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Slash couldn’t stop singing Axl Rose‘s praises for his 2016 stint fronting AC/DC. Rose, who blew more than a few minds — not to mention those of the band’s die-hard fans — when he stepped in at the last minute to fill in for frontman Brian Johnson, who was forced to stay home while dealing with serious hearing issues.

Slash recalled to Classic Rock, “I came out to a gig in London, and it was phenomenal. I was blown away, especially when he sang the Bon Scott stuff. That was a very proud moment, actually.”

When pressed if he felt uneasy with Axl fronting another band so soon after the Guns N’ Roses reunion dates, Slash said: “Not at all. It was AC/DC, man! The fact that he got asked to do that was very cool. And he worked his ass off doing it, too. He really adhered to the whole AC/DC regimen and pulled it off. . . In the moment, when it first came up, it was a little jarring, I have to say. I was super-proud that he was doing it, but how that was gonna happen and go right into the Guns thing, I really didn’t know. But anyway, it worked out. So it wasn’t like a big deal.”

Slash went on to underline how well the Guns reunion has been and what a pleasure it’s been to work with Axl again: “In all these years that we’ve been apart, he’s become super-f***ing professional. And he’s never missed a beat during this whole time. So it’s been great. There has been a sort of synergy that’s been happening this last six years that we never had in our first incarnation.”

Axl Rose’s longtime friend and confidante, former Skid Row frontman Sebastian Bach, says that in all honesty, when you’re putting a band together — Axl is all you need: “Once you’ve got him in your band, good luck finding a guy to replace that guy, ’cause if there’s anybody that’s pretty much irreplaceable, I’d say it’s Axl Rose.”