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The Little Band
That Could
They all said this supergroup of legendary
misbehavers would never fly. Wrong
Surefire? The rock stars
of Velvet Revolver
By Lorraine Ali
NewsweekJune 14 issue - Train wreck?
Car crash? Trailer Park in a Tornado?
Any of these would have been a more
appropriate name than Velvet Revolver.
This supergroup, comprising some of
rock's most notorious bad boys—Slash, Duff McKagan and
Matt Sorum of Guns N' Roses, singer Scott
Weiland of Stone Temple Pilots—spent
the past year working hard on an album
that everyone just knew would never happen.
After all, Weiland had been busted on drug
charges three times in the past decade,
traded punches with STP band mates onstage
during their final tour and was in and
out of rehab during the recording of Velvet
Revolver's debut, "Contraband." Slash,
McKagan and Sorum had also been in and
out of rehab, and they hadn't played together
since their band imploded and Slash left
in 1996. But against all odds, "Contraband" is
out this week, and the first single, "Slither," is
already in the top five on the rock charts,
and the album is even being embraced—rather
than eviscerated, as expected—by
critics. The band is now finishing a club
tour whose every date sold out in minutes—and
that was before anybody had even heard
the album. "I call it the Evel Knievel
factor," says Weiland, 35, backstage
before their New York show. "He
filled stadiums, but not because people
wanted to see him make the jump. They
wanted to see if he'd crash and burn."
So far nobody's running for the fire
extinguisher. But this unlikely combination
of two rock superpowers—Guns N'
Roses ruled the late '80s, and alternative
rockers STP dominated the mid-'90s—is
truly explosive. Guitar hero Slash lays
down a base of blues-inspired arena rock,
while Weiland's androgynous weirdness
adds a touch of obligatory artiness.
The result is a hard-driving album that
sounds nothing like either of the original
bands—or anything else on the radio
these days. "I've been holding on
for dear life to my original concept
for a good rock-and-roll band," says
Slash, 40, who decided to pull the group
together after playing a successful 2002
benefit for an ailing friend with his
former GNR band mates. (They roped in
Weiland after STP officially hit the
skids a year and a half ago.) "I've
never conformed to any other industry
standard. God, can you imagine if
I cut all my hair off and started
a boy band? It would be very embarrassing." It's still difficult to see Velvet Revolver
(which also includes guitarist Dave Kushner,
from Dave Navarro's band) as a cohesive
group. Behind the scenes, Slash and Weiland
don't have much interaction. They do interviews
separately, and during sound checks they
hardly look at each other. You get a sense
that everyone is still testing the waters
before they submerge themselves entirely.
Still, Weiland claims there are no ego
wars to speak of, and Slash says he finds
the STP singer a joy to work with after
dealing with one of rock's most mercurial
frontmen, Axl Rose. "Scott always
wants to work," says Slash, "and
that's a change. With Axl, it was impossible
to get him to do anything. Scott's whole
problem is tangible—it's just a
drug problem. It's not something completely
insane that we can't understand." Weiland is sober, but
he still appears painfully skinny and
smokes too much. He's visibly uncomfortable
doing interviews again, and looks genuinely
happy only when talking about his two
small kids and his wife of four years.
He's spoken to only a few journalists
since Velvet Revolver launched and says
this will be his last interview for a
while. "I'm tired
of being asked the same questions regarding
drugs, arrests, what it's like to be in
the back of a cop car," he says. "I'm
also tired of journalists acting like sycophants,
then, when they get away to a safe distance,
printing what they think I should have
said. Call me a f---up, fine, but say it
to my face before you make it a headline.
If I meet them again I'll shake their hand
and smack them in the face." Slash,
on the other hand, seems to relish the
attention. He looks exactly as he did back
in the day, and he's recognized by cops
and kids alike when he enters the building
for a sound check. He looks forward to
hitting the stage, if only because "every
time we do, it's a big 'f--- you' to everyone
who said we'd never, ever make it there."
Velvet Revolver probably
won't sell 7 million debut albums like
STP, or become as legendary as GNR. Those
are impossible standards to meet. But
Weiland just wants to enjoy the ride—wherever
it takes him. "With STP, it happened
so fast I was caught up like a whirling
dervish," he
says. "By the time I landed on the
ground, three years had gone by. Then 10
years. With Revolver, we've all shared
the same narcotic misadventures, and now
we have an opportunity to do things different.
If this band has any success, we'll be
able to enjoy it this time around." Rock-deprived
music fans are enjoying the ride already.
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