Slash says a new Guns N’ Roses album will “happen when it happens”.
The axe-slayer has promised that a new record by the legendary hard rock veterans is “coming”, as there is a wealth of new material, but he cannot offer a time frame for when it will be released.
He told Guitar World: “There’s so much material at this point – it’s a matter of having the discipline to sit down and f****** get into it. “But the thing with Guns is, in my experience, you can never plan ahead. You can never sit down and go, ‘We’re going to take this time, and we’re going to do this.’ Every time we’ve done that, it falls apart.”
On their creative process, he said: “It just spontaneously happens through some sort of inspiration that triggers it. And the next thing you know, it’s off and running.”
Slash vowed: “So it’s coming. I know it’s coming because everybody is thinking about it. It’ll just happen when it happens.”
The group’s last studio album was 2008’s Chinese Democracy, but Slash and bassist Duff McKagan didn’t feature on that record. Their last full-length project was 1993’s The Spaghetti Incident?.
In 2023, the group released the tracks Perhaps and The General, which were both recorded around the same time as Chinese Democracy, just like 2021’s Absurd and Hard Skool.
The notorious record was delayed for years and held up by legal issues, while Slash, Duff and drummer Matt Sorum quit the group, and only frontman Axl Rose and keyboardist Dizzy Reed remained.
The band reunited with original members Slash and Duff for the 2016 Not in This Lifetime… Tour.
Earlier this year, Guns N’ Roses parted ways with longtime drummer Frank Ferrer, who was behind the kit for the band for almost two decades.
Isaac Carpenter — who is drummer for AWOLNATION — has been touring with them since.
Ferrer first joined the November Rain band during a show in June 2006, replacing Bryan Mantia. Ferrer’s last show was on November 2023.
The band’s lineup now consists of frontman Axl, Slash, Duff McKagan, Dizzy Reed, Richard Fortus, Melissa Reese, and Carpenter.
Guns N’ Roses’ 2025 world tour began May 23 in Saudi Arabia. The run included a stop at London’s Wembley Stadium on June 26, their first headline gig there since 1992.