How Velvet Revolver Fell To Pieces

Velvet Revolver went from being one of the most highly anticipated bands of the 2000s to imploding on stage half a decade after their formation.

Matt Sorum Recommends Randy Castillo for Motley Crue Vacancy

Former Guns N’ Roses and The Cult drummer Matt Sorum was close friends with drummer Randy Castillo. Sorum revealed in his autobiography that he was initially offered to fill in for Tommy Lee following his departure from Motley Crue in the late ’90s. It was around this time that The Cult reunited. Sorum turned down Motley Crue’s offer, instead suggesting Castillo for the job.

Castillo played with Motley Crue on one record but struggled with health issues, dealing with cancer until his death in 2002. Sorum organized a benefit show with his former Guns N’ Roses bandmates including Slash and Duff McKagan, in addition to Steven Tyler, and Buck Cherry members Josh Todd and Keith Nelson.

Sorum recalled how electric the gig was and how the next morning he got calls from Slash and Duff saying they should form a band with the guys from Buck Cherry.

Within a few weeks, however, Slash walked away from the project saying he was out. Slash told Sorum he couldn’t work with Josh Todd. According to Sorum, he wasn’t the type of guy who could just fire people so Sorum fired Todd and the group became a quartet. Shortly afterwards, Slash claimed he couldn’t work with guitarist Keith Nelson, claiming the guitarist doubled whatever he was playing so Sorum fired him too.

“Josh’s voice was just too linear and grating…” – Slash

Slash revealed in his 2007 autobiography the real reason he couldn’t work with Josh Todd, “Josh’s voice was just too linear and grating, it was a distraction from the music, not to mention just a tad off-key.”

Soon, former Guns N’ Roses guitarist Izzy Stradlin joined his old bandmates to write some songs. According to Slash’s book, Izzy suggested that the band just be a quartet with himself and Duff handling vocal duties and they would just play small clubs while doing a van tour.

The band didn’t entertain the idea and soon enough, Izzy split. Duff suggested a friend named Dave Kushner to be the band’s new guitarist. All they needed now was a singer.

The band put out ads in music magazines and on the radio holding open auditions for singers for their unnamed project. It took the band almost a year before they settled on a singer.

Stone Temple Pilots broke up around this time, in 2003 and frontman Scott Weiland was suddenly free. Duff McKagan knew Scott previously and suggested he come audition for the band.

Velvet Revolver is Born

The band recorded their first song with Weiland called “Set Me Free”. Their manager got them a licensing deal with the Hulk movie for $1.6M. While the band was off to a good start, they still didn’t have a name. They threw around a couple of different ideas including Revolver and Dead Velvet Revolver before finally settling on Velvet Revolver.

The band became the subject of a bidding war between labels. They finally signed with Clive Davis at RCA Records for $8.5M for 3 albums.

Velvet Revolver Has Issues from the Very Beginning

In what should have been a foreshadowing of what was to come, Scott Weiland seemed like a problem from the start. Egos, bad management and lack of communication between the band members became an issue.

Before the group secured a licensing deal with the Hulk, the band had to have a showcase for the movie’s producers. At that showcase, Weiland showed up more than an hour late and under the influence but still performed well enough to get a movie deal.

According to Sorum’s book, when the band sat down to review their $8.5M contract offer, Scott showed up last at the rehearsal studio, wearing a pinstripe suit with no shoes and a giant gash on his forehead.

Weiland told his bandmates that he got the gash on his head from playing squash. They knew he was still using but they still went ahead and signed the recording contract.

A few days after they signed the recording contract, Weiland was arrested for drug possession, jeopardizing the band’s chances of recording their debut album and touring on it. Weiland was sent to rehab but was still allowed to come back to the studio in between to work on the group’s first album.

“It’s just the price of doing business with Scott Weiland.” – Manager for Velvet Revolver

A police escort had to accompany Weiland between trips from rehab to the studio. The police escort cost the band around $500/per day, per officer. As Velvet Revolver’s manager put it in Sorum’s book, “It’s just the price of doing business with Scott Weiland.”

Rehab seemed to do little to stop Weiland’s out-of-control behaviour. Sorum recounted in his book, how Scott would go missing for days. Weiland disputed this claim, saying he was sober for his first several years of the band.

Somehow the band managed to finish their debut album titled Contraband which came out in June of 2004 and landed at the No. 1 spot on the charts. It went on to sell over 250,000 units in its first week.

Velvet Revolver Wins Grammy for “Slither”

The album was propelled by singles “Slither” and “Fall to Pieces”, both of which topped the rock charts in America. The band won a Grammy for the song “Slither”, which was a first for Duff, Matt and Slash.

Several months after the album came out, the band was in Europe for a summer tour and trouble was brewing.

The band minus Sorum wanted to replace their existing manager and soon members had different managers within the group creating communication problems. On top of that, the band members’ wives were getting involved in the business affairs and politics of the group.

Substance abuse started to creep in as well. Matt Sorum broke 6 years of sobriety after learning of his dog’s death, while Slash, Duff McKagan and Scott were off the wagon during the tour.

“The guys who gathered in the studio I’d built out the back of my new house in West Hollywood, were total wrecks.” – Matt Sorum

Sorum looked back at the band’s first tour, revealing in his book, “The tour lasted 18 months, which was at least 2 months too long. It really burnt us out, and by the time we got home, we didn’t even want to see one another.

We didn’t meet for six whole months, and by the time we next hung out, Slash had gotten hooked on heroin again, Duff became a pill popper, and I was drinking as much as I had been before rehab. In other words, the guys who gathered in the studio I’d built out the back of my new house in West Hollywood, were total wrecks.”

The band enlisted producer Rick Rubin to work on their next record, but creatively, the band was grasping at straws. Rubin dropped by the studio once a month and listened to the tracks the band was working on and each time, he’d leave unimpressed and tell them to keep writing.

Scott Weiland Creates More Problems Within the Band

Frustrated, Weiland suggested producer Brendan O Brien who had previously worked with Stone Temple Pilots. Once O’ Brien came on board things started to proceed for the group’s next album, but the band once again ran into a problem with Scott.

Duff McKagan revealed in his 2011 autobiography, that Scott wanted to be both in Stone Temple Pilots, who were reuniting at the time as well as Velvet Revolver and while that wasn’t a contentious issue with the band, the way he went about it was.

Weiland was being very secretive about the possibility of a Stone Temple Pilots reunion and didn’t discuss it with his bandmates. In addition, Weiland insisted that he got to write all the lyrics for their sophomore effort which Duff felt was a waste of everyone’s talents.

It was a concession that the band made. Scott also wanted a bigger share of the publishing rights since he would be writing the lyrics. On top of that, Scott’s brother died during the making of their second record and he slipped deeper into substance abuse.

Libertad is a Commercial Disappointment

Their sophomore album Libertad was released in the summer of 2007, but the band’s underlying issues were unresolved. Despite the album receiving positive reviews, commercially it was a flop.

As Velvet Revolver hit the road to support the record, band meetings resulted in screaming matches. The bassist blamed bad business managers for appeasing Scott at every turn. As the band continued to tour, Weiland’s marriage fell apart and his performances and behaviour suffered severely.

”Matt and I had come close to fist-fights so many times that it’s ridiculous.” – Scott Weiland

It appeared that Scott’s relationship with Matt Sorum got to the point where they almost had full-on fist fights. Weiland told Classic Rock in 2008, ”Matt and I had come close to fist-fights so many times that it’s ridiculous. He had an attitude with lead singers. It’s a problem he had before Revolver – in Guns N’ Roses and The Cult.”

Scott Weiland is Out of Velvet Revolver

A few months before Velvet Revolver split, Classic Rock did a story on the group. The band was playing a show in Dubai and Classic Rock wrote a piece about being on the road with the band. You could tell from the article, that there was major tension in the group. By the time the article was edited, news had broken that Velvet Revolver was done, at least with Scott Weiland.

The article frequently asked the question, ‘Where the eff is Scott Weiland?”, while the rest of the band is hanging out with each other. Even within the article, Slash asks the interviewer when the article is going to be published. The reporter responds, in May, to which Slash smiles and says, “Well, it should be very interesting by May.” Even by that point in time, it appeared the band was going to fire Scott at some point.

As showtime approached in Dubai, the article described how the members were ready to hit the stage and Scott was nowhere in sight. Weiland shows up at the last minute, doesn’t speak or make eye contact with his bandmates and goes on stage.

“Scott was drunk and high when he grabbed the mic that evening, and he sounded terrible.” – Matt Sorum

Matt Sorum remembered in his book how he reached a boiling point with Scott, “Like always, Scott turned up when he felt like it. He was just like Axl in that respect, with the major difference that Axl usually sounded incredible when he finally got up on stage. Scott was drunk and high when he grabbed the mic that evening, and he sounded terrible.”

During one of the band’s final gigs together in Glasgow, Scotland in late March, Scott Weiland told the crowd that night was going to be the last time Velvet Revolver would be performing together and that the band was breaking up.

Weiland’s bandmates had no idea he was going to make an announcement. The band had already planned to fire him before the tour was over but Weiland beat them to the punch.

Velvet Revolver played their final show in early April in Amsterdam. The band spent the next several years searching for a new singer but came up empty-handed.

The band reunited with Weiland for a one-off charity gig in 2012, but the band’s been pretty much dead since then.

With Slash and Duff reuniting with Axl Rose in 2016 and touring under the Guns N’ Roses moniker over the last 4 years, it seems like Velvet Revolver isn’t on their minds.

“Our friendship wasn’t the only thing that had ended—our 28-year musical partnership was over too.” – Matt Sorum

Matt Sorum revealed in his book that since the Guns N’ Roses reunion, he doesn’t really talk a whole lot with Slash and Duff, “Our friendship wasn’t the only thing that had ended—our 28-year musical partnership was over too. I wouldn’t be able to call Duff or Slash and ask if they wanted to play with me. The GNR machine had taken them back. I knew I wouldn’t be able to rely on those guys any longer. For the first time, I felt completely on my own.”

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