Former Velvet Revolver and Guns N’ Roses drummer Matt Sorum revealed in a new Loudwire Nights interview how Axl Rose moving on with a new Guns N’ Roses lineup is what made himself, Slash, and Duff McKagan get late Stone Temple Pilots frontman Scott Weiland to form Velvet Revolver. Ultimate-Guitar transcribed his comments.
“My wife loved that record [Contraband], I do, but you know, it’s interesting, I need to go back and listen to some of these things sometimes because I get different interpretations of what I recorded the first time.
“But I mean, that record, the same feeling I have for Deadland Ritual is the same feeling I had going in and making Velvet Revolver’s first album.
“It’s a renewed energy, you do have to really step it up because you’re unleashing something into the world that might or might not want to resonate towards, because number one, they think, ‘Oh, it’s just a bunch of guys getting together because they think they should put a band together or be a supergroup.’
“But that’s not the intention at all. I mean, me, Slash, and Duff really needed to do a band. We were ready, it was time. We were, like, ‘Look, Axl’s gone out and has done the Roses by himself, so, we can do this.’
“If anyone ever saw the things about Revolver, it wasn’t an easy process because the missing link was the lead singer. We went over and over that until the point we’ve finally settled on Scott.
“In retrospect, all the energy that went into that band and what Scott represented, maybe different demography of rock ‘n’ roll coming from what we describe as the grunge era, but mixed with the GN’R sort of angst and a bit of a punky feel.
“It worked, but we were all fired up, we were in great shape, we were ready to take on the world like we had something to prove like a 20-year old kid, which at that time we were all approaching 40, you know.”
