Former Guns N’ Roses and current Velvet Revolver guitarist, Slash, is working on a solo album along the lines of Carlos Santana’s recent work. Slash, who has worked as a guest guitarist with many well known singers, is now calling on them to come work with him on his album.

Slash is expected to be recording a new Velvet Revolver CD in 2009, but unless a singer is found to replace Scott Weiland, that won’t be happening. Weiland left the group earlier this year under less than friendly circumstances, and has rejoined with former band Stone Temple Pilots. Velvet Revolver was approached to do “Rock Star,” a reality show search for a new singer, but the band declined. So, with free time on his hands, Slash is preparing to go into the studio to record with several different, as yet unnamed, rock singers.

The guitarist told Billboard that he’s “at the very tail end of the demo phase” for the solo project, which he hopes to start recording early next year.

He began creating material during Velvet Revolver’s last tour and said that while it will have references to his work with that band and Guns N’ Roses, “there’s really no particular direction. I just wanted to take a little bit of a break from all the politics and the democracy that is a band and just sort of do my own thing for a little bit. There will be a lot of stuff I don’t have the freedom to do in a band situation.”

Slash plans to use different singers for each of the album’s songs but isn’t divulging who’s on the list yet. “They’re all sort of well-known singers,” he said. “It’s sort of like how I go play on a lot of other people’s records, so other people will just play on this one.”

[From Reuters]

Slash has guest-guitared with a wide variety of singers, so this album could have something to interest everyone. Having worked with such a range of people as Alice Cooper, Paulina Rubio, Daughtry, Rod Stewart and Michael Jackson, just to name a few, it could prove to be quite the eclectic set of tunes. Slash is a great guitar player and song writer, expect some equally great music to come from this endeavor.

[Information on Slash’s guest appearances from Wikipedia]

Slash is shown out with his wife,Perla Hudson, at the grand opening of Lavo Restaurant and Nightclub in Vegas on 9/13/08. Credit: PRPhotos