Velvet Revolver: “Slithering to the Top of Hard Rock”

Supergroup: “A term used to describe music groups composed of members who had already achieved fame or respect in other groups or as individual artists.” The term supergroup, more specifically rock and roll supergroup, has existed now since about the late 1960s. The term started to become frequently used when David Crobsy, Steven Stills and Graham Nash all collectively came together to form the group Crosby, Stills and Nash (the legendary Neil Young would later join the group as well). What made it a “supergroup” was the fact that the members of the band all came from previously commercially popular groups such as The Byrds, Buffalo Springfield and The Hollies. Now forty years after Crosby, Stills and Nash essentially created the supergroup, the term has never been so evident as in the last several years thanks to bands such as Audioslave, Army of Anyone, Hellyeah and Velvet Revolver. Velvet Revolver (or VR) are collectively made up of three members of the hugely popular late ‘80s, early ‘90s rock group Guns N’ Roses and one member of one of the leading grunge bands of the ‘90s Stone Temple Pilots. Now that we have our facts straight, let’s take a look at what Velvet Revolver exactly is and how this whole project came together.

While most rock bands form among teenage friends in a garage, Velvet Revolver came together under unusual circumstances. In 2002, Slash, Duff McKagan and Matt Sorum, all former members of Guns N’ Roses briefly joined to play a benefit show for musician Randy Castillo. Enjoying what it was like to play together again, the three decided to form a new band and attempt to rekindle the true spirit of rock and roll. The guys recruited guitarist Dave Kushner formerly of Wasted Youth, but what they still lacked was a true lead singer. The process of finding a singer became a VH1 documentary where various performers were auditioned such as Todd Kerns of Age of Electric, Josh Todd of Buckcherry, Myles Kennedy from Alter Bridge and Days of the New frontman Travis Meeks. None of the auditioned singers quite clicked with the rest of the band, but upon hearing some demo tapes, Stone Temple Pilots frontman Scott Weiland liked what he heard and offered to become the band’s singer.

After Weiland was recruited, details of the band were few and far between for several months. All that was known was that the group was writing and recording music for a proper debut LP. Our first taste of Velvet Revolver came in 2003 in the form of The Hulk movie soundtrack which featured the track “Set Me Free,” a song that was a good indication of what was to come in the future. The guys spent most of the latter half of 2003 recording their debut record which finally dropped in June, 2004 under the name Contraband. The album was generally well received and sold extremely well, topping over two million copies in total and garnering two hit singles in “Slither” and “Fall To Pieces.”

Following some intense touring behind Contraband, the band took a bit of time off before getting to work on their sophomore CD. Eventually, VR began work on the record late in 2005 and at first; there was a lot of speculation of what we could expect from the disc. Rumors flurried around that the album would be a concept record and famed producer Rick Rubin would handle production work, but both rumors ended up being false. The band scrapped the idea of doing a concept piece for fear of it sounding bloated and pretentious. And although Rubin and the band preliminarily began work together, the arrangement did not work out and VR ended up selecting former Stone Temple Pilots producer Brendan O’Brien to produce the album. The record became known as Libertad (Spanish for “freedom”) and came out in July, 2007. Although it has not debuted as well as Contraband, there has still been quite a buzz about Libertad, largely due to the record’s second single “The Last Fight.” The song is a hard rock ballad that is striking a chord with fans because of its heartfelt lyrics and anti-war message.

Currently, Velvet Revolver is on an extensive North American tour, hitting just about anywhere and everywhere right up until mid-October. Following this tour, the band will be hitting Europe and other parts of the world well into 2008. Although some critics and fans seem to have an aversion to “supergroups,” VR has shown that they are more than just in it for a cash grab. The band has developed a solid backing of fans thanks to some solid songwriting. Look for Velvet Revolver to be around for a while to come.  [ END ]