Rock?n?roll survivors
Jun 6 2007
by Gavin Allen, South Wales Echo
VELVET Revolver, led by iconic Guns?n?Roses guitarist Slash, come firing into Cardiff tomorrow night. The LA five-piece is home to some of the hardest rockers in music. Gavin Allen reckons it?s amazing any of them are still alive...
Name: DAVE KUSHNER
Age: 41
Instrument: Rhythm guitar
Former bands? Wasted Youth, Infectious Grooves, Electric Love Hogs, Cyco Miko, Danzig, Zilch and Loaded.
Quick history: Born in LA in 1966, he started in Wasted Youth but left before they released their third album. He has since been a guitarist for hire in a series of bands. In 1998 he joins the hard rock band Zilch formed by Japanese guitarist Hide, who died right before their record came out. The remaining members toured to pay tribute to him. That?s where Dave met Duff, who was touring Japan with his band Loaded.
Lucky to be alive rating? 5/10. He has lasted this long in the crazy hard rock scene but Kushner?s problem was the debt that forced him to be a session musician for Vanilla Ice in 1998. His body lived but his pride died.
Name: MATT SORUM
Age: 46
Instrument: Drums
Former bands? Guns?n?Roses, Hawk, Johnny Crash, The Cult, Camp Freddy, Circus Diablo, Slash?s Snakepit
Quick history: Started in bands in Mission Viejo, California, in the late Seventies. His stand-out ability saw him become a drummer for hire. In 1988 he played on Tori Amos? debut album, and a year later joined The Cult. In 1990 he replaced Steve Adler in Guns?n?Roses just ahead of the Use Your Illusion albums and tours. He was fired in 1997 after defending Slash in an argument with Axl Rose. In 2001 he rejoined The Cult but in 2002 began work with Slash on what would become Velvet Revolver, although he also released a solo album in 2003. In 2006 he re-established his friendship with Rose.
Lucky to be alive Rating? 4/10. Joined G?n?R when the craziest days were over, playing with a splintered band at odds with each other rather than drinking together.
Name: SCOTT WEILAND
Age: 39
Instrument: Vocalist
Former bands? Stone Temple Pilots, Camp Freddy, solo work
Quick history: Formed Stone Temple Pilot in the late Eighties and they became one of the biggest names in grunge.
In 1993 Weiland picked up his heroin habit and in 1995 was arrested for possession, forcing STP to cancel most of their tour in 1996. The other members went on without him as Talk Show while Weiland released a solo album which failed and a subsequent drugs bust earned him jail time.
On his release, STP reformed and released their best album No.4. In 2001, after arguing with his bandmates, STP disintegrated. After rehab he joined Velvet Revolver.
Lucky to be alive rating? 9/10 A bona fide rock survivor. Jail time served for a long-time but now hopefully kicked heroin addiction. He is also bi-polar and goes through bouts of manic depression but, ironically, doesn?t take medication for it.
Name: SLASH (Saul Hudson)
Age: 41
Instrument: Lead guitar
Quick history: Born in Stoke on Trent, his mother (a costume designer/lover for David Bowie) moved him to LA when he was 11 and he struggled to fit in. At 15 his gran gave him a guitar. He dropped out of school and cruised bands until meeting Axl Rose in 1984 and eventually joined Guns?n?Roses, who became the biggest band in the world in the late ?80s and early ?90s with Slash his generation?s defining guitarist. He quit the band in 1996 after fighting with Rose and the pair still hate each other. He made two albums with Slash?s Snakepit, ran a covers band and worked on Michael Jackson?s album Dangerous, before founding Velvet Revolver.
Former bands? Guns?n?Roses, Slash?s Snakepit, Slash?s Blues Ball
Lucky to be alive Rating? 10/10 You can?t get closer to death than having your heart stop for eight minutes after collapsing after a huge drugs binge. Had a phenomenal alcohol and drugs intake at his peak with G?n?R, the so-called ?Most dangerous band in the world.?
Name: DUFF MCKAGAN
Age: 43
Instrument: Bass
Former bands? Guns?n?Roses, Silly Killers, The Fartz, 10 Minute Warning, Alice in Chains.
Quick history: Played drums in a few bands around Seattle in the early ?80s. He moved to LA when he was 19 and answered an ad for a bass player in a local magazine which introduced him to Slash and eventual G?n?R drummer Steven Adler. His 13-year career with the near-lethal G?n?R saw him spiral into booze and drug addiction but he quit in 1998, citing Axl Rose?s behaviour as the reason.
In 1993 he released a solo album and in 1999 a second album was made but never released and he was dropped by his label.
He joined Slash?s Snakepit and skirted various bands including bands Loaded with whom he toured Japan in support of fellow ex?G?N?R man Izzy Stradlin and it was on that tour that he once again hooked up the other former gunners Velvet Revolver in 2002.
Stradlin initially worked with VR before Weiland took over lead vocals.
Lucky to be alive rating? 9/10. In 1994 his pancreas exploded and doctors gave him a month to live unless he quit drinking. A MONTH!
http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/0900entertainment/
Author