The Hard Skool EP, Guns N’ Roses’ first multi-track release with Slash and Duff McKagan since the 1990s, will be released next week (Feb. 25).
Slash is “sure” that the band would release a new album “at some point down the line” despite the fact that it includes two modified Chinese Democracy outtakes and two live songs.
Then there was the epidemic.
When the Guns were allowed to return to the tour in 2021, they performed “Absurd,” which they released a few days later, and then “Hard Skool” the following month. Slash and McKagan re-recorded the guitar and bass parts for both tracks, which were written by Axl Rose and co. during the band’s Chinese Democracy era.
Slash previously stated that new Guns material would be released shortly, and now he’s revealed a little more about their plans.
“’Hard Skool,’ in essence, was a completed song when I was first introduced to it. And Duff and I went in and redid the bass and the guitars. It’s a simple song, so it didn’t take a hell of a lot of thought and analysis,” the rocker told Rolling Stone. “I think it was a lot of fun just because it was part and parcel of a bunch of stuff that we were working on that was all sort of new — at least to Duff and I — so we had a good time.”
He also mentioned that they are working on a “bunch of new stuff,” some of which is more sophisticated than “Hard Skool,” but is still enjoyable to work on.
“I know we’ve got some songs and we’re releasing another one at some point soon, and there’ll be another one after that,” he continued. “As far as the record is concerned, that remains to be seen as far as a whole package, but I feel pretty confident that at some point down the road, there will be.”
According to another interview with the Wall Street Journal, revisiting Rose’s pre-written work was supposedly one of the prerequisites of moving forward as Guns N’ Roses.
“One of the things Axl wanted to get off his chest was a bunch of material he’d recorded,” he explained. “So we thought, ‘Well, that’s a good way to wet our feet.’”
In the end, there is no clear explanation as to how or when the music will be released. As Guns N’ Roses fans, we’ve learned to expect the unexpected, and sometimes nothing at all. “It’s Guns N’ Roses,” as Slash stated it so eloquently.
