Two years ago Velvet Revolver’s “Slither” appeared as an alternate on the 2016 Guns N’ Roses Not In This Lifetime tour setlist, but it was never performed. The first video has now surfaced of Guns N’ Roses rehearsing the song on their 2018 European tour. Guns N’ Roses members Slash and Duff McKagan were members of Velvet Revolver with Scott Weiland, Dave Kushner, and Matt Sorum. Weiland died in December 2015, so the performance of “Slither” appears to be a tribute to their fallen bandmate. The band are expected to perform “Slither” live on Sunday in Berlin.
Axl Rose and Scott Weiland had a bitter feud in 2006 when rumors surfaced that Slash was trying to rejoin GNR. Weiland called Rose a ‘fat, botox faced, wig wearing fuck.’ In a November 2015 interview with Alternative Nation just prior to his death though, Weiland seemed to indicate that the tension with Rose was in the past, and he called Slash an icon.
Dave Kushner discussed his first Velvet Revolver paycheck in a new Fueled By Death podcast interview. He also revealed what Scott Weiland told him about the paycheck.
“And we kind of like … because those are big gigs man, it’s like you’re coming into things that are already somewhat established and you’re … not with VR so much, but like the heaviness of the dudes that you’re playing with. And we would help each other out, like talk each other off the ledge. Like fucking Paul didn’t talk to Brian that day, like, ‘Oh dude, I think I’m going to get fired. Slash was looking at me weird, I think I’m out, whatever.’ You’re like, ‘Dude, stop, you already played on the record.’ ‘Oh, yeah. Okay. All right.’
But I remember Scott telling me … Like I’d got my first check, it was like for twelve grand or something and he was like, ‘Dude, I’m just going to tell you this now, enjoy it, because it’s never going to feel the same again.’ And it was fucking true, man, I remember calling my mom and calling the automated bank teller thing that says, ‘You’re checking account balance is $12,000.49 or whatever.’ And I kept calling it, dude like, ‘What? Really, are you kidding me?’ And I called my mom on three way, I’m like, ‘Listen man.’ Funny thing was, I called it so much that it doubled, and I didn’t get like, oh, how the whole thing worked back then, like the accountants and this.
Maybe they put more money in, and oh, I don’t know what happened. And I call the person in the bank, they’re like, ‘Oh no, that’s a mistake, you just have 12.’ I was like, ‘Oh, fuck.'”
Listen to the full interview below.
