Slash on the chemistry he felt when he and Axl reunited Guns N’ Roses: “I missed him.”

Slash on the chemistry he felt when he and Axl reunited Guns N’ Roses: “I missed him.”

Slash has revealed the overwhelming relief he felt when he and Axl Rose finally buried the hatchet and reunited in Guns N’ Roses.

Having officially left the band in 1996, Slash was estranged from the vocalist while Rose performed with various lineups under the GNR banner.

Despite years of denials that a return to GNR would ever happen, Slash and Axl finally mended their burned bridges and a Slash, Axl and bassist Duff McKagan reunion under the Guns N’ Roses banner was confirmed in 2016 through the Not In This Lifetime tour.

Recalling how he felt when he and Axl finally put the past behind them, Slash tells the Abe Kanan Show: “It was great. I mean, God, it’s a long story, but it was great when Axl and I started talking again, because I missed him.

“We had developed so much animosity that it just got worse and worse as time went on. So when we finally spoke and I started talking about playing, God, it was a huge kind of weight lifted off of our shoulders and it was exciting to get back together.

“And there was that chemistry that happens that you sort of forget about. How intense that is when you get on stage together or just working together.

“So, yeah, it’s really cool, and I’m really happy that we managed to get past all that.”

With the band still a popular live offering, a new album could also eventually see the light of day.

Slash recently revealed the band are planning to make a new record – their first since 2008’s Chinese Democracy.

When the band’s eventual seventh album sees the light of day, it will be the first to feature Slash on guitar since 1993’s The Spaghetti Incident?

Metallica’s ’80s producer has revealed his complicated relationship with the metal juggernauts’ St Anger album.

Fleming Rasmussen – who worked with the band on Ride The Lightning (1984), Master Of Puppets (1986) and …And Justice For All (1988) – has said that he goes back-and-forth on the controversial 2003 record.

St Anger has long been divisive due to the rawness of its recording, the sound of Lars Ulrich’s snare drum and the absence of thrash metal guitar solos.

“Every second time I hear it, I go, ‘Fuck, that’s so great,’” Rasmussen tells Daniel Sarkissian (via Ultimate Guitar).

“They dare to do something new, not just doing what they’ve always done.

“And then, the times in between, I go, ‘It sounds like the worst demo I’ve ever heard.’ So it’s, it’s kind of like that.”

Rasmussen continues: “Sometimes, I take it off after the first 10 seconds, and other times, I listen to it to the end. Because it’s pretty demanding listening to.

“That snare sound is fucking annoying as hell, right?”

The producer goes on to defend Ulrich as a drummer. The Danish-born Metallica co-founder’s chops behind the kit have long been a talking point among fans.

“People can hate as much as they like. It’s become like a national sport for some.

“Yeah, he was not the world’s best drummer, but for Metallica, he is. And he evolved.

“He’s gotten better and better, shit happened. From here to here, there was a huge development.

“Musically and technically, he’s really, really good.”

St Anger, produced by longtime Metallica collaborator Bob Rock, was released to mixed reviews and fan backlash, but topped the album charts in the United States.

Reflecting on the album in 2022, Metallica singer/guitarist James Hetfield told The New Yorker: “Eh, it’s honest.

“You might not identify with it, or you don’t like the sound. But that’s where we were, and that’s what we put out. It’ll have its time, maybe. Maybe not!”

Metallica are currently touring Europe and will play in North and Central America later this year. See the full list of their announced live dates below.