On Thursday (Oct. 22), Slash joined Loudwire Nights to discuss his new music with Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators, as well as his experiences playing Back to the Beginning and the upcoming Aerosmith + Friends shows.

Listen to the full conversation in the player near the end of this article.

“It’s not like one of those things, ‘Oh God, I got to go in the studio,'” Slash told Loudwire Nights‘ Chuck Armstrong about working with Myles Kennedy.

“We have a really good time working together and I look forward to when we’re going to go and do a session and then we have a good time hanging out. It’s just a great band.”

On Feb. 26, 2027, Slash featuring Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators will release their fifth album, Flying Blind, and Slash said most of the music came from spontaneous jams in pre-production.

“I went into pre-production with Todd [Kerns] and Brent [Fitz] over at my studio and to sort of get going, sort of get in the mood, I always make up something and we’ll just jam it,” Slash explained as he began to discuss the creation of the album’s title track.

“The heavy part, the main riff…that was just one of the first things I came up with. We worked up that riff and then sort of jammed on that for a while and then moved onto some other stuff. I went home and came up with the intro and came back and then we just worked up an instrumental version of the song.”

Slash sent that to Kennedy, who quickly came up with the lyrics, which was a common theme throughout the creation of Flying Blind.

“Most of the stuff on this record came together really quick if it wasn’t an old song,” he shared.

“There are a couple of old songs that we hadn’t completed yet that are on this record, but the majority of it was new, pretty much made up at pre-production.”

The First Time Slash Almost Met Myles Kennedy

Slash first met Kennedy when they recorded “Starlight” together for the guitarist’s debut album. Kennedy joined a huge cast of special guest vocalists like Ozzy, Lemmy, Ian Astbury, and others.

“[That] spawned all of this,” Slash said.

“I had written this piece of music and I’d gotten all the vocals done except for two songs and Myles’ name came up in conversations.”

Slash was familiar with Kennedy because he was actually supposed to audition for Velvet Revolver.

“At that point, Matt Sorum knew who he was; I wasn’t familiar with him,” Slash recalled.

“We sent him some music and he was like, ‘Cool,’ but when he came to show up, he never did. And that was that. We never heard from him again.”

While an experience like that might sour other artists, Slash never held a grudge.

“At that point, we were listening to 200 submissions a month; maybe it was a week; whatever it was it was a ridiculous amount of stuff,” he said.

“When he didn’t show up, since I’d never heard him sing before and I didn’t know who he was, that didn’t phase me all that much. I sort of just forgot about it.”

When Kennedy worked with Slash on “Starlight” and “Back From Cali,” though, that moment was brought back up.

“When I did meet him again, I had to ask him, ‘So what the fuck,'” Slash said with a laugh.

“He goes, ‘I was at a time in my life where the music you sent was great and all that stuff, but I just wasn’t ready to come in there and commit to that.’ He just got cold feet.”

READ MORE: Myles Kennedy Gets Ready For Alter Bridge Shows With Iron Maiden — ‘No Way, We’re Not Worthy’

Fortunately, the two hit it off and their friendship has grown over the years.

“I think we just like each other. We like what each other does … For the most part, we sort of know what we do and are happy with that.”

What Else Did Slash Discuss on Loudwire Nights?

• Playing Back to the Beginning and preparing for Aerosmith + Friends: “Black Sabbath was a huge influence on everybody in Guns N’ Roses as well as Aerosmith. Sabbath had a huge impact on me and Aerosmith probably even more so because that was around 1978 or 1979 when I picked up the guitar for the first time. The thing that really sort of lit the flame for me was that Aerosmith Rocks record. That was a big instigator. But Sabbath was right there too.”
• Never losing gratitude for what he does: “I’m lucky. I love playing and the fact that I’m in a position where I get to play all the time; I still sort of pinch myself because that is my reality and that’s all I ever wanted. I do what I love. It’s cool … It’s a work in progress, right? You pick up the guitar and it’s a never-ending journey. I’m still picking up the guitar every day trying to do stuff with it and get better on it. I love music and I love being able to see that there are other opportunities to be able to do something. I don’t think about it that much; I just sort of go for it. But I get really excited about the fact that I get to do that.”
• Covering “Brown Sugar” with Billy Gibbons and Tim Montana: “That was fun. Billy called me for that. I love Billy. There’s not too many things I can think of that Billy could ask me to do that I wouldn’t do for him. He called me up when I was in the middle of something else. I actually used the studio where I was at to record that at somebody else’s session after hours.”

Listen to the Full Interview in the Podcast Player Below

Slash joined Loudwire Nights on Thursday, Oct. 22; the show replays online here, and you can tune in live every weeknight at 7 PM ET or on the Loudwire app; you can also see if the show is available on your local radio station and listen to interviews on-demand here as well as on Apple and Spotify.