Rolling Stone recently caught up with Slash in L.A., where he was speaking to fans at a Guitar Center Sessions event (Click above to watch the guitarist talk about Gn’R’s early chemistry and his guest session with Bob Dylan.) Afterwards, he told us that working on his forthcoming solo album has been “cathartic” because “I’m totally on my own. A buddy of mine has got a mini-studio in his house and we stay until two or three in the morning just recording the basic demos,” he says. “I’m used to a band situation where I’m one fifth of the input no matter who brought the song or whatever it is. Every band I’ve ever been in we all just sort of tear it apart, put it back together, and it comes out however it comes out. This is interesting for me because I’m just doing my thing and I have no one to answer to.”

Eventually, Slash will bring in different singers for every song, though he won’t name names. “There’s a wish list and so far I’ve managed to get pretty much everybody on that wish list to commit,” he says. “At the pace the Velvet singer search is going I’ll probably get this done before then.”

RS also grilled Slash on who he’d like to see on Guitar Hero and when he realized Guns n’ Roses were impacting fans. Keep reading to find out why a David Bowie concert was one of his favorites:

I talked to Steven Tyler recently and he said you were a big inspiration for Guitar Hero: Aerosmith.
He called me about it before they did it and I was like, “You gotta do it.” It’s cool actually ’cause I was the first real face on that game, and it’s sort of taken on a life of its own.

As the original guy do you feel more invested in the game?
Well, having the Aerosmith guys do it was very cool ’cause Aerosmith’s one of the bands I was heavily influenced by. And Metallica’s doing it, that’s great. Those are two ones that I think gives it some credibility. And they’re doing a Hendrix one, which is great.

Joe Perry mentioned Cheap Trick as one he’d love to see because they could take that push from it to get to the next level.
I played with Cheap Trick a bunch of times. Cheap Trick would be cool; Judas Priest would be cool. James Gang would be cool [laughs]. For fans’ sake I’m sure an Yngwie [Malmsteen] record would be sort of cool. It would be definitely a Guitar Hero exercise. You have to understand how the game works and what band really fits in to that, because you have to be able to do something interesting with the fingers, so it can’t be anything overly simple. It’s gotta have some sort of involvement as far as chord changes and solos. AC/DC is probably the top one. They don’t need the boost, but that would be the top one. That’s really the ultimate guitar-driven band when it comes down to it.

You’ve spoken about how much Aerosmith’s Rocks influenced you and it was weird to think that Appetite for Destruction was now having that same effect on other people.
I think the first time I ever really saw how that clicked was when the “Paradise City” video came out. There’s this couple in Guns n’ Roses T-shirts somewhere in the first 10 rows. There’s a closeup of them making out, just a quick shot, and that hit a nerve with me ’cause that took me back to when I used to be putting my hand up some girl’s shirt in the heat of the rock concert. I met that chick by the way, years later. But lately it’s just been a lot of people talking about certain moments that they’ve had listening to a particular song or whatever. But I can relate to it, I know exactly what they’re talking about because all those things you go through in life as a teenager, usually to the background music of some great band that you’re into. It’s very important, the rock & roll colorizing of the whole thing; you start looking at people’s experiences like that.

What was the best concert where you put your hand up a girl’s shirt?
David Bowie.

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• Slash Says Velvet Revolver Singer Search “Still Ongoing”

• Slash Hosting “Guitar Center Sessions”