Thanks a lot to BrownRock and Velvet00Revolver for posting this...
Velvet Revolver is a band that, for all intents and purposes, shouldn't be. They arose from the wreckage of two of the most popular bands of the 1990s - Guns and Roses, and Stone Temple Pilots. Sadly, they were formed by the death of a friend, and amazingly, we'd have likely lost one of the most amazing singer-songwriters of the rock world to drugs had the band not formed.
For those who have been living in a hole for the last two years, Velvet Revolver is Guns and Roses alumni Slash (Guitar), Duff McKagan (Bass), and Matt Sorum (drums) joined by Dave Kushner (guitar) who played with Duff's band Loaded and the former front man of Stone Temple Pilots - Scott Weiland (vocals).
In mid-July 2005, I had the dubious honor of talking to Duff McKagan about his near-death experience that led to his sobriety, the story behind Velvet Revolver's formation, and the road to sobriety that has lead the band to fame and a fortunate life.
Sean Claes: How are things going?
Duff McKagan: Awesome, I'm rested. I'm looking at the lake out my back window in Seattle. This is my first day of doing phoners in like three weeks.
Claes: Well, sorry you had to do that, but I'm glad to be talking to you.
McKagan: No, it's actually kind of cool though. I have perspective now. I've come out of the foxhole. I just feel relaxed. We kind of have a debacle on our European tour where they booked us for six weeks without us knowing. We thought we were doing seven gigs on the Ozzfest and that was it in Europe. Then Bob Geldof called to do the Live 8. We had to reschedule the whole Europe thing and make it four weeks long. After touring for a year, to go over to Europe and tour for six weeks and be away from your family for that long... It'll kill you.
Claes: That's something that a lot of people don't understand. They just want to know why you aren't coming to their town. They don't understand you've been on tour for fourteen months without a break.
McKagan: We really did tour like twenty-year-olds on this tour. We went for it. Fourteen months straight. We all have families, except Matt has got a girlfriend.
Claes: Did you get to fly your families out?
McKagan: Absolutely. But even then you're moving, and packing, and waiting, and traveling. Which is fun probably from someone else's perspective.
Claes: Any job is fun for a few weeks.
McKagan: It sure is. It comes down to this. You get paid to wait and travel. The playing part is for free, because that's the fun part. I could play a gig every night. It's more fun than anything else there is besides having sex. But being away from your wife and kids or flying them out, or flying home for a night only to fly out at 4a.m. the next morning to get to a gig... it does get old after awhile. And it tears at the fabric of the band. You have got to stay healthy. I feel healthy again.
Claes: And you've got a lot of band to tear the fabric of.
McKagan: Yeah. But the good thing is, we've all been through it before. It used to be that we didn't know what was wrong. Well, shit... you've been on tour for two-and-a-half years, that's what's wrong. So we're being cognizant of our situation and we did set it up so we would have this break, and that three weeks of the break would feel like a break. Because the first week, you still feel like you're in a hotel. We all know that in the band. After that you can actually get up in the middle of the night and know where the bathroom is. You know? "This is my house." We had a birthday party for my five-year-old daughter and had a magician over and a big bouncy bounce. Just fun, goofy, cool stuff. But now I've started to think about writing more songs and listening to the stuff we've written on the road, which is like fifty songs.
Claes: Are you guys working on a follow up to Contraband?
McKagan: We have so much material that it's more like paring it down then coming up with more stuff. We really evolved as a band, and became a band in that fourteen months.
Claes: That was the big question on everyone's minds... everyone who didn't really have the right to ask... "Is Velvet Revolver going to be able to become a "real" band... what about Weiland?"
McKagan: Put yourself in his shoes. Fuck man. Go all the way back. You start playing when you're 15 years old. Then you get good enough, or lucky enough, or fortunate enough to be signed by a record label. They are going to condone anything that you do as long as you're selling records. They're are people out there on the road that are promoters or what-not and they are going to make it really convenient for you, whatever it is... weather it's your drug of choice or poison of choice. As long as you're popular or selling records... give them what they want. It really is that way. It is not a falsity. I've been through it and my pancreas exploded (in 1994). I was like ten minutes from death.
Claes: Wow. Was that the point for you where you were forced to stop?
McKagan: I was in triage for fourteen days. They had a rehab set up for me. I had morphine in one arm and librium in the other... with buttons for the first five days that I could punch whenever I wanted. I needed both of them. I was going through the delirium tremors (DTs).
Then they took the buttons away, which sucked, but they kept the IV in for like five days then they started to wean me off. They had a rehab set up for me to go to in Olympia, Washington. I was in Seattle when it happened. Now, this could go for any one of us, I'm telling my story.
Claes: I guess, in an odd way, you're lucky you were in your hometown when it happened.
McKagan: True. My best friend came over to my house. He saw my car and he knew I wasn't one to go out and jog (laughs) so he came in. I was mentally cognizant but I was in so much physical pain that I couldn't do anything. So he found me and carried me to his car... so you're right I'm lucky that I was home. But they had a rehab set up for me. I saw my mom. I'm the last of eight kids. My mom has passed since, but she had Parkinson's and she came to the hospital every day in her wheelchair. Someone took her to the hospital to see her youngest son with tubes running in and out of him. It's not cool. It's just not fucking cool.
Scott, in his case, he lost his wife and kids for a year and he didn't know how to get out of the spot he was in. In my case, I was lucky my pancreas blew up because it forced me to go sober. I got sober through drugs, but at least I got sober.
Claes: And at least people weren't scrutinizing every little move you made.
McKagan: No, I was underneath the radar at that point. Guns was supposed to be making a new record, but nobody knew about it and I was in Seattle, not LA at the time. Guns was still a huge band at the time.
Scott's been busted so many times. That was the problem. If you want to talk about drugs, which I guess we are now.
Claes: That isn't really where I wanted to take this interview, but since we're talking about it... It's tough as it is to go through an addiction like that, and then to do it under the eye of the public who are just looking for you to slip up.
McKagan: I know. But I'm really proud of that guy. He's spouted out a few times, and kept his mouth shut a couple of times. The most important thing is, he got his family back. First of all, he got his health back. He worked his ass off. I was right next to him going through all of this stuff. Then he got his family back. Usually these people die. So, it should be a celebration at this point.
Claes: That's exactly why I wanted to do his interview. He's got his health back, he's got himself straight, his drug charges were dismissed on July 12, 2005. It looks like there's nowhere to go but up.
McKagan: Yeah. And of course people are now saying, "he doesn't have probation, he's going to go back to drugs." People don't know Scott anymore. I know Scott. It's the knee-jerk average Joe guys. It's just sad that people look for other people to fail... but people like Scott should be celebrated. People like Mark Lanegen (ex-Screaming Trees and Queens of the Stone Age) should be celebrated. He's gone through hell. He's a really good friend of mine. He may not be as popular as Scott, but he is a really good fucking singer.
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