THE AQUARIAN WEEKLY>>June 23-June 30, 2004 Vol.2-248
LOOKING DOWN THE BARREL OF VELVET REVOLVERGypsy note: The two pics used in this newspaper are ones we?ve all seen a gazzillion times, so I?m using the Starland Ballroom ad instead. cover
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FULLY LOADEDby Wes Soriano
By now everyone knows who Velvet Revolver are. Rock?s latest supergroup is chock full of familiar faces including former Stone Temple Pilots frontman Scott Weiland, and ex-Guns N? Roses members Duff McKagan, Slash, and Matt Sorum. From the day that their collaboration was announced, Velvet Revolver immediately became one of the most anticipated projects in music history.
Embarking on a series of small venue dates across the country to promote their album,
Contraband, Velvet Revolver have made it clear that although you may know these faces, you?ll be surprised at what you hear. Since we can skip with the formalities of introducing the band, we can jump right into the good stuff, where bassist Duff McKagan took some time out of Velvet Revolver?s insane appearance schedule to talk to
The Aquarian Weekly. I would be remiss if I didn?t say that Duff, although a certifiable rock legend, is one of the most hones and down-to-earth people I have ever had the pleasure of speaking with.
Duff, thanks for taking some time for us. I know you guys are extremely busy.Hey, it?s cool. Just trying to spread the gospel, you know?!
Can you tell us a little about how the band came together?Well, let?s see... We, meaning Slash, Matt and I, really never, after we left Axl, thought that we would ever play together again. Everybody?s eyes would be on us. The only way we would ever do anything again is if it was really great. We never said this, it was just something we all thought.
Anyhow, flash forward seven years, and a friend of ours, Randy Castillo, the drummer from Ozzy Osbourne, passed away from cancer. I was up in Seattle going to school. I had a band up there so I wasn?t down in L.A. a lot. So I didn?t make the funeral. Slash and Matt were there and there was talk about doing a benefit to pay for Randy?s hospital bills and maybe some money for hs family. They wanted to get someone that would bring bodies into the club. So Matt, Slash, and I were brought up. I got a call from Slash so I came down. And they got Josh Todd, Cypress Hill, and at the last minute, Steven Tyler decided he wanted to sing. So the first three chords we hit together (were) was really explosive. It was really there for us, that whole chemistry thing. That?s the only way I can explain it. The gig was one of those magical gigs.
The next day, Slash and I talked and said, ?You know, maybe it?s time we look into this because that was too fuckin? great.? We started writing and we needed another guitar player. The guy from my band, Dave Kushner, came in and started playing with us and fit in perfectly. That gave us more incentive. So we put out word that we were looking for a singer and got like 1,000 CDs of different vocalists. You can imagine how much of that was good! Here?s a good way to get your stat: one day we listened to 100 straight CDs. Out of the 100, one was okay.
All we needed was a singer. Someone equal to us in aggressiveness. So, we got an offer to do song for
The Hulk, and another offer to do a cover of Pink Floyd?s ?Money,? for
The Italian Job. And Scott was a friend of mine who had been asking what was up with the band. He was still in STP. And, voila, right when the movie offers came in, Stone Temple Pilots broke up.
It was a simple phone call, ?Scott, do you want to do some songs with us? We?ll make some dough.? We did the songs and it was just love at first sight. Since that day, about a year ago, we haven?t looked back.