Velvet Revolver at “Standstill”: Slash Talks Weiland, Singer Search
In a new interview with Classic Rock Magazine, Slash confirms what fans have been suspecting over the past few months: Velvet Revolver still haven’t found a new singer.
Noting the band is at a “standstill” while Duff McKagan tours with his punk group Loaded and Slash works on his own solo album, the guitarist said, “I haven’t heard any amazing submissions from singers as of late, so I might… Y’know, Velvet when it finds the right guy will be amazing, but I’m in no rush. I’m not freaking out — because that’s how we got Scott [Weiland] in the first place. He was the first decent guy that came up.”
Though it seems like Slash is taking digs at the band’s first frontman, who split from VR in March 2008 due to what the band called “increasingly erratic onstage behavior and personal problems” in a press release, the guitarist insists he has nothing bad to say about the Stone Temple Pilots singer — except that he doesn’t play well with others. Saying a lot of the songs he wanted to write were “squelched,” Slash calls “fuckin Velvet Revolver” the “toughest five years,” noting that troubles with Weiland and “joke management” meant “I could never be happy.”
“Scott to me is now like George Bush — y’know, I like him now that he’s not here,” Slash concludes.
In April, McKagan told Rolling Stone the band thought they found a new lead singer, but it ultimately fell through: “We were given too much time and we were able to go, ‘Ah, fuck, I don’t like that about the guy.’ “