Steven Tyler says he turned to familiar advice when encouraging Axl Rose to reunite with Guns N' Roses, recalling something Jon Bon Jovi told him during a period when Tyler and Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry were on the outs.

"I did meet Axl in a couple of clubs, a year ago, two years ago, three years ago, and I'd bump into him, and I'd have that talk," Tyler recently told Howard Stern. "I said, 'You need to get the f– back together again soon, because we all miss you.'"

That's essentially what Bon Jovi said to Tyler years ago. "People in the world need you," Tyler recalled the singer telling him a few years ago. It's a message that put everything in perspective for Tyler. "There's a place and time, where if you don't [reunite], you're gonna miss it," he noted. "And in another four or five years, no one's even gonna know who they were or care if they were on tour."

UPDATE, Jan. 27: Guns N' Roses, tongues firmly in cheek, have taken to Facebook to "thank the many people taking credit for our upcoming shows and everything in between. Especially those whom we haven't spoken to in numerous years who, through the power of media, have somehow served a pivotal, even if non-existent, role."

Tyler also said Guns N' Roses had their legacy to consider. "I have such a huge ego about keeping the fire and the music together, because if people come up to me and say, 'Dude, I got laid to your music,' or a woman comes up and says, 'We got married to your songs,'" Tyler said. "You had something to do with the fabric of people. Guns N' Roses had something to do with the fabric of humans on this planet."

A partially reunited Guns N' Roses are set to perform a pair of dates at Las Vegas' T-Mobile Arena on April 8-9, then at Coachella for beginning on April 15 in Indio, Calif. More dates could follow. Rose hasn't shared the stage with fellow co-founding members Slash and Duff McKagan since 1993, though McKagan joined Guns N' Roses for some shows in 2014.