While media and fans keep speculating on a new singer for Velvet Revolver, Slash isn't waiting around, but rather, keeping busy with solo project. "I'm working on it pretty aggressively right now while I have the time cause as soon as Velvet finds its singer, then it's going to be off the races with that," he tells Spinner. "I'm using this little period to be able to do as much on my solo record as possible. I'm not sure exactly when it will come out, but hopefully it will come out before the Velvet record."

"It'll be my first solo record," he" continues. All the other ones were just me putting other bands together and going out and just jamming. This will actually be a little bit more personal."

Slash was in a bit of a reflective mood when he spoke to Spinner as it was just after he was honored for his sobriety at a MusiCares event in L.A. There, Slash shared the stage with Steven Tyler, who presented him his award, fellow honoree Alice Cooper, Cheap Trick's Robin Zander and Camp Freddy. "When I was 14 years old, I was going to Cheap Trick, Aerosmith and Alice Cooper gigs," he says. "And if you told me, 'In the future, you're going to be jamming with Steven Tyler, Robin Zander and Alice Cooper,' I never would've believed it. That would've been an premise."

Slash recalls listening to Aersomith's 'Rocks,' which shaped his wild partying days. "One song in particular, which really represented who I was at 15, was the song called 'Nobody's Fault,'" he says. "Listening to it now, you can only imagine what a sort of slightly sleazy, bloodthirsty kind of kid that I was."

Like many artists who danced with 'Mr. Brownstone' and its ilk, Slash considers himself fortunate to now be sober and a family man. "The music was great and then to just really put the icing on the cake, you have booze, drugs and sex -- just this total freedom," he says. "But you're teetering on the edge if not dangling by one foot the whole time and you're lucky if you can come out the other end."