C'mon Slash: Just how good are you at "Guitar Hero"?

Slash has made a fine living of playing a real guitar. But how does he fare with a fake one?

Like millions of others, he got hooked on "Guitar Hero."

"I got addicted enough to the point where I actually beat the game," the Velvet Revolver and ex-Guns N' Roses guitarist says of the popular six-string computer-game simulation. "But I beat the game on Medium — I didn't make it to Expert."

Then he got a call from his manager and actually became part of "Guitar Hero III." Beat a virtual Slash at playing "Welcome To The Jungle," and you beat the game.

Which begs the question: Can Slash defeat himself?

"I just actually played it for the first time last night," he says, laughing with slight embarrassment. "I'm terrible ... I've been playing on tour, playing real guitar for the last seven or eight months."

At this rate, becoming an Expert might take a while. Velvet Revolver is set for an upcoming two-month tour of Australia and Great Britain.

International gigs haven't gone smoothly of late for Velvet Revolver, the marquee-name rock group Slash formed with ex-Stone Temple Pilots lead singer Scott Weiland, ex-Wasted Youth guitarist Dave Kushner and fellow Guns N' Roses alums Duff McKagan (bass) and Matt Sorum (drums). The band was supposed to tour Japan last month, but had to cancel after their visas were denied, reportedly because of the band members' criminal histories. Slash says they're contesting the decision.

"We haven't done anything since the last time we were there," he says. "You know what I mean? It's not like someone got busted for possession or (expletive) being with underage girls. Nothing's happened.

"I attribute it to some (expletive) being on the Internet that's false. People always get their information from the Internet, and I would imagine whoever it is in Japan probably would have gotten misinformation."

The conclusion? "It's one of those things that goes with the territory of this band."

Apparently. Revolver has a reputation for being a reckless band of rockers keen on booze, drugs and an unlawful lifestyle.

Take Slash's answer when asked whether people call him by his stage or given name, Saul Hudson: "Everybody calls me Slash," he says, "except for the police. Even then, once they figure out who it is, they call me Slash, too."

Or how Weiland — known for his in-and-out-of-rehab heroin habit — was recently charged with a DUI.

"I don't know about other bands, but for this band in particular, I guess you know in some ways we deserve it," Slash said when asked whether it's fair the band is tagged with the reputation. "The only thing that's frustrating about it is that people spend so much time dwelling on it. All you have to do is make a good record, put it out, do the tour and that's all anybody should really care about."

Their most recent album, "Libertad" — the band's second disc — was a confirmation for VR. They recorded their debut alum, 2004's chart-topping "Contraband," amid strained conditions: Weiland was on probation and allotted only three hours a day to record. And some saw the band — anchored by Weiland's throaty vocals and Slash's slithery riffs — as a temporary supergroup.

"All the tags, all the labels that were put on us from the inception were just that: labels that were put on us," Slash says. "It had nothing to do with where the band was coming from. The band was coming from a completely more sort of band-oriented, organic place. Which was just a bunch of musicians — albeit sort of high-profile musicians, I guess — but still coming from the same frame of mind of any sort of garage band."

But the second time around, he says, Revolver felt more like a unit. The atmosphere was more relaxed and organized. And now, Slash says, they're getting ready for a third album.

"I'm sure people are already gearing up to say they'll never do it. ... " he says. "I know it's going to be a great record because this band is moving progressively in a forward motion, evolving and getting better with what we're doing."

Of course, there's also the issue of the members' past musical lives. Especially the ever-present questions surrounding Guns N' Roses: Will the long-in-limbo "Chinese Democracy" ever hit shelves? Do Slash or Duff still talk with Axl?

Slash says he gets asked at least three times a day whether the band that defined late-'80s rock will ever reunite. For the record, Slash said no one is "exercising" the idea of a reunion.

"It's just something we don't really discuss in any kind of detail, because it's just not something that's interesting to any of the original members," explains Slash, who has been out of GNR for 12 years. "Nobody's like sitting around going, 'Oh, you know it would be great to put the band back together.' It really hasn't been a topic of conversation."

But he understands why people ask. Really, he does.

"I think if the band could pull it together to do a small tour or something like that, I think it would be great for the fans," says Slash, who often plays GNR songs — and Stone Temple Pilot songs — in concert with Revolver. "I think it would be a huge thing to give back to those people.

"It's just that the circumstances that it would take for everybody to get together in order to do that — if it was that easy, we would never have broken up in the first place."

Plus, he's got a tour to worry about. And "Guitar Hero" waiting when that's done.