The most recent Guns N’ Roses album dates back to 2008’s Chinese Democracy. Still, four new singles have arrived in the wake of the group’s partial classic-era reunion with Axl Rose, Slash and Duff McKagen.
That’s given some fans hope that a proper studio project might be in the works. Slash didn’t shoot down the idea, but he also admitted that the creative process is tricky with Guns N’ Roses.
“There’s so much material at this point, it’s a matter of having the discipline to sit down and f—ing get into it,” Slash told Guitar World. “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.”
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Of course, members of Guns N’ Roses have mentioned a new album before. In fact, they’ve mentioned a new Guns N’ Roses album many, many times. Last year, Slash confirmed sessions work with the U.K.’s Daily Star, while discussing his solo project Orgy of the Damned: “Guns N’ Roses are trying to make their own record and I’m working with them in that capacity but this didn’t involve anyone else.”
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As their massive initial reunion tour wrapped, Axl Rose memorably told fans: “We had to get through this first. “We had to get through this first, and you helped us do that. We can’t do what’s next until we finish this.” Later the same month, guitarist Rhythm guitarist Richard Fortus assured everyone that a new album would arrive “faster than you think” – but that was in 2018.
McKagan has also confirmed that something new is in the works, telling Eddie Trunk in 2019: “Oh, it’s real, but the fun part and the cool part about Guns N’ Roses is we don’t really talk about it, and what happens next just happens.”
Rolling Stone reached out for confirmation about new sessions from the band’s management, but did not immediately receive a response. This would be the first Guns N’ Roses album with both McKagan and Slash since 1993’s The Spaghetti Incident?
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More recently, they issued the songs “Absurd” and “Hard Skool” in 2021 and “Perhaps” and “The General” in 2023. But all four of those tracks were reworked around ideas that dated back to the tortured Chinese Democracy sessions, which lasted from 1998-2007. A truly new Guns N’ Roses song has yet to emerge from this reunion.
Nevertheless, Slash sounds downright hopeful. “It just spontaneously happens through some sort of inspiration that triggers it,” he says in the new Guitar World interview, “and the next thing you know, it’s off and running. So it’s coming. I know it’s coming because everybody is thinking about it. It’ll just happen when it happens.”
Guns N’ Roses are currently playing dates South America, after completing European and Middle Eastern legs earlier this year. They also appeared at Black Sabbath‘s Back to the Beginning farewell concert in July, where Rose finally met Ozzy Osbourne.
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Gallery Credit: Michael Gallucci
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