They said it could never happen — that a reunion between Axl Rose and any of the classic Guns N' Roses members just was not possible. Five years ago, Slash and Duff McKagan made their way back to the band and things have been a roaring success ever since, but, as Slash revealed in an interview with CNN, even the band members themselves weren't certain about how the reunion would go and that the original plan "was just going to be a couple of shows."

The three-year 'Not in This Lifetime...' tour began on April 1, 2016 and wrapped up on Nov. 2, 2019, totaling 158 shows where 5,371,891 tickets were sold and GN'R grossed $548.2 million from it all. So much for a couple gigs, huh?

Even though that specific tour has ended, Guns N' Roses have remained on the road and completed a North American tour earlier with summer, which featured Wolfgang Van Halen's band Mammoth WVH as direct support — even more shows, even more tickets, even more cash.

Hell, the world even got two new songs this summer while the group was on tour. First, they debuted "Absurd" live and followed it up with an official studio version and then came "Hard Skool," both of which were culled from previously unreleased studio material that dated as far back as the early 2000s.

Again, it's hard to look back and think that this could have only ever amounted to a handful of shows at best, but with a quarter century of tension and high-profile conflicts between Rose and his, erm... estranged... bandmates, nobody could have foreseen how the internal dynamics were going to play out until GN'R performed a test drive.

"When we got back together, that whole chemistry and that thing that makes what Guns N' Roses is for me and Axl and Duff... it all just sort of came together," Slash, who, with Myles Kennedy and The Conspirators, will release the 4 album next year, told CNN.

"After that long a period of time, we'd sort of forgotten what that was like. Everybody got along great," he continued and noted, "That's actually why the tour has kept going, because initially it was just going to be a couple of shows."

As of right now, there's more than 25 shows on the books around the world next year for GN'R and those dates can be seen here. Meanwhile, Slash will embark on a headlining run with Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators in early 2022 and those stops can be viewed at this location. The guitar legend also dropped a new song, "Fill My World," today (Dec. 3) too.

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