On Sept. 16 Slash will release his latest solo album, World On Fire, which features the GRAMMY-winning guitarist teaming with vocalist Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators. Widely known for his work as the guitarist for Guns N' Roses and Velvet Revolver, Slash continues to be among the artists determined to keep not only rock music, but the spirit of rock, alive.

Slash has been sharing that spirit all summer on the road with fellow GRAMMY winners Aerosmith. With international tour dates continuing into March 2015, Slash took a break from the road to participate in an exclusive GRAMMY.com interview and discussed life on tour with the Boston superstars, his own role in music as a guitarist, the perks of rock stardom, and what makes Steven Tyler arguably the biggest rock star of all time, among other topics.

How is the Aerosmith tour going?
It's been great. Aerosmith [have] just been on fire and really been a great example of a great rock and roll band [whose] been doing it a long time. We've been going out and playing with them every night and I think seeing those guys every night, we've kicked [our own set] up a notch opening for them.

You've been in difficult band dynamics before, and Aerosmith have had some issues. Does it inspire you to see them back out there together and having fun?
It's very inspiring. I see them every day and Joe [Perry] is so Joe, he's just the epitome of cool. You can spend your entire life trying to be Fonzie [from "Happy Days"], [but] you'll never be as cool as Joe Perry, that's just the way it is. He's going on and doing his thing, and then I think this is the first time it's finally dawned on me that Steven [Tyler] is probably the biggest rock star of all time. He really is such a [larger]-than-life personality, even when we're just hanging out in the dressing room or trailer talking. He is this force of nature. And the rest of the guys, Brad [Whitford] is this very sweet, low-key guitar player and Tom [Hamilton] is very charming. Seeing them all come together and mesh the way that they do and go out and play those songs, maybe it's the first time I've stood back and looked at it … [but] these guys are just a bunch of heroes. It's been an interesting one this run, a very telling run, and this is probably one of the best tours I've seen them do.

Who else is in contention for you for biggest rock star ever?
Mick [Jagger] has always been there. I think Mick and David Lee Roth. Out of all the people I've had the pleasure of knowing, those two come to mind. But I think Steven has eclipsed that and it's one of these things where you just look at it and if I didn't know him I wouldn't think he was real cause he's so electric and he's so bigger than life.

Was there a turning point when you felt Tyler was "bigger than life"?
We had a conversation where he was talking about what it's like to be Steven Tyler, and he goes, "Do you ever wake up in the morning and say, 'I'm Slash?'" And I said, "No" [laughs]. And it was interesting because he is so in control of his persona and it's so natural for him. I don't even have a tenth of that self-awareness. He's totally aware of everything that's going on around him as it sort of has to do with him. And everything that he's doing, every basic move that he's making, he's very cognizant of everything that's happening and is in control of it. I think more than anything it makes me realize what an enigmatic frontman he is and some of the qualities that come together to make that such.

Have you learned things on this tour about how to control your persona, or do you not worry about that?
I'm not really concerned, I think I'm more of an observer. I like my sort of understated approach as a guitar player. It's one of the nice things about being a guitar player [laughs]. You can jump around and people might recognize you [or] what not, but it's much more of an insular position in a band than being the front one. And so you watch somebody like Steven, [who takes] the frontman position to another level.

So you get the best of both worlds. You get to be understated, but get the perks of fame such as creating the music for the horror maze at Universal Studios' Halloween Horror Nights this year.
I was so much of a fan of Halloween Horror Nights over at Universal that when I met John Murdy, who [puts] that together every year, I wouldn't leave him alone. I was so like a kid in a candy store at those things. And I was picking his brain about how this was done, how that was done, who's gonna be the next artist? "Are you gonna use Metallica? Are you gonna use Kiss? Who's gonna take the place of Black Sabbath?" He's like, "Oh, I'm trying to figure it out." And he called me and asked me if I'd be interested in writing some music and I think that was probably the most exciting phone call I've had all year, next to the Aerosmith tour. But it's nice to be able to do something like that and it's more of a musician thing than a rock star thing, which is so cool.

So give us a preview.
I haven't seen it. I've seen a lot of the set designs and costumes, the basic concepts, and it's gonna be scarier than s***. I don't think they've done anything, at least in my mind, as scary as what my mind's eye is telling me this is gonna be like. But I won't know until I actually walk through it. I'm really proud of what we did with the music, that I've heard, it's very foreboding, it's a clown theme. And a lot of people are very freaked out by clowns, which means that a lot of people walking through this maze are gonna be sh***ting their pants going through it because it's over-the-top and in-your-face. The music's very dark, and at the same time very childlike. There's a sort of ominous carnival vibe to it. I can't wait. I'm gonna be there on [Sept. 19 for] the premiere and I'm gonna get to go through it for the first time.

You're performing a string of shows for Guitar Center at the Sunset Strip venue in late September. What are you looking forward to playing?
I can't wait to play "Beneath The Savage Sun" [from World On Fire]. That's one song for sure I'm really looking forward to doing. It's really long and epic, it'll probably take at least one rehearsal before we can go out and perform it in front of anybody because it can be a complete train wreck.

What was your favorite GRAMMY moment of all time?
It was something I was involved with, when we went up and did [the] Beatles' song ["Across The Universe"] with Stevie Wonder, Steven Tyler, Brian Wilson, and myriad people back in 2005. That was a huge moment for me and it looked really good. There were a lot of iconic musicians up there all working together. It was very cool.

(Steve Baltin has written about music for Rolling Stone, Los Angeles Times, MOJO, Chicago Tribune, AOL, LA Weekly, Philadelphia Weekly, The Hollywood Reporter, and dozens more publications.)