Corey Taylor Practically Recorded an Entire Album with Velvet Revolver

There are now not one but two never-to-be released Velvet Revolver albums I wanna hear.

The first was written circa 2003, before Scott Weiland joined the band and it was just known as “The Project,” and it was written by Slash and Izzy Stradlin. Slash has called the best Guns N’ Roses album Guns N’ Roses never made, and I believe him, ’cause a) Izzy was a huge part of what made GN’R, GN’R, and b) once Weiland joined the band, he rejected every song on the demo specifically because it sounded too much like Guns. So, basically, somewhere out there in the world, there’s a follow-up to the Use Your Illusions just waiting for Axl Rose to lay down vocal tracks.

The second Velvet Revolver album I desperately want to hear and will never get to features lead vocals by Corey Taylor.

It’s no secret that VR flirted with the idea of hiring Taylor after they sacked Weiland in 2008, and that it was Slash who ultimately put the kibosh on the idea. What most of us didn’t realize, though, was that Slash put the kibosh on the idea after they’d more or less recorded demos for an entire album. Blabbermouth says Loudwire says Taylor says:

“I think it was ten [songs that I recorded with Velvet Revolver]… I think it was… It’s either nine or ten. There was a handful that we wrote, and then there was a handful that I kind of rearranged a little bit based on music that they already had. So it wasn’t music that we kind of wrote together. I mean, there were, like, three… I think there was three songs that we wrote together, which were actually pretty sweet. And then the rest of it was me writing to music that they already had that I thought was pretty cool.”

I’ll never really understand why Slash shot down the idea of Taylor, who would have been a great fit. That being said, it’s hard to complain about him ending up with Myles Kennedy. At this point, they’ve made enough albums together and done enough tours together that you hafta wonder why they’re excluding Duff McKagan, Matt Sorum, and Not Izzy Stradlin.

Side note: remember when Anthrax tried to get Taylor to be their new singer? Corey must just feel like the belle of the ball!

You can watch video of Loudwire’s interview with Taylor below.