Here Today... Gone To Hell!

Velvet Revolver rockers enjoy success, soberly
Thu Jul 5, 2007 6:31PM EDT

By Dean Goodman

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - When a band sells 3 million copies of its first album, its members might expect to celebrate with a few drinks.

In the case of Velvet Revolver, which comprises three well-heeled veterans of rock 'n' roll bad boys Guns N' Roses, the contents of a medium-sized distillery should suffice.

But alas, most of the members of Velvet Revolver are now family men who no longer touch alcohol. The eerily lucid quintet has just released its second album, "Libertad," a follow-up to 2004's Grammy-winning "Contraband."

"I haven't had a drink in 11 months," says guitarist Slash, a star graduate of the Keith Richards school of bad behavior.

"Or anything else for that matter," he added in a recent interview with Reuters, puffing on an endless string of Gitanes. "Yeah, it's pretty much cigarettes at this point. Cigarettes and sex."

Sex with his wife, mind you. Groupies are old news. "I just ended up with one girl who was exciting enough to make me give all that up."

For bassist Duff McKagan, who played alongside Slash in Guns N' Roses, the idea of perfect happiness is playing Monopoly with his wife and their two preteen daughters. He gave up booze after his pancreas burst in 1994.

LEAVE IT TO WEILAND

Singer Scott Weiland, who rose to fame at the helm of Stone Temple Pilots, proudly adheres to the kind of white-bread lifestyle portrayed in the 1950s TV show "Leave it to Beaver."

 "We get our kids to bed at 8 o'clock, we tuck 'em in, we lay down with 'em at night," said Weiland, whose drug-related brushes with the law placed him on office death-pool lists. He has been straight for 3 1/2 years.

Journeyman guitarist Dave Kushner, who was unemployed before he joined Velvet Revolver, has been sober for 17 years. He got married in 2003, and kids are next on the list.

That leaves drummer Matt Sorum to fly the flag for rock 'n' roll excess. The Guns N' Roses veteran's penchant for groupies has upset Weiland in the past.

That's not to say that Velvet Revolver has gone completely Dullsville. Slash went into rehab during the making of the latest album. And Weiland made headlines when his wife, Mary, incinerated $50,000 worth of vintage suits he had collected over the years. He says all is fine on the home front, and that he and Mary are "just a little bit nuts."

Back at the office, McKagan said the band operates in a complex working environment. "There's big egos in this band. It could implode at any time."

McKagan is fairly relaxed by rock-star standards, but he was a tad saddened that his backing vocals and songwriting expertise were not required by Weiland, who prefers to handle all those things himself.

In Guns N' Roses, McKagan and guitarist Izzy Stradlin wrote the melodies and lyrics for such songs as "Paradise City" and "It's So Easy." He even sang lead on one song, "So Fine."

"It's a weird thing for me to really talk about because it's not like I'm bummed out about it, really," McKagan says of the new arrangement. "We had to make compromises."

"NARCOTIC MISERY"

All the songs are credited to all five members, but some were largely individual creations. McKagan originated "She Mine," the last song Velvet Revolver recorded. The band wanted it to be the first single but was overruled by its RCA Records label, which opted for "She Builds Quick Machines" instead.

 That song is about a woman who gets out of prison, pays off all her debts, but has to run off to another state to find her personal freedom, Weiland said. While his lyrics on other songs are deeply autobiographical, he stretched out into a more narrative approach this time.

On past albums, "I was so self-consumed with my own narcotic misery that there wasn't much room for telling any stories," he said.

Slash says "Libertad" offers a better representation of the band's abilities than its first album.

"Contraband" was recorded while Weiland was dealing with another drugs bust, and amid massive skepticism that the group would amount to anything. The frequent "supergroup" references annoy Weiland, noting that such combos rarely fulfill their potential.

Both Slash and McKagan are looking forward to making a third album, and McKagan also has plenty of material for a solo release. But before that, there is the little matter of a tour. A two-month North American trek will begin August 5 at the Virgin Festival in Baltimore.

http://www.reuters.com/article/musicNews/idUSN0324523720070705?pageNumber=1

How cool, I'd love to hear another Duff solo album!

I miss Duff's backing vocals, but he great live!

Thanks for posting that!  Good read! 

Same! Beautiful Disease kicks ass, so I'd expect nothing less from him. I kind of miss hearing stories of their individual debauchery, though...oh well, it's not 1987 anymore. (Not that I was even born yet, fuckin' bad timing there.)

As far as I know, Duff wrote neither the lyrics nor the melodies to "Paradise City".  He did co-write "It's So Easy".

Ali

Duff talks about a solo album in the interview i posted earlier today also

We know Scott has one in the works as well. Seems that they might use their time off after the Libertad tour has run its course to do some of the solo things it seems they have been working on.

That can really only be seen as a healthy thing for the band, as that will give the guys an outlet to play around with whatever types of styles they want to try without it becoming the new VR sound, or leading to a UYI situation where the next VR album is 5 solo albums in one because everyone wants to try their own thing.

Thanks, nice article  : ok:

I think you might be wrong. I think I remember reading at one point Duff actually wrote the main riff to Paradise City.

The same reporter...new interview.

Velvet Revolver singer praises family life
Thu Jul 19, 2007 3:21PM EDT

By Dean Goodman

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The last time that Velvet Revolver singer Scott Weiland was in the news it didn't have much to do with his musical accomplishments.

Weiland and his model wife Mary got into a brawl at a Los Angeles-area hotel in March, and a room was trashed. Even worse, his wife set fire to $50,000 worth of Weiland's beloved vintage suits.

But on the promotional trail for Velvet Revolver's second album, "Libertad," Weiland, 39, says it was merely a lovers' spat. In reality, he told Reuters that the couple and their two kids live fairly normal lives by rock-star standards:

Q: On his marriage

A: "We're incredible soulmates, but we're both a little bit crazy. We're best friends, we're lovers, we're husband and wife. But in a sense we're both tortured souls."

Q: On home life

A: "There's definitely a Cleaver sense about our household. We get our kids to bed at 8 p.m., we tuck 'em in, we lay down with 'em at night. There's three square meals and the whole shebang. But we also have the ability that we can take them on the road with us and allow them to see other cultures and experience things that other people don't have the opportunity to experience."

Q: On being in a band with fellow addicts

A: "I've managed to stay off drugs for three and a half years, but it's never a sure thing for anybody. Certain guys have gone through their rollercoasters and everyone's there to help everybody else. When someone starts slipping a little bit, we all are there to pull each other up by the bootstraps."

Q: On getting his way in Velvet Revolver

A: "I have always been the person that comes up with the creative concepts for things: "I've got this idea for the video ... I've got the album concept ... We should do this and that." You get a bunch of guys that are in a band together and you have to find ways of creatively manipulating your idea to happen."

Q: On the legacy of his former band Stone Temple Pilots

A: "We wanted to make an effect on music. We wanted to make albums that were played 20 years from now, like our heroes. That was our goal. We wanted that sort of legacy. We wanted to end up leaving a legacy, and we did that. It's so hard to do that in modern times, in rock 'n' roll."

http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUSN0534018020070719?pageNumber=2&sp=true

Written by: "Paradise City" is credited to Guns N' Roses, but it was mainly put together by Duff and Axl. Izzy and Slash also wrote parts of the music.
Written in: The music to "Paradise City" was written in 1984. The lyrics were written in 1985.

thanks to www.gnrsource.com (http://www.gnrsource.com)

i think Duff is way underated....

Page Six Scott mention...

Rehab Be Damned, Lindsay Lohan Takes Sobriety Coach Out Partying
Jul 21, 2007

She may be working on her drinking and drug habits, but partygirl Lindsay Lohan just can't seem to keep herself home and out of the spotlight.

Lohan is now reportedly taking her sobriety coach with her to parties, so she can at least get her dance on. Page Six reports the actress --who coincidentally was just dumped from her latest film when the entire project was canned due in part to its star's "unprofessional behavior" -- was spotted at the Rock & Republic's house party in Malibu "looking radiant" as she danced the night away.

The source says Lohan was "drinking an energy drink" and had Scott Weiland, the gritty lead singer of hard rock group Velvet Revolver, and Steve Jones, a Welsh television presenter and model who's frequently linked to Hollywood party babes, gyrating furiously onstage with her until the wee hours.

Lohan also celebrated her ongoing sobriety by turning herself in this week to answer DUI charges for an accident she was in over Memorial Day weekend, the same day she checked into rehab.

postchronicle.com

Edit: Looks like Scott performed.

http://www.wireimage.com/SearchResults.aspx?igi=282603&s=scott%20weiland&sfld=C&vwmd=e