Returning the Glory to Rock N'Roll

Given the events of the past year-and-a-half, you might think Velvet Revolver's biggest accomplishment is their mere arrival, yet to hear them tell their story, it's rock n' roll's survival that we really should have been worrying about.

It's been a decade since the demise of Guns N' Roses, a musical superpower that lived as hard as they played, burning out long before the chance to fade away. And while their music forever changed the face of hard rock, it seems as though the past ten years have done everything they could to undo the band's impact.

"How neutered the music industry is, is probably one of the reasons we exist today in the first place," says Slash, Gun' legendary guitarist, who along with former bandmates Duff McKagan and Matt Sorum, frontman Scott Weiland, and guitarist Dave Kushner, have emerged as Velvet Revolver, one of the brightest spots on a rock'n'roll landscape that's been remarkable bleak as of late. "We went out on tour before the album came out, and that, in my mind, was the proper way to present a rock'n'roll band - On its own merit, without anyone knowing the album, "the guitarist continues, trademark cigarette in hand, reclining in the Hollywood loft that played host to this feature's photo shoot. "We didn't have a lot of expectations, we just threw ourselves in the pit to see what happens..."

What happened, was an album that not only debuted as the top-selling record in America, but also succeeded in rekindling a musical fire that's been all but snuffed out in recent years, achieving platinum sales in merely a month's time, and raising hopes that a rock'n' roll revival may be underway. In this, the first of a two-part interview with Velvet Revolver, McKagan, Kushner and Slash examine the inner-dynamics of their band, an outfit many hope will return rock to its heralded glory days. Next month, in the interview's conclusion, we sit down with drummer Matt Sorum and formet Stone Temple Pilots frontman Scott Weiland, who ends his self-imposed months of silence in a Metal Edge exclusive...

Metal Edge: The rumor mill was in motion really early with this project, but in reality how long has Velvet Revolver been a serious band?
Duff: Yeah, the rumours really took over much before we got serious about this thing. There were a lot of nay-sayers, but we are really used to working under those sort of conditions.

Metal Edge: Given the nature of your past band, that's understandable.
Duff: Yeah, we kind of thrive on it... We got Dave in, and he was the perfect muse to Slash. I've seen different versions of Slash - with the other guitar players not adding anything to what Slash does - but, of course, I come from a point of seeing Izzy (Stradlin, former Guns N' Roses guitarist) play with Slash, and they are like two different worlds. Well, that same thing happened with Dave, they had that. He was playing in my band, Loaded, but Slash has known him from junior high, and he has been around - he knew how Slash played, and he was a bit nervous, but he really brought cool and beautiful ideas, he's kind of an unsung hero. Then, we had to look for a singer, and we thought word-of-mouth would do it, from people we know on the street. Scott has been there from the beginning because our wives are friends, and socially we would go out, but he was still in Stone Temple Pilots, and that's now how we roll. We are not hoing to steal anybody from any band, it should just come naturally, because that's the way we got together. Anyhow, we knew something was going to happen at some point. We are really hard workers, we believe in destiny, and we knew that if we got together, the right thing would come. We tried out some guys, got over a thousand CDs, and 99.9 percent of it was pure rubbish, it really got a bit frustrating at times. Then we got offered to do the Hulk and Italian Job soundtracks, and right about the same time, Stone Temple Pilots ended, so it was really a simple call from me to Scott saying, "Hey, Scott, do you want to do soundtracks? You know, it's easy money..." We gave him the first track, which was "Set Me Free" - I just gave him that sort of power riff, he came back the next day and you could see it becoming a rock'n'roll band.

Metal Edge: Expectations were high, because the public is expecting the next Axl Rose...
Duff: We don't pay attention to that - The hype machine is what inevitably killed Guns, so we just kept on our own path. We have learned a few things from the past, and we just kept on it, we wanted to be true to our songs. We were focused on songs, we had like sixty, and we had to weed it down. Then we wrote two with Scott in the room, too. "Loving The Alien," him and I were sitting in the studio with an acoustic guitar, nobody else was there, and I just started playing some C and some A-minor, and here comes "Loving The Alien." In five minutes, we had the song.

Metal Edge: So there was chemistry from the start - It wasn't like a supergroup that initially struggled through writing together?
Duff: Basically, that's what all the hype and all the rap is about, but we knew what we were getting into... We were like, "Look, who runs in our circle?" We know guys like Scott Weiland and Chris Cornell, we are all pals. The supergroup tag... To me, a supergroup is like a record company putting everybody together, like Asia (laughing). We are not that, and we've all been through the same shit - Scott just happened to be going through it right then, and he came to us and he said, "Man, I want to stop." He came to me, especially.

Metal Edge: Having been through it yourselves, does that make it easier dealing with the issues that have risen while Scott's going through it?
Duff: Well, he knows what we did, and we all got right behind him and really nipped it in the bud - He wanted his family back, he wanted to stop. He didn't want to die, and he wanted to still be a man.

Metal Edge: Martial Arts are something that you've been doing for years, and you've turned him onto that as well, right?
Duff: Yeah, it's not just a physical thing, obviously, it's a mental thing, it's a spiritual thing. They are all mixed together, and if you have a great teacher, like I have, [the drugs] become something you do not want to stay on. I swear to God, my bone structure is different now. You change through physical conditioning and eating right. Just knowing that I could change my insides - realizing that your mind could tell your body what to do, as opposed to having your body tell your mind... Four years ago this doctor says, "You are the healthiest guy I know in L.A." After everything I've been through? That's how well it works, it can really change you. I really don't know about rehab - I know that my friends have been through it, but Scott really grabbed onto the martial arts philisophy.

Metal Edge: I don't think people who haven't dealt with addiction can truly realize what someone's going through as they battle their way through it - it's not as easy as, "Just stop." Or, "Just go to rehab..."
Duff: I actually took one year off from even dating, because I had to focus on myself. I realized a lot of stuff about my world. It was a lonely year, but it was time will spent. I even went to college! I didn't graduate from high school, and now I'm fucking hardcore, business school at Seattle University - a Jesuit university - taking classes with people who were Deans' List and Provosts' List. I did things that I would have never normally done, because I was disciplined enough to do them. I didn't graduate high school, but was able to have study skills twelve years later - I started in like '98, and was taking classes until about the beginning of this band.

Metal Edge: Did you get a degree?
Duff: I'm one quarter short, because this thing started, but this is my dissertation. I want to write it on the business of this band, and it's great, because I am taken very seriously at meetings with record company people and accountants.

Metal Edge: In my mind, Guns N'Roses were largely responsible for ushering in a lot of the grunge movement. Things go so decadent, so over the top, that becoming the anti-Guns N' Roses became the natural evolution. You're a decade older now, sober, and have new energy. Can you still maintain those creative fires that fueled you in GN'R?
Duff: Well, we are what we are, and we never changed. I mean, I have early points in my life that made me who I am, specific moments - I saw the Clash in '79, and Paul Strummer came out with an ax and broke down the wooden barrier so people could get closer. Then there was Iggy Pop a year later - Those unbridled, "fuck you" types of bands, those living, breathing machine that are just a gang, you know? So those are all those things that will never leave me, and that's who I am. People say: "Have you lost your motivation because you have money?" That has nothing to do with it at all. We are pure musicians, and Slash and I are not any different the way we approach music now, the we were when we met.

Metal Edge: One of the biggest criticisms about rock'n'roll these days is that it's not dangerous anymore. Do you think rock'n'roll needs to be dangerous?
Duff: I would fuckin' hope so!

Metal Edge: Can it still be dangerous for you now, being older, wiser and sober?
Duff: Well, I think being dangerous... When I saw the Clash, I knew those guys were all fucked up, but dangerous doesn't have to mean shooting drugs and getting fucked up. You take a group like us, who are very dedicated to what we do, and when we get up onstage, it's like warfare. The audiences are pretty rowdy, balls to the wall, and we breathe it, and take all their energy. Anything could happen at any time, it's not like a recycled show that we go through. I have two kids and we have an au pair that came over from Poland, and she's really into like Nickelback and Creed, so she was like, "Can we go to this club and go see Nickelback?" So I got tickets and went with her, and I was done, I was like, "Is this what it's come to?" I gave her a cab fare and said, "I gotta go, man, I can't take this..." In my band Loaded, we were playing gigs with more undergound bands like Fu Manchu, Fireball Ministry, fuckin' cool, underground bands - Then I'd go see Creed and Nickelback, and I was like, "So this is what mainstream rock is? There's no danger." I went and saw Jerry Cantrell last night, and I came out of the show and there's like 12-year-old girls and a 38-year-old man, and this girl was looking at me like they look at Justin Timberlake, crying and stuff. So that just goes to show you that they haven't experienced real rock'n'roll yet. I learned that in college, too, because the kids I was going to colledge with said they got ripped off, because they don't have rock'n'roll today.

Metal Edge: I was lucky enough to experience the last great wave of rock'n'roll first hand, and there hasn't been much like it in the past decade. Yet I saw you both night when you played L.A., and I thought the second night was better than the first - It's really tough to not get let down the second night, because it's not new... That says a lot, to me, about how great a band Velvet Revolver is.
Duff: It's just a lot of fun, and we're starting to feel it and really starting to click as a band. I think one of the greatest moments so far wasn't at a live gig - Matt and I went to the gym in Manhattan, which was about twelve blocks from the hotel, and we're walking back and these two guys compe up out of the subway, and they're like, "Hey! Matt and Duff from Velvet Revolver!" That was like, "Okay, now we're starting to get identified with our band. . ." We're hoping that the next video is going to be a big single, "Fall To Pieces." It's a very emotional song, it's not a power ballad just to be a power ballad - I don't even know if it is a power ballad, it just is what it is.

Metal Edge: Scott wrote those lyrics after he was arrested the last time, right?
Duff: Yeah, right at the beginning of the band, when he got busted for drinking - The next morning he got out of jail and came in and said, "I gotta do this song..." I forget, but we had a name for it, a working title, and he just sang the first couple of lines, and didn't even have enough time to finish it, Matt had to ProTool the end of the tape of our demo. It was very emotional. Rock'n'roll doesn't always have to be in your face and give you a bloody nose, it can be cerebral. Rock'n'roll should be inspiring people, and giving them hope and giving them an outlet. We're not curing any of the world's problems, but I remember growing up and listening to records - You're working your ass off at the restaurant doing dishes or whatever, but you always had this record you could go to. You could tell your boss to fuck off through that record, then go back to work and be you...

Metal Edge: Were there initial growing pains?
Duff: When Scott came in, he was in, and it was solved - The overused word "chemistry" was there. That's when we decided to do the press conference, because we knew we were just sick. We worked so good with Scott, and Scott worked so good with us, and all the pieces fit. It was almost as if the rock'n'roll gods were up ther waiting for him - "Okay, this guy is the one for them, this has to happen..." The songwriting and chemistry with us up on the stage is just unbelievable, and here we are!

Metal Edge: You may not be familiar to fans of Guns N' Roses or Stone Temple Pilots but you've been friends with these guys for a while, right?
Dave Kushner: Yeah, I've known Scott for about fifteen years, Matt and Duff for maybe seven, and Slash and I went to junior high together- Actually, right around the corner from here at the end of the block.

Metal Edge: You've got a different style than Slash...
Dave: He's got hair, and I don't - Totally different style...(Laughing)

Metal Edge: In terms of playing, too (laughing) - Was there any concern as to how your playing styles would mesh?
Dave: I guess that's why it works. I don't know if there was ever a concern... Maybe in the very beginning, me trying to find out what's okay and what's not okay, and Duff was very supportive in that sense, because I had already been playing with him, and he knew my thing with my pedal and all that kind of stuff. He was like, "Dude, just do your thing..." And I did it, and it just happened to work.

Metal Edge: So, you're kind of supplementing and filling out Slash's sound, rather than trying to compete with him.
Dave: Yeah - It's not, "Hey, check me out, I got these cool pedals..." That's always been my kind of thing - I've mostly been in two-guitar bands, so to play some octave part by itself sounds cool, but to play some octave part with a wah-wah on it, or a phaser pedal or a flanger pedal to me, just sounds more interesting.

Metal Edge: How does writing come into play with everybody? You've known these guys for years, does that make it easier?
Dave: Well, I never played with Slash, but it was kind of easy, because we didn't have a singer for like a year, the four of us just played together and just all threw out ideas. AT times it was a little strange, just throwing my shit out there and being like, "Hey, guys what about this?" In all honesty, it definitely wasn't easy, but everything was listened to equally.

Metal Edge: That had to be a little weird - Three guys from Guns, and you.
Dave: It was even weirder when Izzy (Stradlin) came in, because then there were four guys from Guns.

Metal Edge: That must have been a little stressful, no?
Dave: He said, "If you guys are gonna write, I've got some songs if you need them." That was when we first were writing, then he came down, and then he came down like once a week... Obviously, it was unsettling to me, because I wanted this gig, I like playing here, but it all worked itself out without having to do anything. I think that it would have been a lot harder if didn't know those guys for so long. After the first couple of months, I knew that I was still here for a reason - I would just throw my two-cents out, and sometimes it would get used, and sometimes not, just like everyone else.

Metal Edge: How did it develop as a live band?
Dave: It just happened, everyone just does their thing. Before I had started playing with these guys, Slash had seen me play with Loaded, and, before that, I was playing in this band in Japan. It only toured in Japan, and Duff's band opened for us, and matt came up guested on some shit with that band, so everybody knew each other.

Metal Edge: You're coming from a slightly different perspective, because you're not coming from the same celebrity as the rest of the band. Was it easy for you to keep a level head about it?
Dave: Yeah, because we spent so long looking for singers, that we didn't even know it was gonna happen - That took all the wind out of it. Realistically, from when we started the band, it took year-and-a-half before we got a deal. There were times when I was on unemployment, doing work at the studio where we rehearsed for $13 an hour just to pay rent. It wasn't like this whirlwind thing that happened. The expectations are obvious, and in that way I feel very fortunate, because I'm like the unknown guy- I can do my own thing without expectations. Maybe there is, "Oh who's the new guy?" Or, "Hey, that's not Izzy..." It's easy to get caught up in it - especially with the Internet, and when fans start making comparisons of which guy is better - but you've just got to do your thing, and I kind of ignore it.

Metal Edge: Having not been through the same trials and tribulations as Guns N' Roses, how have you reacted to the drama surrounding Scott?
Dave: It was stressful, but I don't know what was more stressful, that, or looking for a singer for a year and feeling like you're never going to find one, I've been through drugs, drinking problems, my own recovery, so I've been around it forever, and I've seen those guys go through it, and I've seen the before and after of a couple of the most messed-up guys in the band, because I've known them for so long. It is what it is. Like Duff's said before - It could of happened to any us, and it still could. It's totally true - It might not have happened on a public level, like the others did, but I had the same experience, and that makes it a little easier to understand- It's not like I don't get why that guy just can't stop drinking or doing drugs, because, especially if you were the same kind of addict, you remember what that was like.

Metal Edge: What has been the biggest highlight so far? Find Scott? The album's No.1 debut?
Dave: The definite highlight for me was my first big check, which was basically my first check from The Italian Job, which was like $12,000. That was a huge deal for me - I've made more since then, but none of them have been a bigger deal than my first check, where I just kept calling the automated service of the bank to hear it say that my checking account balance is $12,000. Also, the Weenie Roast show, because that was probably the biggest show that I've played in L.A., which was like 12,000 people, and my wife was there and I got a little choked up. It seemed right around the same week that the record came out, and it all kind of culminated in that moment, just the way it was set up.

Metal Edge: Musically, you don't come from the same background as the other guys, right?
Dave: Yeah, I come from punk rock, too, but more like skate parks, and old bands. All that old kind of stuff like Suicidal Tendencies, Slayer, old Metallica, Pantera - That's where I really get a big nut for music.

Metal Edge: Those are definitely the heaviest tastes in the band - Do everyone else's tastes in the band affect the way you play?
Dave: I think it definitely shape shifts. For me, the goal is to find the balance between putting my thing on it, and being a part of a group, being a part of this as a whole. I'm doing it disservice if I'm selfishly wanting to do this and that, just because my own ego wants me to do it because there is not a lot of metal going on.

Metal Edge: Are there power struggles in Velvet Revolver, or are you still in your honeymoon period as a new band?
Dave: It's definetly very real. There's not so much a power struggle, but it's just real - Day-to-day, you go home frustruated or scared that this might happen, or unsure that this might happen. That's a reality that a lot of people don't get, they just go, "Oh, you have the No. 1 record."

Metal Edge: Velvet Revolver seems to go hand-in-hand with Guns N' Roses in a lot of people's minds, yet I think there's more to it than that - Historically speaking, Guns N' Roses side projects haven't sold exceptionally well. Why do you think Velvet Revolver has been so successful?
Slash: In my experience, when I did the Snakepit thing, the only thing that really did anything for me was when we had a single. If that went really well and we sold a lot of records, half of it was do to with GN'R, and the other half had to do with the single we had out. I went out and did Snakepit for the fun o fit, and it was a really a good, healthy thing for me to do, because I was so bogged down in where GN'R was at that point. That was an outlet in my life for me to sort of rediscover why I do what I do, and when I went back to GN'R, I had no intention of a solo career - What happened is the result of having a real fucking good time, seeing where Guns was at, and I had to just quit. From that point on, I didn't know what to do I didn't expect to be anything big just because I was Slash, and I don't think anybody in the ban did. The band, as a whole with the original lineup, was a magic thing all around. Everything that happened to the band was like, poof! Going into something like this was just the five of us wanting to be a real rock'n'roll band, which, let me tell ya', most people don't have any clue as to what that is. I think we just gravitated towards each other thinking that we were the only ones around the town here that seemed to have an idea of what that was. We were sort of brought together by chance, so there was no master plan. We just went on writing what we thought were collectively good songs that sounded like a good time.

Metal Edge: The chemistry just seems magical. Were there growing pains at all?
Slash: There were growing pains - There were actually the last however many years it took for us to get together with Scott, and everything that went on with us individually, a lot of growing up, there was a lot of getting straight and coping with your demons and surviving. Then, finally, after this whole fucking mountainous trek of a hike, we all of sudden had this thing happening for us, but it was hard doing it. Scott was hard to find, Dave came out of nowhere... It would never have happened if it weren't for Randy (Castillo), in a sense, because that's how me and Matt decided to come together and started talking about doing something and calling Duff up in the first place (to perform at Castillo's memorial service). That was sort of weird, but once we all got together, we were total, pure, artistic drive, and we just started writing - It was just a very real, organic process. You gotta understand, we auditioned guys for eight or nine months totally innocently, not trying to compare apples to oranges or make oranges into apples. When Scott came in, he brought, out of all the singers, something completely unique, unpredictable and original, and his personality just topped it off.

Metal Edge: It seems that only the right band could take all the controversy and media attention on Scott's issues and not implode. Do your pasts make it easier for you guys to do?
Slash: Well, we've been through a lot, and I think one thing that we realize is how to survive, and how to keep the band together.

Metal Edge: There have been so many bands that people have thought would "bring back rock" over the past few years, and now the same is being said about Velvet Revolver. Do you feel that responsibility, knowing how neutured the music industry is right now?
Slash: How neutered the music industry is probably one of the reasons we exist today in the first place. It was just getting to be really tough, but for me, I never really changed throughout the years. I refused to conform to any of the industry's standards, and when anybody tells me what I should or shouldn't do, ever since I was fifteen and played guitar, I've learned not to listen. This band is definetly the intensity of what the music business is about at this particular point in time - Funny enough, GN'R was that band in the mid '80s. It's not really a pressure to bring back rock'n'roll, but I definitely say we're the real deal. When this thing happened, it was liks some sort of magnet in the cosmos drew us all together. The fact that we're coming back around to do, from an attitude point of view, something similar to maybe what GN'R was rock'n'roll wise, the same kind of "us against them" kind of thing, just makes you think of the old cliche that rock'n'roll never dies, it just goes through periods of ups and down. It's all how you look at it.

Metal Edge: The irony is, everyone looks at rock'n'roll as though it has to be dangerous, yet despite your pasts, you're a band that's mostly sober.
Slash: I think everybody in this band has a story that's a little different. I'm definetly the last guy in the band to be on the AA brigade, so I still hold a few things dear to me. . . I think I just grew out of the fucking constant excess of bars and drinking. There comes to a point when you've just done it so hard that the drugs aren't that good anymore, and it's just a pain in the ass. The thing that's held me together this whole time has been the actual desire to play - Whenever i felt like I was losing that, I would calm down. As far as I was concerned, I could party as much as I want as long as I could play, and that was the truth. There comes a point where one thing in your life is gonna take over, so I chose to play hard to keep myself in checks and balances. Scott has tried on to whatever he was doing, but it just took him on a downward spiral, so all things considered, he is just a lot happier keeping away from it. Duff actually, he almost didn't make it. He had to straighten out, he had to feel bitter about it. He dragged himself through it a lot longer than he actually wanted to, because Guns were still on the road and he was just keeping it going until he could find the time to just dry out. Matt just found out he wasn't good at it any more, he wasn't having a good time, and Dave, he was another crazy one that just said, "You know what? I just saw things from a different perspective and just fuckin' cleaned up..." Now, here they are - No one pays attention for god knows how many years, because we're not in the limelight, and then, there they are again.

Metal Edge: Through it all, none of you lost your edge.
Slash: The edge is in the music. I learned a lot of things when I was a kid, watching other bands go through it, and my parents and their friends. I took a route where if we weren't working, I didn't know what to do with myself- If we were working, it was all about playing. So, now, at this point, it's all about playing. The edge is there because everything that got me into this in the first place was still very impressionable.

Metal Edge: How does the band work in terms of a hierarchy? Is anyone at the op of the decision-making process?
Slash: No, no, no, everybody's got their own thing. I think, in a band like this, it's just everybody being into music.

Metal Edge: That should make for a good fight when you have one.
Slash: Because everybody's strong-willed and every opinionated, and everybody has a wealth of experience, everybody runs the band like any one leader would. Everybody steps up to the fucking plate and says, "Okay, we don't need to fight, because there is a lot of respect for each other."

Metal Edge: Was there ever a chance, with Scott's problems, that you though, "Oh shit, we've made it this far, but the band might not make it..."?
Slash: I think that the way it appeared on the surface, through the media, was a lot different than the way it was actually going. The thing about the media is, it only picks up the highlights - But we are living it. The legal ramifications are two of Scott's bad decisions that we are dealing with the whole time, so nothing came as a suprise. The main thing that was cool about it all, was that during the whole legal fucking hodgepodge, Scott was getting to the point where he was really fucking turning a new leaf. Then, at the tail end of him going through that, he was fucking around and got busted on something that wasn't even drug related.

Metal Edge: Looking at the music industry, is anything out there encouragint to you?
Slash: Over the last ten years there have been a bunch of bands that have come out... A long time ago I made a long list of them - Faith No More, Nine Inch Nails, Nirvana, Soundgarden, Sublime, Alice in Chains, there was a bunch of really fucking good bands - then it sort of went sour, and there was nothing going on. Then Queens Of The Stone Age, which has always been around, finally happened... At this point in time, Radiohead are like the equivalent to Pink Floyd, and that was sort of my lifeblood in rock'n'roll over the years.. Jet's pretty cool - I still think it's fucking diluted AC/DC, but it's still going in that direction. The Strokes are okay... Of all the bands coming out, I thought the one that has the best guitar sound are The Donnas... As far as what I'm into, I can't help but still be drawn to Led Zeppelin - I sort of go back to music I grew up with, that I really have the utmost respect for which is, to me, like this beautiful music mosaic that's gone on for so many years.

[part two, from the January 2005 issue:]

Breaking The Big Machine

"We're all slaves to a big machine/All tied up to a big machine/ I got houses/Got cars/I got a wife/I got kids/Got money in the bank/ Get away without borders/ I'm a slave, New World Order/ I guess I chose to be... Hope I teach my son how to be a man/Now before he hits 35/Comic book lives don't really have any real life do they now"- Velvet Revolver, "Big Machine"

While the video for Velvet Revolver's latest single, "Fall to Pieces," is an autobiographical nosedive into frontman Scott Weiland's world of addiction and chaos, it's "Big Machine" that might best summarize the key to Velvet Revolver's sucess. All veterans of the music industry's "big machine," Weiland and former Guns N' Roses bandmates Slash, Duff McKagan and Matt Sorum have not only graduated from the machine, but they've done so with honors, achieving super-stardom, and learning from the mistakes that could have - or, should have - killed them.

Velvet Revolver began as rumored super-group with the odds stacked against them, but have quickly evolved into America's next great rock'n'roll band. How did it happen? In last month's cover story, we sat down with Slash, McKagan and guitarist Dave Kushner. This month, we join drummer Matt Sorum and Scott Weiland, who broke his self-imposed silence in this Metal Edge exclusive...

Metal Edge: The band just got back from overseas - How was the trip?
Scott: Yeah, we just got back a few days ago from a five-and-a-half week tour. The record is doing really well there, in every country. It's interesting, because Germany is the long-standing best rock market in Europe, but it's kind of been the sauciest market, lately, which is kind of weird. But the whole experience was great - It's a whole different thing, but it's cool. Rock'n'roll is really a universal language, because it has everything to do with energy, the energy of youth, really, sexual energy, sexual tension, that whole teen angst thing..

Metal Edge: Does it strike you as at all odd that rock'n'roll is the energy of youth, but it takes five guys who are older than most of their fans, to unleash that energy in people. A lot of these younger bands today just don't seem to get it...
Scott: For one thing, the lifestyle that we've lived, the choices that we've made... After a while, those choices end up leaving you no choice - your choices get taken away - and living that way sort of keeps you trapped, in a way, from achieving maturity. That seems to be a blessing a while, it gives you that sort of eternal Peter Pan element, and for a while that's cool, but after while, I think that becomes a curse... For me, personally, I kind of got to a point where I didn't want to be Peter Pan anymore, I wanted to become a man. But musically speaking, not growing up, the energy that comes from the lives that we've led - You continue to write music that has intense amout of violent and sexual energy, and you wouldn't write that music unless you've lived your life a certain way, and continue to live your life in a certain fashion, for probably a lot longer than we should have.

Metal Edge: You'd have to think that your music is less dangerous today, than it was when STP was at their peek, or Guns N' Roses were in arenas, but it's still the most electrifying thing out there, today...
Scott: It really is. I can tell you, things were pretty tenuous during the European tour. Things got pretty close to the fucking edge, and it got pretty scary.

Metal Edge: How?
Scott: You take five guys who are all dope fiends or, for lack of a better term, junkies - yeah, we've all cleaned up, but you stick us all in a pressure cooker... We weren't making any money out there in Europe, we were just planting seeds out there. There's this misconception that we're instantly in stadiums, and that's not the case. Next time we go out there we'll be cleaning up, and those dates are being lined up now for February, but this first tour was dirty - The dressing rooms stank, and they were the same clubs, with the same writing on the walls, that I played on the first two STP tours. It was scary, and there were some periods of time where I was like, "You know what? This tour is going to end - I'm getting on a plane and going home, because this band is going to fucking implode!" And that's because anything can happen at any time - Because of our individual lives and the individual decisions that we make, and because it works on a musical level, there's that dangerous thing you can hear in the music, and there's also that chance of it falling apart, and bad choices being made. Things did get a little precarious over there, but it all got worked out.

Metal Edge: Because the rest of the band have been out of the spotlight for so long, it's easy to forget that there are four other people who have battled - and do battle - what you're going through. You've just been in the news most recently, so you're the one that's fresh people's minds, but you're not the only combustible personality in there.
Scott: Yes, exactly.

Metal Edge: The announcement wasn't even made that STP were done until the press conference announcing that you were in Velvet Revolver - Was that chemistry that immediate?
Scott: It really was like that. We really started working on two songs at the same time - The Pink Floyd song was really created in the studio, for the most part, but "Set Me Free" we put together at the rehearsal space, and that song really wrote itself. Those guys had it written instrumentally before I got there, and I wrote the melody and lyrics on the spot. It was just really easy. I'll tell you what really made it work..I came into the whole thing, and I was really at a fucking low point. I was seperated from my wife, and I was living with this couple who were supposedly sober and were supposedly supposed to be detoxing me - I was horribly strung out, and the couple ran this completely illegitimate kind of like a halfway house thing where they did outpatient detox-type deals. They had this doctor who would write all the 'scripts, then he'd give the meds to the guy and he would dole them out. Thing is, he was pocketing half the meds himself, and his girlfriend was completely strung out on heroin herself, and was also a speed freak. So I was living with them - My wife and kids were living in San Diego, I had my own apartment in Hollywood, but I was too paranoid that the cops were going to come there, it was a bad scene.. So I started working with the guys, and I was so used to being judged in STP, the odd man out, and the scapegoat to all the problems. At the same time, I was the one responsible for carrying the heavy load of the work, but I never got my just desserts, or the credit that was due for carrying that load. Although they did allow me to carry the heavy burden of guilt and shame for what I supposedly did to "injure" them, and what affected them on a negative level, even though I definitely did own up to what I did...On to a new group, those guys had a lean mean situation going. They had been playing together for a year, and rehearsing five days a week. That's one thing that I definitely admire about Slash - The guy's got an incredible work ethic, and he's addicted to rehearsal. That's one thing that I'm not - I'm not a fan of rehearsing [laughing]. I love to record, and I love to write, but I don't like to rehearse. I'm addicted to the recording studio, I can spend hours and days in there, but I can't stand rehearsing.

Metal Edge: Probably because playing can be very technical, and perfected, while your delivery, as the frontman, is spontaneous, it's not that orchestrated.
Scott: Yes! The guy just loves to play, and he loves his guitar. It's like his guitar is an appendage! So I get involved with these guys, and as bummed out as I was, they didn't judge me. And honestly, they did everything they could to try and help me, and I was fucked up in a bad way. There were several times when there were band meetings early on tht I didn't show up to. Meetings with management that I didn't show up to. We were supposed to have these showcase for all the industry people - which was a stupid idea, because we had only been playing together for like three days - and, the first one, I didn't show up for, and the second one I was like three hours late. Normally, that's not how I am at all, but in that headspace, that's how I was. These guys, knowing how a person in my headspace operates, didn't judge. Finally, about a month later, after I got arrested, I came to the conclusion...The next day was when I wrote "Fall To Pieces" with Slash, the day after I got arrested, and that is the most poignant part of the record. That's the turning point of the record for me. That's when I knew we were a band, because these guys never, ever judged, and through that whole period, they were there. When my wife and my family weren't around, those guys were the ones that stood by me, and it was on. It just became a great thing.

Metal Edge: Yet there are still the tough times, like Europe.
Scott: Yeah, but we got through it.

Metal Edge: I can't remember seeing a more moving video than "Fall To Pieces." It's a lot easier to judge people than it is to try and understand what they're going through, and try to help them. And I think that video gets that across at so many levels - I still get goosebumps when I see it.
Scott: Thank you so much - I'm so glad people actually like it, because I was so scared when we started to record it. I thought that it would either move people, or have the opposite effect, and people would think it was cheesy. I have to really give it to Kevin[Kerslake, Director] because he really found a way to motivate us, and to motivate me to not be afraid to go for it, and he actually edited it so that the story seemed like a story.

Metal Edge: It was like watching a movie. I think that's one of the reasons I really like it - It's not abstract, and it drives home a meaning and a point that's pretty unmistakable.
Scott: I know, I'm more proud of this video - and song - than anything.

Metal Edge: Looking at the music industry today, there's not a lot out there like Velvet Revolver. Is it tough for you, trying to put a tour together?
Scott: It is, because the bands we like, we're told by our agents that they don't sell enough tickets.
On our fall tour, we're taking out the Distillers, and we're told, "Yeah, but they're not worth enough, they can't sell enough tickets." But we don't give a fuck. They push bands like Chevelle, but there's no way in hell we'd take them with us! When STP got signed, came up through the ranks, and hit it, we never made decisions based on what the record label or our agents wanted us to do. When the label wanted us to put out an EP feauturing the acoustic "Plush," and offered us an enormous amount of money, we didn't do it because we knew that the album version of the song had already played its course, and we didn't want to be forever defined by that song, and when it came to making the second album, we could be over. Acoustic "Plush" got played anyway, but just because it was picked up from that Headbangers Ball version, not because they pressed it, and not because they sold it as a commercial song - We ended up making a second record, and that record debuted at No. 1. If we would have decided to capitalize on that, we could have been our "Runaway Train." Compromising because of what the industry wants you to do, is not something that this band is going to do. The thing is, this industry is so used to the artists just bending over and getting fucked in the ass without Vaseline, that they just sit there and look at you with a jaundice eye.

Metal Edge: There are rock bands that are doing quite well at Top 40 now with ballads - You've got Hoobastank, Finger 11...Does that give you expectations for "Fall to Pieces," and raise the bar a little higher?
Scott: You know what? This is kind of a lame thing to say, but with that song, I've always had high expectations. The first time I heard that song complete, after doing the demo in my studio, it's just the combination of what's being said, the lyric, the melody, and the way the melody meshes with Slash's guitar melody, that cascading guitar melody that is so signature Slash. It's just a desperate thing, and the only reason it works is because of that situation I was in when it was written, that moment in time. That situation rarely ever happens, where as the writer, I feel that a song is going to impact people in a good way.

Metal Edge: From a personal perspective, is the video a testimonial, of sorts? It shows everyone that has judged you - and continues to judge you - a side of you that they'd never stop to look at unless they've been through it themselves, or with a friend or family member. Is there a hope there that people might watch the video and realize that there's a depth to the problems that they may not realize?
Scott: Yeah, because I think that the song is not so apathetic. When I was younger, I think I was a lot whinier, and I think that's just part of youth. Also, I think that was part of the times - Every artist that was part of that movement that I was part of, I think we all shared a lot of similar situation, and we all whined a lot. There was a lot of heroin going on, and we've all had a lot of the same experiences dealing with that drug. But now, dealing with that fallout of those experiences, and being a man, and trying to deal with it like a man would deal with it, I'm tired of whining about shit, and I'm not going to whine about it! It's just an honest portayal of what my feelings are. The fact that people are relating to it makes me feel good. I've noticed that women are sort of attracted to the song... The song's got two conflicts, my relationship to the drug, ahd the loss of the relationship with my life. Obviously, chicks relate to the latter, but it's not a "Oh, poor me," kind of thing, and I think that's why people are appealing to it on a more universal level, rather than me being just a whiny big baby.

Metal Edge: Women also tend to be drawn to the sensitive side, too. It's the fairy tale ending.
Scott: Right. That's always intrigued me about rock stars - The dudes wanna be them, and the chicks wanna fuck 'em - but over the last eight years, at least, I haven't seen any rock guys that have really intrigued me. I haven't seen any rock guys whose shoes I want to fill - Most of the rock guys look like roadies.

Metal Edge: Scott said Europe got a little rough...
Matt Sorum: In my opinon, it was a rough tour in the amout of giging that we did. I think it was the hardest tour that I have ever done, and I remember telling management right before we left, "Okay, six-and-a-half weeks in Europe - How many days off?" They were like, "Two days off.." That's fucking crazy! We got four days in a row here, we've got another four days in a row with a record signing and a television show and no time off, and that part of it was a beating. Psychology, as far as going in and playing the smaller venues, I think those kick ass. There were a few that were fucking brutal as far as like temperatures - we did one in Germany, and it was just like a sweat box - but they weren't all small clubs, they were all like theaters. We did the Hammersmith Apollo in London, which is a great theater...

Metal Edge: Heading into the release of the album, was there any worry that it wouldn't be received as well as it was?
Matt Sorum: No, because I always felt that we were in the right arena, at the right time period, and at the right label. It seemed like the timing was right, everyone was in the right mindset, there was really good vibe around the band, and we were getting along really great. Take something like the vibe when I got back together with the Cult - With that band, when we made the record Beyond Good and Evil, we were trying to make a record to go with the times. When we went in to make the Velvet Revolver album, we didn't give a fuck what was going on around us, and I think that's what made it stick out.It's a pure rock album, even though, subconsciously, it might have taintings of modern elements - Like with the production, and rhythmically there might be something happening, a couple of D-tuned guitars, but that was all subconscious stuff.

Metal Edge: Seeing you live, the chemistry as a band is impressive.
Matt Sorum: I think the beauty of it is that we all kind of know what kind of rock'n'roll we want to thrown down, it's a collective feeling. We all get up there and do our thing, we all get up there and play rock'n'roll. Even for Scott, I would say this is the hardest rock band he has ever been in. It rocks a lot harder and a lot more aggressively than GN'R ever did, with the exception of Axl and his high scream, but it's got some of a harder edge to it. Stone Temple was very much buying into the grunge thing, and a lot of it was real slow. The last song on Contraband, "Loving The Alien," a couple of us didn't want on the album - We kind of did it for fun, and it came out completely different than the rest of the record. But we thought that it was a good song, and we thought, we'd give people a little extra added something that's just a little left of center. But I just wanted the record to fucking rock from the get go, and never let up.

Metal Edge: You have been through GN'R, you have been through The Cult, Scott's been through STP - You've all been through bands before. Now that you're a little older, you'd think the tendency would be to mellow out a bit - Especially when you look at the track record of other bands that have sobered up over the years.
Matt Sorum: I really feel, especially for Slash and Duff, that there was a lot of underlying anxiety and pent-up frustration about the GN'R situation, and when it was finally unleashed on the Contraband album, it really came out in a really aggressive, cathartic way. I had really been holding a lot back that came out through the music, and I know Slash would tell you that he finally had come to the realization of how he felt after GN'R broke up - We were all highly suicidal and I was really strung out on drugs, and it's like, "Fuck, I was just in the biggest band in the world! Now what?" Slash will tell you the same thing, and Guns was more his baby than anybody's. I have never known of anybody to pour so much of himself into the music and the band as Slash does - His whole life revolves around that. I mean, he has his family right now, but the top priority for Slash is still to get onstage. I am the same way. When GN'R broke up, we didn't have jack to go to, it was all hard on all of us. We all went out and explored our own identities, but we never seemed to touch that feeling we had already achieved.

Metal Edge: Do you feel like you have achieved that with Velvet Revolver?
Matt Sorum: You know, I feel better with this band that I did with GN'R. There is something about this band. I mean, we could do so much more collectively, with the members of this band - We want to talk to each other, and we all want to make music together. GN'R turned into a Gestapo - It was run by one guy who had his vision of what Guns was supposed to be, at that point. In this band, we like hanging out together and playing music with each other, it's like we can't wait to come up with a new riff. With Guns, we'd come up with a new riff and Axl would be like, "That sucks!" Nobody says, "That sucks," now. We completely have an open mind throughout. I even wrote a couple of riffs on the album - I wrote "Set Me Free" and "Spectacle" on guitar, and to have the band sit and listen to me play guitar at this point in my career, that was like a great, great moment for me. To play guitar in front of Slash, that's fucking really good. That's like a really, really cool vibe, and that's what we are all about - We all know that if you shoot people in the foot, if they are trying to show the best that they could possible be, you are never going to have the best thing to show for it.

Metal Edge: When we did the photo shoot [for last month's cover, and this feature], we had Cheap Trick's Live At Budokan on, and Scott said that "Surrender" would be a cool cover for you guys to record - You've recored it since then, right?
Matt Sorum: Yeah, we did.

Metal Edge: What other covers have you recorded?
Matt Sorum: We did "No More, No More" and we did a version of "Tie Your Mother Down," but we haven't finished it. I mean, we have a few things up our sleeves - We are doing covers and b-sides, because we feel like laying down some covers instead of giving away a very good song. It's a cool thing for people to hear our interpretation.

Metal Edge: It's not very often in the music industry that you could say something is a sure thing, but it seems like "Fall To Pieces" is as close as it gets. Do you go into something like the release of that single with anticipation? Having been the heights that you have been through?
Matt Sorum: The label was all about "Fall To Pieces," and we were like, "Alright..." I wanted to wait, do that third, and let the second single rock a bit. I mean, K-Rock [Los Angeles] is playing "Big Machine" already, and there are other stations playing it, too, because it's what they want to play. But "Fall To Pieces" is starting to come up now, it's getting heavy rotation on VH1, it went to No. 1 in Active Rock, and it moved up to No.7 at Rock, is No.1 on mainstream... We're starting to see sales come up. The thing about the video was, it scared the record company. We were like, "This is the kind of band that we are, we are an honest rock band. We are not going to go out and make a mushy pop-rock video." We make videos that are meaningful to us. The first cut of it was a lot heavier than that, even - There was a lot more sex, and more violence. When we were making the video, I remember thinking that it just felt really good. Because we are such a working band, we could get the amount of work done in two days, that it used to take Guns two weeks to do, because Axl wouldn't show up - "Don't Cry" probably took us a month, and "Fall To Pieces" took three days.

Metal Edge: The success of the song should make your next tour here in America even bigger. I hear finding an opening band was a challenge...
Matt Sorum: We can't find a band to open for us! Our agents are like, "Chevelle" "Fucking Chevelle? Fuck, no!" "Hoober-what? Who is that?" Have you heard the Burning Brides? We talk to the promoters and they are like, "They don't sell tickets..." I am like, "Fuck, why don't we just go out, and play a venue even though it's smaller, so we don't have to go through all that?" I hope that the work that we have done in the last four, five months of touring is going to make people want to come see the show. We are going to add a lot of production, really cool lights, lighting and visuals, and play more music and a lot of different stuff.

Metal Edge: It took you a long time to find a singer - Was there ever a concern that you weren't goingn to find anyone?
Matt Sorum: Dude, there is this VH1 special which documents us, and it was done over almost a year-long period of putting this band together - When you watch that, you will see the frustration in all of us, but probably most apparently in me. Let's just be realistic - Slash and Duff, they wrote fucking Appetite For Destruction, you know what I mean? Me? I'm a working musician, "Let's get onstage and play some rock'n'roll!" I ain't hanging out for ten years while you are coming up with this genius rock album, dude - I want to go play, and I will. I said to Slash and Duff, " This isn't a fucking hobby for me, if this is a fucking hobby, and we come down to the fucking rehearsal studio everyday and rip ass, fuck that! We need a singer, and we need one now!" I paid my fucking dues long enough to not put up with that type of bullshit. I mean, when I moved to Hollywood in the early-'80s, I would be the guy that would go up to a club, meet another musician, and I could just look at the guy and tell if he is any good. I am like, "This guy is a fucking douche ball, there is no way he could play..." I always had a feel and a sense, and I think between all of us... Slash and Duff, they know how many more bands I was in before GN'R so theses guys just come into the studio [to audition], and I would just be like, "No fucking way!" Slash and Duff would be like, "Awe, give it a chance..." "Chance? What the fuck? What's going on here? He got his chance to drive here, send him home..."

Metal Edge: Was the audition process that rough?
Matt Sorum: Guys like Travis [Meeks], from Days Of The New, I was like, "Oh man, I can't believe we are having this conversation..." We had Axl Rose, one of the greatest frontman ever - Not just of the early-'80s and the early-'90s, ever! It's like Freddy Mercury, fucking Ozzy - We have to find a guy who has charisma, and a rad voice and melodies. I remember saying, "Someone like Scott Weiland..." They were like, "Yeah, Scott Weiland." And, I mean, all the great ones are insane! Look at Tommy Lee - He's a great fucking rock'n'roll drummer, and he's out of his fucking mind. All the great ones are nuts!

Metal Edge: Are you insane?
Matt Sorum: [Laughing] I am just an okay drummer!

Metal Edge: Just, "Okay," so you're allowed to keep your sanity?
Matt Sorum: Yeah, I can't put myself in the same category as Keith Moon or John Bonham... Then again, I am still alive! With all the frustration that we went through at the beginning, we all knew that it would be so strong, knowing that we have all been there ourselves. I was like, " I need a shirt that says, 'I have done more drugs than you, I just never got caught." We have a great opportunity to go out and play rock'n'roll, why fuck it all up? So we just stuck by him, and we knew that we were going to get through that point if we hung with him and got him through all this shit. We have a lot of camaraderie going on - I don't know how it went with the Stone Temple Pilots thing, what that situation was, but I think maybe they just dealt with it differently, with more anger, and tougher. It's not like we babied him through it, we just supported him in a different way than his old band. There was probably a ton of damage done [with STP] - There was too much resentment, I think anything that would happen, would just build... With us, we've all been through it. He may have been able to pull the wool over their eyes, but he couldn't pull it over our's - We've been there, so if he's on something, we're going to know it. We just worked our way through it...

Metal Edge: Does it get easier as it goes along? Is it easier with Velvet Revolver than with Guns N' Roses?
Matt Sorum: Oh yeah, just like anything in life, you learn to appreciate things more, and you just don't take them for granted. It was such a wild ride with Guns, that it was really hard to hold on, it was just fucking endless reckless abandon. There was so much drama, and there were so many people with their hand in the cookie jar, and in that situation I felt so out of control - My destiny was appointed by a guy that I didn't really like. It was like that guy was controlling my life and, now, I actually have something to say in this band. We know how much of a good thing we have, so we are not going to fuck it up.