It’s been about four years since Scott Weiland abruptly left Velvet Revolver. And since then, Slash and his fellow ex-Guns N’ Roses members have yet to find a replacement (despite coming close with Corey Taylor and Jimmy Gnneco). So when the Stone Temple Pilot singer rejoined his former VR mates onstage for a benefit show, rumors started to spread about his return. Well now it appears that Weiland has indeed rejoined Velvet Revolver…depending on who you ask.
In an interview with ABC News Radio, Weiland claims to be back in Velvet Revolver, saying:
“We’ve all grown a lot. We’re able to put egos and differences and old…conflicts aside and so that’s really cool… “They gave me a couple of songs and myself and [guitarist] Dave [Kushner] and [bassist] Duff [McKagan] are gonna be getting together for a song writing session next week… Slash’s solo album gets released [on May 22] and so he’s gonna do some touring on that and then we’re gonna go and do some [Velvet Revolver] shows in the later part of summer into early fall.”
Though he admitted recently that he’d consider rejoining Velvet Revolver, the news of Weiland’s return does comes as a shock…especially to Slash. In fact, the guitarist even denied that Weiland has rejoined the group this morning during an interview with Minnesota radio station 93X’s “Half-Assed Morning Show.” While you can listen to audio of the interview at Blabbermouth, Slash said that it isn’t true and that “We have no intention of going backwards.” Although he did jokingly admit that maybe Duff knows something he doesn’t.
So what’s actually going on? Is Weiland back in Velvet Revolver or not? Granted, you can’t blame Slash or VR to want to reunite with Weiland after such a public split. However, it’s not like they’ve been successful at finding a new guy. Either way, we have a good feeling that this isn’t the last we’ve heard about this.
[picture via Empyre Lounge]
When it was announced that Duff McKagan’s Loaded was going to open for Axl Rose and the new Guns N’ Roses for two shows, it was pretty much a guaranteed thing that the former GN’R bassist would hop onstage for a song or two. And without fail, McKagan did just that on both nights. Just like in the UK last year, McKagan performed “You Could Be Mine” with the band in both Seattle and Vancouver this past weekend. However, the bassist also joined GN’R for a rendition of “Civil War” during the Vancouver date. Fan filmed footage of GN’R playing “You Could Be Mine” in Seattle can be seen above.
While Duff looks like he had fun playing with his former frontman, it would also appear that he is still trying to find a singer for his other band Velvet Revolver. In an interview with Australia’s The Vine, drummer Matt Sorum revealed that his VR band mates were testing out Jimmy Gnneco, singer of the band Ours. When asked about VR’s singer search, here’s what Sorum specifically said:
“Yeah, they’re at home trying out a guy right now. Their sitting in a room looking at a singer named Jimmy Gnneco. So we’ll see how that goes, and then we’ve got a couple of other ideas. It looks like Slash is going to make another album, but I’m not sure about his touring and stuff yet. So we’ll see how that goes. But we’re all open to it and interested in trying to do something together.”
While it certainly sounds like a good bet that Gnneco could be their new singer, let’s not forget that Corey Taylor also looked like he was a shoo-in as Scott Weiland’s replacement until Slash pulled the plug on that. However, Gnneco has a bit of an advantage. Back in September, the four Velvet Revolver members played a handful of songs with the Ours singer during the Road Recovery benefit concert in New York City. So they obviously liked what they heard onstage enough to invite him to a few song writing sessions. Guess we’ll just have to wait a little longer to see if things turn out well in the studio.
You can watch fan filmed footage of Gnneco performing GN’R’s “It’s So Easy” and VR’s “Slither” with the four after the jump. Read more »
By now, you’ve heard about all of the rumors surrounding Corey Taylor and Velvet Revolver. Well, it’s been awhile since we’ve heard anything regarding Velvet Revolver at all. And in addition to VR’s future being up in the air, it would appear that Taylor’s involvement altogether is once again in question as well…at least to Slash, anyway.
The guitarist was the first to stop tiptoeing around the issue and admit that they were “auditioning” the Slipknot and Stone Sour singer, but that no decision had been made. However, in a recent interview with Argentina’s Vorterix.com, Slash admitted that he didn’t feel that Taylor was the best fit for Velvet Revolver, despite his admiration for him otherwise. You can watch the entire interview up top, but here’s what Slash had to say regarding the Taylor rumor:
“Because of the social networking, and the way that information gets out so quickly now… We did work with Corey Taylor, and as soon as that rumor [got around], next thing you know, everybody is saying Corey’s the new singer. And all we were doing was just rehearsing with him and trying him out — auditioning him, so to speak. So, in order to do that, our process is to… we take a lot of music that we wrote and we give it to him and he writes his lyrics and he comes in and we just perform it and record it and see [what it sounds like]. It’s just an audition process; it’s the way that we do it. So he did come in and do all that. But I just wasn’t… It just didn’t seem to fit right to me. And he’s great — and I love Corey — but it didn’t seem like the answer to the Velvet Revolver problem.”
Though he seems less than ecstatic than his fellow band mates were when the rumor first popped up, it would appear that enthusiasm for Velvet Revolver in general has decreased over the past few months. Bassist Duff McKagan, who has probably been the most vocal about his love for Corey Taylor, has also began to downplay the rumors by saying that there is no “urgency” for Velvet Revolver to do anything. More recently, Duff told GuitarInternational.com that “if Velvet Revolver is going to happen again, it will happen when it’s supposed to happen.” Well doesn’t sound too promising…
Granted, no band should simply rush to find a replacement just to get back on the road and in the spotlight. But it’s been about three years now since Scott Weiland left the band. It’s cool that Slash, Duff, drummer Matt Sorum, and guitarist Dave Kushner have got other things going on. But if Velvet Revolver truly was such a priority, wouldn’t they attempt to make more headway this year with finding a new singer (like they promised they would)? Then again, who knows, maybe they were putting a lot of effort into Taylor only to realize that something just didn’t click or couldn’t work out (keep in mind that Taylor is a pretty busy guy).
We’ll keep you posted, as always, when more develops.
It’s been about four years since Scott Weiland abruptly left Velvet Revolver. And since then, Slash and his fellow ex-Guns N’ Roses members have yet to find a replacement (despite coming close with Corey Taylor and Jimmy Gnneco). So when the Stone Temple Pilot singer rejoined his former VR mates onstage for a benefit show, rumors started to spread about his return. Well now it appears that Weiland has indeed rejoined Velvet Revolver…depending on who you ask.
Posted by Zach Shaw on Mon, May 14, 2012 at 2:35 pm
As The Revolver Turns