It's winter and it's Ottawa, yet for some reason Slash is noticeably happy to be back in Canada. It's the second day of a northern tour -- which will bring the famed American guitarist's new band Velvet Revolver to Calgary for a show Monday night at the Saddledome -- and during a candid 20-minute interview with the Calgary Sun the rocker enthuses about being back in this country and his "high expectations" for the shows.

Part of it is his fond memories of Canada over the years -- this despite a 1992 riot in Montreal caused by his old band -- and the other is he knows audiences in this nation have always embraced whatever hard rock project he's involved in.

Maybe, it's posed to him, it's because this country has a tradition steeped in the hard rock of acts such as Triumph and Rush?

"To be totally, perfectly honest, almost every single rock and roll band that ever came out of Canada, I can't stand," Slash says.

"At least the ones that became big stateside -- you named a couple of them, I could name a half-dozen more.

"I hope nobody takes offence to that."

Not around these parts, especially since Alberta is home to the Greatest Rock Band of All Timer Nickelback -- a band there's no possible way he could hate.

"Yeah that's one of my top bottoms," he says. "I think them and bands like them are responsible for killing the whole rock 'n' roll thing over the last five or six years."

He's certainly not insinuating our heroes are -- gasp! -- homogenized hard rock?

"At least you said it so I don't have to take the blame for it," he laughs. "They've made it really safe and predictable and with no edge -- basically just dull.

"I'm very proud of my whole rock 'n' roll background, so when I see somebody whitewashing it I get pretty offended."

Of course, the pedigree of the man born Saul Hudson is known to any fan of hard rock, especially his tenure in L.A.'s infamous Guns N' Roses, which sold tens of millions of albums in their late '80s heyday including over 15 million alone for their 1987 debut Appetite for Destruction.

That history, Slash thinks, proudly continues with Velvet Revolver, which features the guitarist with former GNR members Duff McKagan (bass) and Matt Sorum (drums), with guitarist Dave Kushner from Wasted Youth and frontman Scott Weiland of Stone Temple Pilots, who all "came together out of everybody's individual desperation to find people to play with that knew what rock 'n' roll was about."

Now, with their debut Contraband -- which includes the Grammy-winning single Slither -- they're trying to pass that on to an audience who, for the most part, are interested in Velvet Revolver and not the history surrounding it.

"The majority of the crowd is a bunch of kids who are into the concept of having something loud, reckless and something with a groove to it.

"It's all new to them -- it's not really going backwards, which is a great feeling for us because I'd hate to be pigeonholed in that place where it's just a bunch of Guns fans and STP fans and that's it," he says while noting VR does songs from each band's catalogue.

"But you never know when you get a combination of people ... you never know which direction it's going to go. We've been very blessed with the way it's going."

Blessed, also, many think, because the band is still together and/or alive, especially considering the hard-living history of its members, most specifically Weiland who was in and out of rehab/court/jail as a result of a heroin addiction.

"I've got to ask you, why would you go out and pick on Scott, considering all our pasts?" Slash asks, but then concedes his frontman's addiction woes were more recent and were, because of law enforcement involvement, a lot more serious.

"When it comes down to it, it's all about the chemistry and it's about the talent and it's about the personalities ... and the creative element is the most important part.

"And when that works the other stuff is just on the surface and you deal with it like anybody would deal with a particular problem."

Slash says it's easier to deal with Weiland's problem because it's something they can all relate to as opposed to something that's "completely psychotic, -- which is how I sort of took the other one. Those qualities Scott doesn't have at all."

Of course, the psychotic element that Slash alludes to -- and does on a couple of other occasions -- is his former frontman from GNR, Axl Rose, whom he and the other members have had a notoriously harsh falling out with.

Well, because he brought it up (vaguely) and we have time for one last question ...

"I hope it's not a Guns question."

Um ...

"I knew it was," he says, before launching into his standard reply, "it's not going to happen, no, no, no.

"Everything under the sun has been offered for that and it's just not going to happen," he says retaining his good mood.

"At this point I don't even answer it anymore -- why the (hell) would I dwell on that when I'm doing this?"