Axl Rose rarely gives interviews, as you may have heard, but when he does, he has a lot to say. Billboard scored a Q&A with the mercurial Guns N' Roses frontman, and he gives plenty of insight into the making and marketing of Chinese Democracy (including a detailed slam on record companies), and talks freely about other topics.

Here's a tidbit regarding Slash:

In regards to Slash, I read a desperate fan's message about, what if one of us were to die and looking back I had the possibility of a reunion now, blah blah blah. And my thoughts are, "Yeah, and while you're at the show your baby accidentally kicks a candle and burns your house down, killing himself and the rest of your family."

Give me a fucking break. What's clear is that one of the two of us will die before a reunion and however sad, ugly or unfortunate anyone views it, it is how it is. Those decisions were made a long time ago and reiterated year after year by one man.

Check out the full interview.

This article appears in Feb 11-17, 2009.

Eric Snider is the dean of Bay area music critics. He started in the early 1980s as one of the founding members of Music magazine, a free bi-monthly. He was the pop music critic for the then-St. Petersburg...