Velvet Revolver in 'OOR'

[Reckless Rose]

In the Dutch music magazine 'Oor' there is a Velvet Revolver article. I've translated the complete article, here it is;

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Is anybody still waiting for Chinese Democracy? I dont think so. It's an other world these days and there is one heck of a rockband in it which has 3/5 of the Guns N' Roses blood going through its veins.

VELVET REVOLVER

7 Songs were written by ex Guns N' Roses members Slash, Duff McKagan and Matt Sorum with Dave Kushner (ex-Wasted Youth and school friend of Slash) before Stone Temple Pilots singer Scott Weiland paid them a visit. When Scott delivered the lyrics for the music of Set Me Free they knew it, Scott was the frontman for whom they had been looking. A frontman with a drugs-problem maybe but hey, didn't Duff and Slash had that excessive past as well? And didn't they found 'peace' as well?

Paranoia
The cooperation went smooth. With Scott in the role as a conductor/arranger/....... they guys quickly wrote the rest of a debut album in Scott's studio in Burbank. Contraband was eventually recorded within 3,5 weeks. It's a good, decent rockalbum without too many modern touches but it's not an old fashioned album either because especially Scott is too 'nowadays' for that. We didn't have to expect the urgency of Appetite For Destruction either cause they are experienced Rock & Roll animals aren't really hard up.
The expectations for a Velvet Revolver record weren't as big as for the a new Guns N' Roses record in the early 90's, nevertheless the band did feel the tention before the release of Contraband. Because the guys were afraid for illegal distribution of their music. One watermarked copy of the cd for each band member, more of them haven't left the safe of the record company. Slash: 'You remember, the Illusion albums? They were released on a perticular day, and everybody had big expectations. At midnight all the shops opened and there were lines of people waiting....Now it's totally different. The paranoia in the industry! And you don't have a choice really, you have deal with it. In 1999 and 2000 I was confronted with all possible musicbusiness shit you can think of, that was a pretty big hit for me (<=dunno if i translated that  in the right way). Bad management, Guns N' Roses nagging, record companies who were turned up side down, people who I worked with were fired, new owners....Plus the rise of the internet of course. That was a 'huge fuckin' reality check' for an old fashioned rock guy as me, hehehe (Slash didn't change, well except for the fact that he gained some weight, lots of hair, sun glasses, T-shirt full of cartoon-ladies with big breasts, cigarettes within arm's reach, every 3rd word that rolls of his tongue is 'fuck').
Duff: 'Downloading and stuff, that's inevitable once the recored has been released of course. But important for us was that the end of the movie wasn't known already before the film premiere in the cinema. Not a few songs on the internet before the release. I mean everything fits in the puzzle with the bandmembers and we've worked really hard to get the album done and to make it to what it is now. And to just give away that work, to just leak it out, that was a miserable idea.' (Duff is tall and thin and with his suntanned skin looks parchment, his hair straw. His shirt colourfull and hangs far open. He talks a bit like Ozzy; sober, but it looks like if he talks with a 'double tongue'.)

GUNS N' SNAKEPIT
Slash: 'Guns N' Roses was of course one of the best things that could happen to us. It was a good rockband which completely stood for the time in which it rised. We wont deny that we were a part of that group, but Velvet Revolver has an own sound, enough to not label it as a Guns N' Roses or Stone Temple Pilots look a like band.
Duff: 'After Guns N' Roses we all walked our own ways, none of us wanted to slow down and do nothing.
Slash: 'Live on the old glory, pfft no.'
Slash has heard few bands after the start of Velvet Revolver that inspired him, Duff goes for Queens of the Stone Age.
Slash: 'Duff even is the official spokesman of Queens of the Stone Age.'
Duff:'Yeah I think they are great. I'm the biggest fuckin' "banner-waver" (<=no idea how to translate the word 'vaandelzwaaier' ) of the Queens. Anyway, my point is; in my eyes they stand the closest to what I want to see in a Rock & Roll band. Too bad that Nick [Oliveri] has left the band now. I mean he kinda was the wild card in the band, the most dangerous part. I haven't heard the Eagles of Death Metal yet.'
Slash: 'They did a show here right? Hmm I envy everybody who tours, I want to tour as well! That'll make me perfectly happy again. I konw that because it went just like that when I started with Snakepit. Thanks to that band I got to know again why I really like making music. That feeling faded away a bit with Guns N' Roses. It all had become a bit vague, the reality completely dissapeared out of sight. Then Snakepit came, a band with young lads who were still 'hungry'. I did a real promotiontour with them, with which I could play in every hall of the world, from clubs to stadiums. I sold a lot of records because of that. I reinvented myself as a rock & roll guitarist, I really liked what I was doing again. So when I finally came back to Guns N' Roses it was like a cold shower and so I finally chose for my own band. That experience influenced me as far as that I hold on to this band in an arrogant way. It's something I really beleive in. You know, ever since I started playing guitar people tried to steer me. Back then they already told me that I should choose for drums or bass because there were too many guitarists. It always stayed that way, people always gave me advices that opposed my feelings.
That's why I have the arrogant attitude; 'Snakepit strengthened me and made me beleive in myself.'
Duff: 'I think everybody explored their horizons like Slash did. We all went our own ways and wrote better songs, and we learned to appreciate each other more. The chemistry between me, Slash and Matt is so special, I've never had that with any other band. Not with Neurotic Outsiders, not with Loaded. And then Scott who just opens his soul...I think Velvet Revolver is a rock & roll band as honest as you can wish for'.
Slash: 'Determined is the word how to describe the cooperation between these people. From the moment we rehearsed, bam! There we go. Not much talking, we didn't do it back then and we still dont. The songs just kept coming, sometimes even 1 song on 1 day. I don't like those bands in which everything needs to be discussed anyway. Everybody is free in doing what he wants. If we do our thing together then it just sounds right. I recharge with the energy that I get from the others.

[Reckless Rose]

CRAZY FUCKER
Slash:'Scott's role in the band? Scott is the singer'.
Duff: 'Hahaha. And being a singer you must a bit 'insane' (<=don't know how to put this in an other way...). The good thing of Scott is that he stays rational. Focused. He works hard for it. Just like us he can't wait for a world tour. With Stone Temple Pilots he never really got to that point. Guns N' Roses did, we were a real tourband. Scott is jealous at that. I beleive that he only played once in Amsterdam right? London once. Never in Japan! So he's really excited because that's all within arm's reach now. And he is a Crazy fucker on stage. The first time we played in the El Rey Theater he did all his crazy fucker shit.'
Slash: 'Scott is crazy man. He faced all his problem, and he can live with his shortcomings so he feels like living again. What more can I say? Every band has an unsure element, Scott is it for us. But I've got faith in him. The chance that we will be touring with another frontman are very slim.'
Duff: 'No way! A Scott look a like, maybe.'

NARCOTIC DELINQUENTS
Slash and Duff were in Amsterdam to talk about Contraband. Scott Weiland is on the phone, he just got fired out of rehab facility where he stayed for several months. But that's nothing new, 'cause Scott's drugs and alcohol problems have their roots in his teenager years. His misbehaviour is wide publiciced in the press and it's actually a miracle that he didn't walk the same way as Cobain and Staley. On the phone he tried hard to do his utmost best to take his responsibilities as the frontman seriously. He says things like; 'This band walks on the edge of a razorblade'. And he also makes unasked apologies.

'With Stone Temple Pilots we grew up in public. My life must have looked dangerous and painfull for outsiders. But I had a lot of fun, especially at the beginning. I regret only a few things, but I have hurt the feelings of people that I love. I scared them several times. Because of those experiences I'm a grown up man now, and I'm proud at that. Proud as a person, as a husband, as a father and as a musician.
That sounds good. Earlier this year Scott divorced his wife, model Mary Forsberg. She started making arrangements for the break up in September 2003 after 2 years of marriage and a lot of collisions with her man. Scott and Mary have 2 children.
Slash, Duff and me are the narcotic delinquents. We drank a lot and we saw many policecars from the inside. Nowadays we live a lot more peacefull, I don't really fuss about the media attention anymore. Neither do Slash and Duff. We're happy with wife and children. Matt on the other hand is the night mayor of Hollywood, a swinging single. Dave is a greenhorn. He will go through a lot though, 'cause Velvet Revolver seems to go topspeed. I can't compare it to anything else then with the beginning era of STP and GN'R. Only we're a lot wiser now, we can handle it.
And then, at full steam, 'Velvet Revolver is a bigger 'fuck you-statement' then the STP ever was. Velvet Revolver is .... more dangerous. Because of the lives we all lived. That comes to the fore in the music. 5 totally different individuals, more intensity, a litte bit more dirty, a little bit more naughty and more sex.

WARM BLANKET
Scott has been through a lot and can't do anything else then put that in his lyrics. Headspace, Fall To Pieces, You Got No Right, they all speak for themselves. 'The lyrics flow out of the last 2 years of my life, so they're very personal but I don't feel a need to explain things. Find out for yourself. I do want to say what I see ahead of me. I'm on the 'right path' (?) now, and I dont tend to differ from that. I need all my friends and acquaintances for that, but doesn't that count for everybody? People need people. I would have found it great of course if the media wasn't constantly paying attention to me and judging me. That's probably one of the main reasons I started doing drugs over and over again. I created a warm blanket around me that kept the world outside, I felt protected by it.
'I don't give a fuck about the recordbusiness anymore. I was involved in a lot of shit in the STP time and I only felt bad because of it.
I dont want to be obsessed by numbers anymore, who arrange my career. Now I leave it up to the management to look at the nmbers. I write, I record and I perform. I worry about my form of art, my performance. And if money comes in then I'm happy, 'cause that makes the my life and the life of my family a bit more comfortable.

PUSSY
Slash said earlier; 'It's of course great to sell a lot of records in the States and to be famous. But if the same happens in Europe, then that feels like acknowledgment. In the U.S.A. you are more like a product. Even with Guns N' Roses we felt like that. We might have been known as a typical L.A.-band, but no one of us came from L.A. and actually we hated that city. The European succes tasted really sweet, it gave our careers more depth.'
Scott adds: 'In America you see at a concert that people need to get rid of agression. It gets me too rough sometimes. Young guys who bother girls. And then we've got to stop the show. It looks like there is more sexism in the crowd or something.
The art work of Contraband shows a silhouette of a long legged lady on high boots with a revolver on her hip. Scott explains where the line walks; 'I love sex and I love making love. I love pussy completely. Sexism is totally different from sexy. Check it in the dictionarry. Lets not mix up those things. A sexy woman with a .44 Magnum next to her bod is a sexy, powerfull image right? We wanted to show a woman who showed power. Now that's a women I don't want to fuck, hahah'.

REVENGE
'You know, I like the White Stripes. And The Hives. Rock & Roll bands with an american sound. I think Jet is very good and Pretty Girls Make Graves as well. Those are bands who spread Rock & Roll in a pure form, with chords based on blues. I'd almost say that those bands have an educational value for youth. Kids dont realise that rock music is based on blues schemes. That's because of the metalfunk and nu metal bands, who absolutely dont have any rhythm & blues influences in their music. Velvet Revolver takes revenge at the whole white, sexism "jockrockwave" of the late 90's. Bands who mixed up rock music with the WOrld Wrestling Federation. Yes, we are here to keep the flag of the American Rock & Roll high.