Slash, the guitarist for Guns N’ Roses, has disclosed that a song he wrote for AMC’s famous show The Walking Dead was rejected.

Fans can hear the song on Slash’s album Living the Dream, which was released in September and features Myles Kennedy and The Conspirators.

Slash said to the Basel Meets podcast last month (via Blabbermouth) that the creators of the renowned zombie series weren’t too fond of his original song ‘The One You Loved Is Gone,’ which he contributed for the series.

“Initially, that song was inspired — believe it or not… I wrote the intro for The Walking Dead,” Slash explained. “Because at that time, The Walking Dead didn’t really have any other music outside of its score music, and so I was trying to push them to play an original song on there.”

“But they wouldn’t go for it. ‘Cause it’s me, and they don’t wanna have any recognisable existing names as part of The Walking Dead world. And so it never happened, but it was always a good musical idea.”

“And I introduced it to Myles [Kennedy] to see if would come up with something so we could create a song for The Walking Dead. So he had some melodies and whatnot, but the lyrics became something completely different by the time we recorded it in 2018.”

It’s a bold decision for any TV show to reject a song by a music great, especially when the song was composed exclusively for that show, but it’s natural that The Walking Dead’s creators would want to keep viewers’ suspension of disbelief as intact as possible. Hearing the instantly recognizable tones of Slash roaring out of TV speakers may have jolted the audience out of their viewing experience, similar to how earlier seasons of The Walking Dead were blighted by Hyundai cars being the only vehicles that seemed to work all of a sudden.

Meanwhile, a new Guns N’ Roses album is said to be on the way. “We are going to try to do another record and get it out soon.” Adding: “I think it will happen faster than you think.”

Slash’s latest album, Living the Dream, is the follow-up to World on Fire, on which he also cooperated with Kennedy and The Conspirators.

The Walking Dead’s ninth season premiered earlier this year, with Rick Grimes, the show’s former main character, saying his goodbyes.