Rock to the brink
05 February 2005
Matt Davey talks to Velvet Revolver guitarist Dave Kushner about tight bonds, tough times and shared pasts.
It takes the international toll-call operator some 20 minutes to track down Velvet Revolver guitarist Dave Kushner, via the usual hand-me-ons ? from promotions people to band management and, finally, to the musician himself.
As I wait patiently for the interview slot, images of smashed-up hotel rooms littered with used needles, comatose groupies, empty vodka bottles and the tragic figures of half-dead rockstars pass through my mind.
This scenario, of course, would not unduly surprise, given that Velvet Revolver contains three ex-members of Guns n'Roses (famously described as the world's most dangerous band), a self-destructive lead singer with an on-again-off-again relationship with heroin and a guitarist who has at one time or another belonged to a long list of seriously demented rock groups, such as Danzig, Cyko Miko (ex-Suicidal Tendencies) and Wasted Youth.
My concerns come to nothing.
When I am finally connected to Velvet Revolver guitarist Dave Kushner, he is relaxing in his Miami hotel room, in a jacuzzi with his wife, with a non-alcoholic beverage in one hand and a cellphone in the other.
He chuckles slightly when he tells me of his current situation, knowing that the band's reputation tends to preceed it and that this is probably not what I expected.
Being sure that somewhere along the line something or someone is likely to be close to the brink, I instead inquire into the health of front man Scott Weiland.
Weiland, the former lead singer of grunge heroes Stone Temple Pilots, has been struggling with heroin addiction for a number of years.
"Scott's doing fine at the moment," Kushner says. "I mean, it's up to Scott. He's wrestling with a few demons at the moment.
"We keep a watch-out over each other and try to stand by each other. Some of the others have been through the same shit."
Weiland has been helped off heroin by fellow band member, Duff McKagan. The former Guns n'Roses bass player took Weiland on a trip to the Seattle mountains soon after the band formed and their recently acquired vocalist had been arrested for narcotics possession. There, they participated in a six-week retreat that involved meditation, t'ai chi and kung fu.
The experience of this and the cathartic processes that it involved, as well as the redemptive conclusion that followed, with Weiland's marriage getting back on track, form the basis of the powerful video for the single, Fall to Pieces.
Velvet Revolver's debut album, Contraband, was released in June 2004 and has been in the New Zealand charts since.
Along with Weiland, McKagan and Kushner, Velvet Revolver is made up of Slash, on lead guitar, and Matt Sorum, on drums ? both former members of Guns n'Roses. Kushner is probably the lesser-known of the five and he has been described by the band as their "secret weapon". He brings to the Velvet Revolver-sound a different style of guitar histrionics to the more traditional '70s-rock lead guitar breaks of Slash.
Kushner compares his first major band, The Electric Love Hogs, to grunge heavyweights Faith No More. He also acknowledges the large part that punk played in his early musicianship.
"When I first started playing, I was in a punk band with friends, called Mass Society. We listened to groups like X and Black Flag. All we could play was the bar chords.
"We never learned to play Stairway To Heaven (Led Zeppelin) and no, I still can't play it ? I'm still trying to get past the intro part."
At the time of the interview, Velvet Revolver are in the midst of a United States tour, and still shellshocked after the fatal shooting of four people at the Damageplan concert in Columbus, Ohio, in December.
What drove a psychotic fan to kill Damageplan's guitarist, Darrell "Dimebag" Abbott, as well a security guard, tour manager and a fan at the concert, is a mystery.
For Kushner, the tragedy is a bit close to home: "You know, it was weird. Their tour manager called us only a few nights before it happened and when we heard we weren't sure who had been shot. Each time we got a phone call it would be someone different.
"We (had) just played a month or so ago with Damageplan, on a radio show. Dimebag was such an amazing guitar player, and Matt and the guys were friends with Dime and Vinnie (Dimebag's brother) from their Pantera days. It's a real tragedy and really disturbing to think that something like that can happen to you. It shakes the foundations of what we do."
One senses a tight bond in Velvet Revolver, one that probably has its origins in shared pasts and experiences within the music industry.
For Kushner, his friendship with Velvet Revolver guitarist Slash goes way back a long way. They went to high school together and Kushner remembers Slash for a number of things.
"He looks exactly like the guy I used to know at school in LA. He didn't drink a lot then and had his mind set on being what he wanted to be.
"At one stage he wanted to be an artist, and later on he was a great BMX rider.
"He was always dedicated and determined. As a guitarist, he would lock himself away for days in his bedroom practising. He still brings his guitar back to the hotel room to practise."
Still, despite the picture being portrayed that these guys are in some way in charge of their own destiny, there's a lingering sense that Velvet Revolver are something of a runaway train.
The famous attitude is also still there. Says Kushner: "We're not a reaction against anything, that's just how we have always been. We're not out to show Axel (Rose, former GN'R vocalist) that we can do it.
"We're just five guys trying to take something as far as we can. We don't care."
Velvet Revolver perform at the Westpac Centre, Christchurch, on February 17 and the Mt Smart Supertop in Auckland on February 19. Contraband is out now through BMG.
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