Last time Guns N’ Roses put out a new album—2008’s Chinese Democracy—it took them more than a decade, roughly $14 million in production costs, and several lineup changes to complete it. Now, it appears they’re shifting their sights to their next release, but all signs indicate that it will be a much smoother—and faster—process this time around.
Earlier this month, the band wrapped up their three-year-long Not In This Lifetime Tour, which will go down as one of the highest-grossing concert tours ever. At the tour’s final stop in Hawaii, Axl Rose made a somewhat ambiguous announcement from the stage: “We can’t do what’s next until we finish this, right? Now that all that’s done, we can get on with things.”
In a new interview with St. Louis, MO’s KSHE, guitarist Richard Fortus confirmed that the “next thing” to which Axl was referring is a new Guns N’ Roses album. When asked about Rose’s hint, Fortus responded, “We are going to try to do another record, get it out soon.”
When the host noted that he didn’t see them “rushing to do this thing,” Fortus responded, “I think it will happen faster than you think… I sure hope it happens faster than you think [laughs].” The host pressed further, asking whether we could at least expect a single new Guns N’ Roses song in the coming year. Fortus replied, “It could definitely happen. … There might be stuff started.” Fortus also dashed the host’s faint skepticism about what 2018 Axl Rose might write about, noting “I think Axl’s got a lot to write about.”
You can listen to the interview clip below:
Richard Fortus Confirms Plans For New Guns N’ Roses Album
[H/T Consequence of Sound]