Guns N’ Roses have big plans for 2022, according to the band’s guitarist, Slash. New material from Guns N’ Roses has been in short supply over the past 30-odd years. In 1991, the Los Angeles band released the multi-platinum companion albums, Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II. Since that point, they’ve delivered the covers record “The Spaghetti Incident?” (1993) and the long-delayed, over-hyped Chinese Democracy (2008).
But in 2021, the band surprised everyone by releasing not one but two new singles. The first, ‘Absurd’, came out in August and was the first GNR release to feature the reunited nucleus of singer Axl Rose, guitarist Slash, and bass player Duff McKagan since they covered the Rolling Stones’ ‘Sympathy For the Devil’ for the Interview with the Vampire soundtrack in 1994.
Guns N’ Roses – ‘ABSUЯD’
Guns N’ Roses released the follow-up single, ‘Hard Skool’, just one month later, and the two tracks are set to appear on the upcoming Hard Skool EP. The EP – which gets a physical release on Friday, 25th February – includes ‘Absurd’, ‘Hard Skool’ and live recordings of the Use Your Illusion power ballad, ‘Don’t Cry’, and the hard-rocking ‘You’re Crazy’ from the band’s 1987 debut, Appetite Destruction.
Further to this, Slash spoke to Classic Rock magazine about the band’s ambitious plans for the immediate future.
“There’s new Guns material coming out as we speak, and we’ll probably keep putting it out until the entire record’s worth of stuff is done and then put it out solid,” he said. “It’s cool. I’m enjoying working on the stuff and having a good time doing it.”
Rose has been the one constant in Guns N’ Roses since the band’s formation in 1985. After 20 years in the wilderness, Slash and McKagan rejoined Rose in 2016. Slash told Classic Rock there’s “been a sort of synergy that’s been happening this last six years that we never had in our first incarnation.”
Further Reading
Guns N’ Roses: 10 Essential Tracks
The Chats And Cosmic Psychos Join Guns N’ Roses’ 2022 Australian Tour
