As previously reported, Guitar Center has announced their next installment of Guitar Center Sessions: an evening of dialogue and insight with guitar legend SLASH (VELVET REVOLVER, ex-GUNS N' ROSES). The event will be taking place tonight (September 3rd) at the Guitar Center in Northridge, CA at 6:00 PM and is free to the public (limited capacity).

To preview the event, the Los Angeles Times spoke to Slash about a number of topics. A few excerpts follow:

So, what’s going to happen tonight at Guitar Center?

Slash: "I have no intention of getting up there and doing demos for people. I don’t plan on playing, but who knows? I don’t remember how to play a lot of Guns songs. I actually had to play 'Sweet Child O' Mine' recently at a concert, and it took a couple of tries just to remember it."

What are your thoughts on the blogger who posted tracks from 'Chinese Democracy' who was arrested last week?

Slash: "I think it’s totally fine that he got arrested. I hope he rots in jail. It’s going to affect the sales of the record, and it’s not fair. The Internet is what it is, and you have to deal with it accordingly, but I think if someone goes and steals something, it’s theft. At one point, I had an early version of all of Use Your Illusion on CD and I had it all stacked up with a piece of cardboard around, wrapped in duct tape. I left a hotel in South America to do a gig, I came back and I saw that it had been ripped off. One of the staff at the hotel ripped it off. Fortunately, I got it back, and the guy got arrested. That was a really frightening experience… making a record is like making a painting or any other personal art project. I don’t see the difference between that theft and this one. [Editor's note: blogger Kevin Cogill is not under suspicion of stealing the forthcoming tracks from Chinese Democracy. He is, however, accused of copyright infringement.]"

What was the experience like writing your own book?

Slash: "It was a different experience. I was resigned to writing the book due to the fact that some guy came out with an unauthorized Slash book. So, I just decided to do my own book, because doing an interview or press release to offset any of this stuff didn’t work. The guy who I wrote the book with [Anthony Bozza] had such a genuine zeal for my whole story. Not just the cliché stuff. It was a real collaboration between us. I wrote entire chapters of the book on my Blackberry… sending it to my co-writer. But you know, it was worth it, because finally after all my input, it turned out good."

Read more here.