Corey Taylor Addresses Velvet Revolver Singer Rumors

via Blabbermouth
In a brand new interview that was posted earlier today at Billboard.com, Slipknot/Stone Sour frontman Corey Taylor would neither confirm not deny that is the known singer" who's working under wraps with Velvet Revolver. "To be continued!" Taylor told Billboard.com with a long, hearty laugh, before declining to say anything further.

As for the future of Slipknot in the wake of bassist Paul Gray's sudden death in May, Taylor said, "I go back and forth. There are moments when I'm like, 'Let's keep going for (Gray),' and there are moments when I'm like, 'It's not the same without him.' Right now my main concern is baby steps. We lost a huge piece of our band. We lost a huge member of our family — in my opinion the biggest — and it's a different vibe now. So right now I'm just taking it step by step, and I can only hope that the other guys in the band are as well."

Regarding the possibility of starting work on a new Slipknot album, Taylor said, "There's a lot of things I've got to figure out about myself before I can even contemplate that. There's a big part of me that wonders if I'm the guy for that band anymore. I'm in such a different place in my life...musically, spiritually. I'm not the angry kid anymore. A lot of things don't mean the same to me anymore, and there's a lot of things I don't feel like saying anymore. Does it make sense anymore? We'll just have to see."

Both Velvet drummer Matt Sorum and guitarist Slash have hinted that the candidate they have recently been jamming with is a "known" artist, and that his style is a little "heavier" than what previous singer, Scott Weiland, brought to the band. Taylor has jammed with the band in the past, although nothing ever came of it.

Sorum gave The Pulse Of Radio a few more clues about the singer the band is looking at. "He's a guy that we've had our eye on but the timing wasn't right," he said. "You know, we don't like stealing people. Weiland was available, you know, he was out of STP. It wasn't like we went and said, 'Hey, dude...' Similar situation with this particular individual. It's cool because we're feeling the guy's work ethic is similar to ours, like, when we mean business, we mean business. We're not gonna dabble in it."

Sorum posted in recent days that VR has demoed nine new songs with the mystery vocalist, while both he and Slash have hinted that an announcement about the singer and the band's future will come sometime this month.

Mister Saint Laurent Teases the GN'R Community With Alleged GN'R 2011 Schedule" & More

Deciphered text on screen:

Leak announcement _________ Facebook and Twitter

Twitter - Announce secret CREEM re-launch show

Perform secret high-profile show at CREEM re-launch party day before Super Bowl

Perform "The Lounge" Dallas ______

Major press buzz about Chinese re-launch ... (iTunes)?

Officially announce US Tour and Chinese re-launch

Artist on artist interview Axl and "dangerous" ____________

Axl to appear on the cover to the first issue of relaunched CREEM magazine

LED ZEPPELIN appeared on the first CREEM cover in 19__ (not quite sure about this one)

CREEM will follow GNR on tour and _______________

Download Festival Booker Wants Classic Guns N' Roses

"Never Say "Never"

ROCKAAA.COM
Download Festival booker Andy Copping says there is a handful of legendary bands he’d love to hand a headlining slot to but admits they are usually impossible to secure.

Copping did buck the trend and shock the music world last year by landing one of the bands on his list in AC/DC and insists he would "never say never" to any of the bands on his wish list as he believes the historic rock tradition of the festival site gives him a trump card.

He tells RockAAA, "some bands get big offers for festivals all the time. AC/DC - who we were fortunate to get and we were the first festival in the world in the past 10 years to get them - Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and Classic Guns N’ Roses.

Guns N' Roses are an atom bomb waiting to go off. Axl is an enigma and does his own thing but if you book them then you know what you’re taking.

But I would like to book the old line-up of Axl, Slash, Izzy Stradlin, Duff McKagan and either Steven Alder or Matt Sorum – as close to the original classic-era line-up as possible.

The whole world has put offers in the past for that to happen and any festival worth their salt would try and get them.

I stuck my neck out to get Aerosmith last year while I was also told Faith No More would never play together again but I got them too. It is often the way we sell to the bands.

Of course the money we offer is a huge amount but another reason is the heritage of Download – the Donington Park site – means they look at it seriously.

I’d say never say never for any band."

Copping also says there are also no bands he wouldn’t book on account of personal reasons or for past misdemeanours as he stresses the Download Festival is all about the music the paying public want.

He says, “I struggle to tell you of any band who I wouldn’t book for Download. There are some bands I might not want to book one year as they have played the year before or if they have no real profile.

Some bands do play repeat years but that is only because their profile has been raised over the year and more people want to see them.

There are no bands I wouldn’t book and even Kid Rock (who pulled out in 2008 on the day of his scheduled set) I’d take as I think he should play.

I’ve spoken to him twice since and he has admitted he made an error in not playing as if he had played he’d have blown people away as he is great live.

Pennywise smashed up a dressing room but I’d book them again as you have to look forward.

And the guys from Jackass came for a show and did a few stupid things but again I’d still book that kind of thing for the festival.

Download is not about me. It is about the people who buy the tickets and I have to try and put on a strong enough festival to make people want to buy the tickets and come."

In addition to securing AC/DC to the bill last year Copping stunned the rock world by unveiling Aerosmith as third headliner which he laughs caused arguments in the music community with many doubting whether the whole band would play the festival.

He continues, "the beauty of signing Aerosmith was people were saying to me ‘You don’t have Aerosmith,’ while I was insisting I had.

An article in Classic Rock magazine had just come out saying Steven Tyler wasn’t in the band anymore and nobody believed I had the band with Tyler in it.

They were on-off, on-off and then on again but I was adamant when I made the deal that I would not commit to signing them to the festival unless I had a cast-iron assurance the band would play together.

I had the privilege of being in their dressing room prior to them going on stage and I saw Tyler and Joe Perry interacting with one another about how they were going to perform, which songs they wanted to play and when to play them.

Getting to watch these guys in the same room as me working out their show was mesmerising to watch and a privilege.”

ROCKAAA.COM

Bumblefoot: Touring the US is too "complicated" for GN'R

via Blabbermouth

Rick Landers of Guitar International recently conducted an interview with Guns N' Roses guitarist Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Guitar International: GN'R is gonna be on the road in February, right?

Ron: We're supposed to be and suddenly there's silence.

I don't think it's gonna happen.

Figuring February is weeks away and I've yet to see a single confirmed date.

It's the kind of thing where you have a tour that's coming together, but it's so complicated at this level with managers and booking agents and different promoters and venues and itinerary and the production. The manager has to figure out how to get the gear from point A to point B all the time, without us going broke, and making sure all the crew is available. With everything, all it takes is just one link in the chain to get weak and everything unravels. So, I don't know what the status is of this U.S. tour that I've been impatiently waiting for. It's been five years since we've played the U.S. Last year we did some acoustic shows in New York in February, but as far as a real tour, we haven't done that. A couple of shows in May and September of 2006 and then a fall tour from October to December.

Guitar International: What does that mean for you? Does that mean you've got to keep February and March open as far as anything else you want to do?

Ron: That's always the dilemma. Things come together so quickly with GN'R that I just get a week's notice.

Guitar International: Jeez.

Ron: In fact, when I joined the band, I only had a week to learn all the songs and then hit the road. And to learn the "Chinese" songs, they wouldn't give me a copy because they were so worried about leaks. I had to learn all of that stuff on a pair of headphones in the rehearsal room on a laptop just listening and taking notes.

Guitar International: That's like learning guitar in the '50s and '60s with a turntable. Crazy.

Ron: Yeah, so with Guns what'll happen is I'll get a week's notice. They'll say, "All right. It's happening. We're FedExing your tickets."

The thing is, for the rest of the world, if you want to plan something, it's months in advance. What would happen is I would plan a tour for five months from now and by that point GN'R would say, "All right. It's time for us to do something," and I would have to cancel. It just becomes impossible to make plans. All I can do is make very short-term plans that don't require too much commitment and if I have to break them, it's not gonna hurt a lot of people.

I've shied away from playing live and doing shows because of that, because if I have to cancel a show, it could disappoint hopefully only a few hundred people — okay, maybe 100. [Both laughing] If it's just a meet-and-greet or something like that, it could be the same, but it's not like they spent a lot of money and made a lot of plans. It's just not as big a thing to cancel. So, I've been doing more meet-and-greets and not doing any performances other than quick jams. Like I played in Sydney, Australia and jammed with Fozzy.

Bumblefoot: "We've yet to get in a room and write as a band."

Read the entire interview from Guitar International here.

Forum discussion here.

Steven Adler Tells Howard Stern that Steven Tyler’s "Rig" Intimidated Him

via braingell.com
Steven Adler stopped by The Howard Stern Show Tuesday to promote his new memoir, My Appetite for Destruction.

With him was Chip Z’Nuff, his bandmate, roommate and Enuff Z’Nuff bassist.

Howard said he was always disappointed that Chip’s talents hadn’t garnered more success. Steven thought it was because success was such a tough thing to come by in hard rock. “That’s why Guns N’ Roses was such a unique thing. Like Aerosmith or Queen.”

Steven told the crew that he was still battling addiction. “To be honest, I’ve had –like all addicts – relapses. But I’m going on five months right now.”

Steven last slipped when he discovered Oxycontin, a prescription opiate so powerful it’s commonly known as "hillbilly heroin."

Steven said he started smoking weed at 11, something he didn’t think was unusual. “There’s a lot of masturbation, a lot drinking and a lot of smoking going on at the age of 11.”

Steven’s mom eventually kicked him out the house at 11. “I wasn’t bad or wanted to hurt people. I was just young and wanted to experience life.” His teen years were spent down on the Sunset strip, learning to drum from watching bands and frequently fending off the clubs’ lecherous owners and patrons: “They gave me drugs and took advantage of me.”

Howard noted a few of the groupie stories in Steven’s book, so Steven walked through his favorites, starting with a tour bus bender. “Let’s just say I had 9. I had sex with 9 women with Steven Tyler in the back of a tour bus. One night.” Steven said Tyler’s size intimidated him. “Believe me, Steven Tyler has a huge rig,” but he was still game. “It was like a pile of flesh in the back of the bus.”

Steven said things were only more debauched on the Guns N’ Roses tour bus. “A lot fat girls got fucked. You’ve got to remember, Slash is walking around with a rig. You know, like 15 inches. Ok? He needs something to pack that in.”

Sometimes Steven would find himself in a four-way with a girl – he’d be in her vagina, Slash in her mouth and Izzy Stradlin in her ass. Howard wondered how none of these incidents resulted in children, so Steven laughed that they always pulled out. “Of course! That’s what the face is for!”

Slash Says His Shows Will Start 10 Minutes Early

Yesterday, Slash announced via twitter that he will be starting his sets "10 minutes early to get more songs in."

Now, that's Rock 'n' Roll.

Slash is currently on tour in support of Ozzy Osbourne.

Duff McKagan's ESPN Sports Column

ESPN
How can't you love the Seahawks now?
By Duff McKagan

I do know that this ESPN gig is a national thing -- and I also know that some of you mused out loud about me having too much of a Seattle slant from week to week. Well, I'm not sure about next week … but for this one, yes, my column will definitely be about a Seattle team. At least someone will be writing about the The Hawks.

I get it. We are not a big market and we are tucked all of the way up here in the Pacific Northwest, where we are perceived to be still chopping down trees and living in tepees or igloos or whatever … and we are all hippies playing hacky sack, listening to Phish or some such jam-band. Or we still listen purely just to grunge music and/or Heart.

But this medium-market team just took down the defending Super Bowl champions, and now suddenly … this fish-throwing, coffee-drinking town has got a new face and attitude, perhaps best personified by Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch's forearm-shiver delivered to the Saints defense on Saturday. I guess the Hawks just had nothing to lose; they certainly played like it.

If you like your freedom, your Internets, espresso and good rock and roll, well then you should also be a Seahawks fan. Here is why: During World War II, Seattle's own Boeing airplane plant pumped out all of those B-24s, B-25s, and B-29s that helped to win that war. In the 1940s, Jimi Hendrix was born in this great city; his vanguard lead guitar playing eventually influenced so many great rock bands that it is almost impossible to register it all. Lead guitar solos may have very well been set back many years without his genius. In the '70s, Starbucks opened a little shop in the Pike Place Market that eventually informed our whole nation that coffee is dark black and not almost clear -- not to mention, from a can, weak or brownish. In the 1970s, Bill Gates and Paul Allen started Microsoft; without which, a home computer would still be the size of, well, a home. The globalization of modern ideas and instantaneous sharing of information could have been a thing that we might still be waiting for. Just think, no ESPN.com or NFL.com … or, God forbid, no Twitter!

A few readers chastised me pretty good for a comment I made about "suddenly wearing my dusty Seahawks jersey" last week after we made it into the playoffs. The truth is though -- I am such a sports fan that if I am bummed out about how the coaching staff or players or front office people are running things -- I will not just sit idly by and root for my team and wear the colors for the true-fan-ness of it all. I have done it in the past and have felt like a moron as, say, my favorite player gets traded or backroom dealings are being done to create space for next season … again!

Have you ever been a fan of a rock band that had a killer first and second record, and then somehow lost you after that? Did you still wear the Styx concert T-shirt after they went into the whole "Mr. Roboto" thing? You may still love the band somewhere deep down inside, but you reserve the right to be pissed-off about what is currently happening. Are you any less of a fan then?

You can read the full article here.

Matt Sorum Says VR Decision Coming This Week

In his latest Twitter posting (Monday, Jan 10), Velvet Revolver drummer Matt Sorum says the band just completed a four-day writing and recording session "with an amazing singer," which led to "nine killer demo tracks." He also said that VR is "going to make the decision one way or another this week."

Matt talked to Noisecreep about how the audition process was going:

"We tried out a lot of new guys, and basically it's quite a process. Scott Weiland is one of the best frontmen out there. And I've been in bands with Axl Rose and Ian Astbury. Those are big shoes to fill. So we're looking for a tried and true individual that can mesh with guys like us that have been out there doing this for a long time.

It hasn't been an easy task, and that's why it's taking a long time. But we don't want to come out half-cocked. We want to create something that people are gonna go, "Wow, that's awesome." We've had a couple situations where we've been with some singers, and we've pulled out of because we didn't feel completely secure in the fact that going forward the guy was the right move.

We tried out some fairly unknown guys and some guys that have been out there a little bit. But the guy we're really excited about know is a pretty known guy. I don't want to say anything yet because we're still in the dating phase. We haven't consummated the relationship or made a gentleman's agreement. So I can't let the cat out of the bag until there's an official stamp of approval on the deal."

Regarding the new singer, guitarist Slash told ARTISTdirect.com "we're gonna have a whole different personality as a vocalist. It's gonna be a lot heavier than anything Velvet Revolver has done so far. 'Cause that was the only thing missing for me — the sort or heaviness of it — in the first two Velvet Revolver records."

Sorum said, "the guy we're liking right now is a known guy. He's a guy we've had our eye on, but the timing wasn't right. He's a little younger, a little stronger, a bit heavier rock 'n' roll than we are, that's all I can say.

Writing is a lot of the way we've been trying out singers, and a lot of the reason we've had trouble trying to pick a guy, because we really need to hear that truth.

We can't just jump out there with any singer. We've got to make the right decision ... a guy who can front a rock band of this caliber and be a strong enough frontman to go out in front of Slash and be that guy.

We need to hear that vocal, that lyric, that melody. It's not an easy thing."

Sorum said the band was impressed that the frontman candidate "has a work ethic similar to ours" and also brings a "modern" edge to the group.

"I've always stressed to the band that we need to be current. I don't want to go out there and make retro-Rock 'n' Roll music. We have to take in the environment and parlay that into a Rock 'n' Roll outlet."

Last month, Matt told Bravewords.com that if something doesn’t happen in 2011 with Velvet Revolver, it might be the end of the group. He was asked if fans could expect an album or a tour from Velvet Revolver next year.

“I would like to say ‘yes’ as a guarantee and the only reason I’m saying that is because if it doesn't happen by 2011 we're definitely going to pack it up.

But it will happen - because that’s our goal.

We’ve known each other for over 20 years and it’s like a gentlemen’s agreement. It’s like ‘OK, let’s do this’.”

Axl Rose / Kurt Cobain

It's well-documented that the two icons desperately hated each other, and as the two biggest groups of the early '90s — they were Often pitted as rivals. The British music weekly New Music Express, once called Nirvana "the Guns N' Roses it's okay to like" (apparently, NME perceives every popular American band exactly the same). The groups even got into a minor shoving match at the 1992 MTV Music Awards, although that altercation can probably be blamed on Courtney Love's hypocritical idiocy.

Axl initially loved Nirvana (he wore a Nirvana baseball cap in the "Don't Cry" video and wanted Nirvana to serve as the opener for the ill-fated '92 Metailica/Guns tour), but Cobain essentially thought Rose was a doofus, so Axl decided Kurt was a queer (or a poseur, or a pretentious asshole, or some damn thing that he probably would never say now that Cobain is dead). But these two guys share a lot of similarities — certainly more than either was ever willing to recognize. Besides strikingly similar facial features and an overlapping audience, they both offered an image that specifically appealed to lost kids with inexplicable rage, Axl did this first, and his tools were hostility and confusion, Cobain came a few years later, and he used personal angst and sexual tolerance (ultimately, Kurt's methods proved to be more effective).

Comparing the two men is kind of like comparing a black-and-white photo with its negative – both are totally opposite, yet they're completely the same. What they shared is a human element; they seemed real. There was a certain depth to their character. Granted, this is partially due to their popularity; when the media covers a rock band, they really only cover the vocalist, so singers from the most popular bands always have more opportunities to seem interesting (the third person to follow in this lineage was Eddie Vedder, and for many of the same reasons). But this process works both ways. During their first months in the spotlight, there was something about Rose and Cobain (and, to a lesser extent, Vedder and Trent Reznor) that made me want to know more about them. It was an undefined fascination that I did not feel for people like Tom Keifer or Dave Pirner; though I liked Cinderella and Soul Asylum very much, my interest did not go too far beyond the musical product. Almost instantaneously, Axl Rose came across darker, more dangerous, and more credible than his peers. That's partially to his credit and partially due to my own naivete. He put himself in a position where I could comfortably lionize him. Rose was hard rock's equivalent to U2's Bono.

-Chuck Klosterman, 2002

Steven Adler & Matt Sorum Share Stage for "Paradise City"

via Blabbermouth



Camp Freddy brought in the New Year at the world-famous The Roxy Theatre in West Hollywood, California this past Friday night (December 31) with a show that featured former GN'R drummer Matt Sorum introducing original GN'R timekeeper Steven Adler for a version of the Guns classic "Paradise City."

Adler's performance with Camp Freddy came only a few months after Steven slammed Sorum in a interview with Ultimate-Guitar.com. Adler was kicked out of GN'R in 1990 due to his drug use, and when asked how he felt when he heard that Sorum would play on the band's 1991 Use Your Illusion records, Adler said, "his were just half-assed, crappy versions. Nothing personal against the guy, but he's like a goddamn drum machine. He's got no heart; he's got no soul; he's got no feel. And as life and the years have shown, obviously, I'm not the easiest drummer to replace."

Adler added that he thinks the Use Your Illusion albums would have been bigger than the band's 1987 debut, Appetite For Destruction, if he had been on them.

Steven subsequently apologized to Sorum during an August 2010 appearance on the "Good Day LA" television talk show, explaining that "the words just came out wrong." He added, "I think you're [referring to Matt] amazing and I love you, man. Sorry about that."

Sorum told The Pulse of Radio a while back that if the original GN'R band reunites, they should perform with both him and Adler. "If it's me on drums or Steven or whatever, if it happened, it'd be great, you know," he said. "I would actually say to them, 'Hey, bring both of us back,' you know. Let me play the other stuff. We'll have two drum kits. I don't care. If Appetite sounds better with Steven playing it, have both guys up there. They can afford it."

Camp Freddy is the Los Angeles-based "jam" group featuring Dave Navarro, Billy Morrison (ex-bassist for The Cult, current Circus Diablo vocalist), Matt Sorum, Donovan Leitch (son of legendary folk singer Donovan), and Chris Chaney.

Camp Freddy's lineup for Friday's performance included Billy Idol guitarist Steve Stevens and The Cult bassist Chris Wyse due to Navarro and Chaney being out of town.

GN'R to "lay some tracks" on Facebook in 2011

http://twitter.com/gunsnroses/status/21989029692047361

Izzy Stradlin Recording Again with Timo Kaltio

Thanks to Gisela over at the Izzy Stradlin board: beenafix.com for finding this news.

Timo Kaltio (guitarist & songwriter on Fire, Concrete and Smoke) said that he was recording with Izzy Stradlin during the first half of December 2010, in California.

He said that he was recording two tracks a day, with Izzy, Taz Bentley (drums) and JT Longoria (bass).

Some pictures:




These two songs are from Fire, both co-written by Timo Kaltio and Izzy Stradlin:

Happy New Year