Axl Rose to reprise role as Slash in Guns N’ Roses: Chinese Democracy

James Corden talks to the former Guns N’ Roses singer on The Late Late Show and admits he hates pranks and doesn’t really care for nimbyism

The late-night talk show host James Corden talked to Axl Rose and discussed their highly anticipated relationship on Thursday’s The Late Late Show.

Rose will reprise his role as his former bandmate Slash in two movies: 2018’s Guns N’ Roses: Chinese Democracy and 2019’s Hotel Transylvania 3. The band’s next album, which is being produced by Guns N’ Roses’ label, Warner Bros, will be called Nothing Shocking.

“We did three of the most fun and most fun-sounding rock’n’roll songs in history for the new record,” Rose said. “Our management, our booking agents, my brother and I, we’re all excited, we’re very proud. This is not gonna be a bad album by any means.”

“I’m not a bad guy, but on the road I am,” Rose added. “I’m a sneaky loner. I’m a showman, the hardest-working man alive. I like nice people, but I don’t like it when people forget who I am.”

Corden invited the band on to the show for a segment called to James, Slash. Corden reached out to Axl after interviewing Guns N’ Roses front man Axl Rose in 2015 for a piece about how Corden creates a new version of the band each week on his Late Late Show.

Slash appeared on the show as part of a week-long series about Halloween costumes.

Asked what he hoped people understood about him, Slash said: “I guess I’m nice and friendly and not crazy.”

Corden told the singer he didn’t remember signing his life away so he could be on the show each week to get drunk and do pranks.

“It wasn’t a permanent arrangement,” he said. “I have a very short memory.”

Corden also joked that he “didn’t even like pranks, I hated them” and revealed that Slash’s wife was worried she would get caught when a prank went wrong.

“We just crashed into the back of a guy’s car, smashed a punchbowl and called it a prank,” he said. “They went ‘whoa, whaddaya mean?’ We ended up just in the middle of a traffic jam and we just went ‘here you go,’ because you don’t want to break somebody’s wrist or something.”

Rose said that watching the group reunite live was “the most amazing thing”.

“This is a man who has a deep-seated fear of criticism,” Corden said. “People write nice things about the band and then the band gets criticized and he gets a kick out of that.”

Slash and Axl Rose tried to prove that they’re good friends at Christmas. Photograph: CBS

Corden then asked Slash if he has any opinions on Gigi Hadid getting engaged to Zayn Malik and maybe divorcing him to marry him?

“That’s a good headline, isn’t it?” Rose said. “No, I don’t have any opinions on that at all.”

Corden told Rose about a show at his house where his parents decorated it as a Guns N’ Roses tribute band. “For 25 years I’ve been making fun of you guys for not being in a band,” he said. “It’s now like the genre’s rock’n’roll. You guys are fake men.”

Rose insisted: “We’re not fake men.”

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