I want to defend Axl Rose’s comment he made about Slash in the Billboard interview, here quoted from the interview:

Axl on reuniting with Guns n’ Roses member Slash:

“In regards to Slash, I read a desperate fan’s message about, what if one of us were to die and looking back I had the possibility of a reunion now, blah blah blah. And my thoughts are, “Yeah, and while you’re at the show your baby accidentally kicks a candle and burns your house down, killing himself and the rest of your family.”

There are acts that, once committed between individuals, they are what they are. To add insult to injury almost day after day, lapsing into year after year, for more than a decade, is a nightmare. Anyone putting his own personal entertainment above everything else is sickening.”

From Billboard:

http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/specials/axl-speaks/interview05.shtml

Music fans and the press are seeing Axl’s comment there a bash at Slash. The way I read it, I don’t see it as a “bash” at all. I don’t see Axl saying anything negative about Slash.

Those who see it as a bash are taking it out of context.

What Axl is really telling you is that, he is giving you a clear sign that a reunion with Slash or Guns N’ Roses will never happen. Axl has no negative grudge at Slash, Axl is telling things the way they are, with honesty. What he means by when he says that, “one of the two, Slash or Axl, will die before a reunion happens”…he is saying that, a Guns N’ Roses reunion would happen after they grow old and die. Meaning that neither plan to reunite at all, Axl is clearly saying that a Guns N’ Roses reunion would still happen when they aren’t around.

For example, The Grateful Dead still continued without Jerry Garcia, The Doors continued on without Jim Morrison, etc.

Slash is committed with the Velvet Revolver, Axl knows that, that’s why he says Slash has no plans in rejoining Gn’R. Axl is committed with the new Guns N’ Roses. When Axl says, “Anyone putting his own personal entertainment above everything else is sickening.”, what he’s saying there is that he doesn’t want people putting Slash’s entertainment above everything else that is not music. The point he’s trying to make that Guns N’ Roses is not always about Slash. He’s disgusted about how people are obsessed about Slash playing with Gn’R when Gn’R could be for any musician. I think that’s what he means, if I’m wrong, correct me.

Axl is not bashing Slash.

Kev