If you're a fan of Slash (who isn't?), then you'd probably trust his taste in music, right? The legendary guitarist — whose upcoming album will be out this Friday (Feb. 11) via Gibson Records — opened up to us about some of the promising new bands that make him optimistic about the future of rock, and what he thinks it means to actually be rock 'n' roll.

Guns N' Roses have been around for over three decades now. While it's certainly true that albums like Appetite for Destruction don't come around very often, that doesn't mean rock is dead by any means.

"Right now, there's a great sort of undercurrent of rock 'n' roll happening with a lot of young bands. I don't know who's gonna be 'the savior' of rock — I don't want to go there," Slash acknowledged. "Obviously, it's great to see bands like Dirty Honey and Joyous Wolf getting some airplay and getting some recognition. That's cool."

Both Dirty Honey and Joyous Wolf went out on the road with Slash, Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators during their Living the Dream tour back in 2018 and 2019, and Dirty Honey opened for Guns N' Roses a few times at the end of their enormous Not in This Lifetime tour. Slash also recorded a cover of Mountain's "Mississippi Queen" with Dirty Honey vocalist Marc LaBelle for a compilation album titled Legacy: A Tribute to Leslie Westwhich will be out next month.

Slash With Dirty Honey's Marc LaBelle

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"There's one Swedish punk rock-type band called Viagra Boys, who are awesome. They're a little bit more punk rock than just your average hard rock band, but I think those guys are brilliant," the guitar hero continued. "There's some other young bands out there. My son's a drummer in a band, he's turned me onto this whole network of really down-to-earth, gritty rock 'n' roll bands that he's aware of and turned me onto."

"There's a real like, movement happening that's below the radar. It's not mainstream, but it's massive, so I'm excited to see what that turns into."

So, what does it actually mean to be rock 'n' roll? It's a phrase that tends to be thrown around very loosely, but to Slash, it's everything.

"That's like my life blood. I was born into it, I was raised with it. It's an attitude and a way of thinking, a kind of freedom of expression and freedom of a lot of different things that I just subscribed to really, really early on, and I couldn't imagine living any other way," the rocker explained.

Therefore, he has some mixed feelings about the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and the way that the establishment puts the label on artists of all different genres. Apparently, so does Keith Richards.

Watch the full interview below to hear the full conversation.

Loudwire has teamed up with Slash and Epiphone to give fans the chance to win a signature Epiphone Slash Les Paul™ Standard Guitar — see the details and learn how to enter here.

Slash feat. Myles Kennedy + The Conspirators
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4 serves as Slash's fourth album with Kennedy and the Conspirators, coming out nearly a decade after their first studio release together, Apocalyptic Love. The quintet just kicked off their tour in support of the record last night in Portland, Ore., and it continues tonight in Seattle, Wash. Pre-order the album now, and check out the rest of the tour dates here so you don't miss out on a kickass show.

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