Clarke recently spoke with Songfacts.com for their Songwriter Interviews series about a variety of topics including the recording of the 'Spaghetti Incident' album, working with Slash, his experiences with Guns N' Roses, what's he's planning next and more.

The topic of his departure from Guns N' Roses came up when he was asked about what he remembers about the recording of GNR's cover of the Rolling Stones classic "Sympathy For The Devil".

He was asked "I remember hearing somewhere that band members said they could sense that that was the ending for the band. Did you have a sense that that was either the ending or the beginning of the end for the band right there?"

Clarke responded, "I might say yes and no on that. I wasn't that involved with the 'Sympathy for the Devil' recording - they did that while I was on the road touring for my solo record.

"I knew that that was the ending because nobody told me about it. Officially I was in the band at that time, and they did that song without me. That was one of the last straws for me, because nobody had said anything to me and they recorded a song by one of my favorite bands. It was pretty clear I'm a big Stones fan, and they recorded the song without me. So I knew that was it."

He then recalled how he learned he was out of the group. He said, "My official end was actually at the last show of the last tour. Axl was jokingly saying 'Bye' to everybody, but he was really saying 'Bye' to everybody. He even came up to me and said, 'Hey, enjoy your last show.' At that point I thought he was being funny, but he wasn't being funny. He knows what he's doing. He's a smart guy. So I knew it was the end at the last show."