Guns N’ Roses fans who are in their forties have a reason to rejoice today. Our friends at Rock It Out! Blog have reported that band’s latest guitarist – DJ Ashba – has officially announced that the band’s next album will be out before they start collecting social security. (Well, maybe.) Ashba, who joined the group in March of last year, made the announcement during a red carpet interview at these weekend’s Call of Duty: Black Ops launch party.

“We’ve been throwing around a bunch of ideas,” he said, “and it should be good.” While it’ll probably be better than the highly-anticipated/mostly-disappointing Chinese Democracy (which GN’R fans had to wait 15 years for), we’re not going to believe the news until Axl Rose says something about it. Hell, given Rose’s penchant for not wanting to even promote a record, we’re not going to believe it until it’s actually out on the shelves.

What we will believe is Ashba’s claim that the band will tour the U.S. in February. They just came off of two-month European tour and the 37-year-old says that GN’R will “head out on the 27^th to Australia then we’re back here in the states doing a tour.” While being able to see the band without having to but a plane ticket is pretty exciting news for American fan, Ashba still seems most amped about recording new tunes.

“Axl has a lot of good shit up his sleeves, so I’m really excited about it,” Ashba explained, “It won’t take as long – I promise.” Sure it won’t.  Tour dates haven’t been announced yet, but you can watch the interview below.

Image via Zimbio.com