It’s afternoon in London’s Gibson Guitars HQ, and Slash has been hemmed in by the hammers and tongs of his noisy craft. Office walls are decorated with guitars of various vintages and salary-crushing price tags. Stacks of Marshall amps act as eye candy decoration pieces. And perched upon a boardroom table sits a box containing the most recognisable top hat in the world. Meanwhile, the man himself waits nearby, dressed in black jeans, T‑shirt and mirrored shades, his look offset by a backwards baseball cap before swapping it for what’s in the box for the benefit of his latest Kerrang! photoshoot. Given these surroundings, our reunion with the Guns N’ Roses totem, platinum-selling solo force and one-time riffing foil to Michael Jackson seems reassuringly appropriate. It’s...