remains remarkably active. He tours stadiums with Guns N’ Roses. He records and tours with Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators. He makes blues records. He collaborates with musicians across generations. And somehow, against virtually every expectation that existed during the 1990s, he has a functioning relationship with Axl Rose. That may be the most remarkable comeback of all.
Slash Is Still Paying Attention to the Next Generation
Slash also used the interview to praise artists outside his immediate circle. He expressed enthusiasm about the Oasis reunion and spoke highly of Anthrax after guitarist Scott Ian played him material from the band’s forthcoming record. Slash described what he heard as exceptionally heavy and impressive.
He also singled out French metal band Gojira, praising the group’s perseverance and gradual rise into one of the most significant heavy bands in the world. That appreciation reflects something important about Slash’s longevity. He does not appear particularly interested in becoming a museum piece from rock’s past. His career is built around classic songs, but his attention remains fixed on making more music.
Guns N’ Roses Has Already Defied the Odds
When Slash walked onto the Troubadour stage with Guns N’ Roses in April 2016, nobody could know what would happen next. A few shows could have become a single tour. The tour could have ended in another argument. Old resentments could have returned. The reunion could have become another enormously profitable but temporary chapter in rock nostalgia.
Instead, Guns N’ Roses kept going. Ten years later, Rose, Slash and McKagan remain together. They have toured the world repeatedly, introduced new material into their catalog and somehow maintained a working relationship that would have seemed almost impossible during the darkest years of their original breakup. The reunion has now lasted longer than many major bands’ entire careers. And according to Slash, he and Axl haven’t even had a fight.
The Final Piece Is a New Guns N’ Roses Album
That leaves one enormous unfinished chapter. A new album.
Not another anniversary collection. Not another remastered box set. Not simply another song originating from the Chinese Democracy archive. A genuine Guns N’ Roses album created by the band that exists today. Slash’s latest comments do not guarantee that record will arrive in 2026, 2027 or any particular year. Anyone familiar with Guns N’ Roses history would be foolish to put a deadline on it before the band does.
But the circumstances are different now. The reunion is no longer an experiment. It has survived for a decade. Slash and Rose have rebuilt a relationship that once appeared permanently destroyed. The musicians are still performing together, and Slash says substantial material exists. Thirty five years after Use Your Illusion I and II transformed Guns N’ Roses from an already enormous rock band into a global institution, Slash is once again describing a situation in which the band has more ideas than it knows what to do with.
Whether those ideas finally become the first true studio statement of the reunited Guns N’ Roses remains the question. But after everything that happened between Axl Rose and Slash, the chaos, the breakup, the decades apart and the reunion almost nobody believed would last, perhaps the strangest development of all is that Guns N’ Roses suddenly sounds stable.
And for this band, stability might finally be what makes the next great record possible.
Source interview: Rolling Stone Australia
