POSSIBLY ANTI-CLIMACTIC BUT NOT-AWFUL NEWS: SCOTT WEILAND MAY RETURN TO VELVET REVOLVER
The musician John O’Brien, who passed away in August, was best friends with Dave “Slash Couldn’t Even Spell My Damn Name Correctly in his Autobiography” Kushner. And so the guitarist — unsurprisingly, the only member of Velvet Revolver to drop off the face of the planet when the band went on hiatus four years ago — organized a reunion of his most famous project for a memorial concert in O’Brien’s honor, which will take place on January 12 at the House of Blues in Los Angeles.
Yes, that means that Scott Weiland is going to be performing with Velvet Revolver again.
And while the gig is currently scheduled to be a one-off affair, now Kushner tells Rolling Stone that Weiland could ultimately end up coming back to the fold for good:
“We haven’t played together in four years, and so we’re really just like, ‘Let’s see how this goes’… I know everyone’s got other commitments, but I think everyone’s like, ‘Let’s get this thing done and get through this and then we’ll see.’”
Call me cynical (Moi? NEVER!), but I always interpret the phrase “let’s see how this goes” to mean “Let’s see if we can all be in one room without killing each other, and if we can, let’s do this thing, ’cause there’s a lot of money to be made.” Because the band has obviously had a very hard time finding a replacement for Weiland, which, I’m guessing, is a result of the same issue they had landing a front man when they first formed back in 2003: without a famous vocalist, they could very easily end up just being Slash’s Snakepit Mach III. This is not a situation where they can just find the next Rod Jackson and get down to the business of making rock n’ roll, and even hiring the wrong famous lead singer — say, a Sebastian Bach or someone of that nature — could be disastrous, augmenting any perception that these guys are dinosaurs from a bygone era. Weiland was a perfect match for the band because he was already a star AND he ensured that the group one to be taken seriously by other fans besides those dudes who are now way too fat for those leather bands they continue to insist on wearing.
Personally, I was kinda stoked to see how VR would sound with a new singer — maybe even one with a more Axl Rose-esque vocal range than Weiland — but if Weiland does return to the band, well, it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world. Dude has plenty of problems, but being a bad performer ain’t one of ’em.
-AR
[via Classic Rock]
