Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash recently discussed the circumstances that led to his return to the band after years of separation. He explained that reconnecting with frontman Axl Rose began as a personal reconciliation rather than a band reunion.
“You’re talking to somebody who had no inclination of rejoining the band, and there was nothing in the cards about that happening. It just sort of happened out of the blue,” Slash said. “The actual issues between Axl and I weren’t insurmountable. It really had to do with other people that had gotten involved and exacerbated the issues that we had. Without them around, it was really easy for me and Axl to get past it — we haven’t had one f*cking fight the whole 10 years we’ve been together this time around.”
“Axl got in touch with me through management, and that wasn’t about Guns N’ Roses getting back together at the time — that was really about mending the fences. He and I had dinner, and everything just blossomed from there,” he continued.
The path to reconciliation had been a long one for the legendary rock band. After their last performance together in 1993, Slash departed the band in 1996 while bassist Duff McKagan left in 1997. Axl Rose remained as the sole original member during this period. The separation lasted more than two decades, during which the three musicians pursued separate projects and the band’s internal tensions remained unresolved.
In August 2015, Slash revealed in Swedish television interviews that he and Axl had met and reconciled. This marked the first public indication that their relationship had improved significantly enough to make a reunion possible. The private reconciliation set the stage for what would become one of rock music’s most shocking comebacks.
The official announcement came swiftly in early 2016. On January 4, 2016, Guns N’ Roses were officially announced as headliners for Coachella 2016, with confirmation that Slash and McKagan would be returning to perform alongside Axl Rose. The reunion became public reality on April 1, 2016, when the three core members performed together at the Troubadour in West Hollywood for the first time in 23 years. This intimate performance served as a warm-up before their major arena shows.
The historic performance marked the beginning of the “Not in This Lifetime” tour. The tour spanned from April 2016 through November 2019 and became one of the highest-grossing concert tours of all time. The reunion’s longevity proved that the reconciliation between Slash and Axl Rose was genuine and lasting.
Over the subsequent decade of touring together, the two musicians demonstrated that they had truly resolved their differences. Slash noted that they had not experienced a single significant conflict during their time back together. What began as a tentative dinner between two former bandmates evolved into a sustained creative partnership that defied decades of industry skepticism about whether such a reunion could ever be possible.
