In a nearly hour-long interview with fans in London, Guns N’ Roses founder and lead singer Axl Rose suggested that he may work on new music with formerly estranged band-mates Slash and Duff McKagan.
The singer also said that he and guitarist Angus Young of AC/DC, for whom Rose is serving as vocalist during a series of concerts, have discussed working on new music together.
Rose acknowledged these possibilities during a recent fan forum at the China Exchange, a London cultural centre. He also said that the reunited Guns N’ Roses would be touring for the foreseeable future, and that concerts in England were on the schedule.
The three musicians are all part of the “classic” Guns N’ Roses line-up that reunited earlier this year for Coachella and a North American tour.
The surprise interview session featured Rose’s first public (offstage) statements regarding the reunited Guns N’ Roses. The press-wary singer has declined interview requests since the early 2016 announcement that Slash and McKagan would be coming back into the fold.
Rather than reward a journalist with an exclusive, Rose opted for a surprise Q&A while in London with AC/DC. That he did so at the China Exchange is notable, as Rose advocated for the country’s citizenry in the title to the Guns N’ Roses record “Chinese Democracy.”
As is often the case with Rose-related interactions, this was a curious one from the start. Hosted by Sir David Tang, who acknowledged up front that he knew little about rock music, it opened with him asking Rose “the last time you felt something nice, and tender.” The crowd guffawed.
Rose, though, took it to heart, and explained his emotional attachment to his pets — “cats and dogs and wolves and birds.”
Luckily, Tang soon opened the session for questions from fans, and they did their duty. Over the course of the event we learned that Rose is a Frank Sinatra fan and prefers late-period Las Vegas-style Elvis Presley to the earlier stuff. He has been working on new music and “I played some stuff for Slash and Duff and they liked it and they might be on it — we don’t know. There’s talk about — Angus and I talked about working together.”
He spoke on Spotify and YouTube, opined on the difference between Bon Scott’s and Brian Johnson’s work with AC/DC, on possible plans for an autobiography, on the challenges of performing for smartphone-pointing fans and more.
Guns N’ Roses begin their North American tour in Detroit on June 23, and wend their way across the country over the next two months. The band hits Southern California at the end of the summer with two concerts at Dodger Stadium on August 18-19, followed by a concluding date at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego on August 22.
