Slash Jams with Alice Cooper, Corey Taylor Speaks

Slash jamming with the MC5's Wayne Kramer

Slash joined Alice Cooper on stage Wednesday night (October 28) at Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles to perform the classic track "School's Out."

According to Examiner.com, Slash played the song on his red sunburst Les Paul, as Cooper strutted on stage in a glittering suit and matching top hat. Cooper then proclaimed, "Happy Halloween."

Read a review and check out photos of the concert at this location. (via Blabbermouth)

In other news, Slipknot frontman Corey Taylor has confirmed that he was being considered for the singer slot in Velvet Revolver.

Speaking to Altitude TV (see video below), Taylor said, "I had a meeting with those guys, we did some demos together, and it just didn't work — for whatever reason."



He added, "It was just really cool. It was one of those things where it's like I could have got to jam with legends, man, in my opinion. But, you know, it was cool, and I still know those guys, I still hang out with them, and I still have nothing but respect."

Slash was asked a few months ago by the webmaster of his official fan site if there was any truth to the rumor that Taylor was going to be the next VR singer. According to a posting on the site, Slash "said it looked like it for a minute, but they had decided against it."

Slash will appear on George Lopez' new talk show on TBS November 16.

You can watch Slash N' Friends playing "Immigrant Song" and "Highway to Hell" from the 'Jason Cam' below (Kristiansand, Norway June 30, 2009).

Duff: "Plans are in Place to Reform VR Next Autumn"

California Chronicle
Duff McKagan proved he had an eye for figures when he was invited to a wild party at the legendary Playboy mansion. But the US rock star wasn't just eyeing up the scantily-clad Bunny Girls lounging around the home of millionaire Hugh Hefner.

The bassist impressed the sex industry mogul with his business knowledge and landed a job writing a financial column for Playboy magazine.

Duff said: "I went to business school and got my finance degree. It's an interesting time to be writing a financial column. It's great fun and keeps my brain ticking over."

Duff shot to fame playing with two of the biggest bands in rock history - Guns N' Roses and Velvet Revolver, so he's one of the few rockers equipped to keep tabs on the royalties he earns.

He said: "I keep a handle on where all our money goes. When Guns blew up we began creating huge income - not just for us but for other people. Musicians have no training for things like business managers and tax credits. I didn't want to get ripped off so I learned about it."

Duff brings his new band Loaded to the O2 Academy in Glasgow on October 17 supporting Black Stone Cherry.

The group will promote new single "Mother's Day," a track from their album, Sick.

Duff said: "I like the feeling of forward motion a tour gives you [everything] from the cameraderie of a band to the feedback from the audience."

He has fond memories of playing in Scotland with Velvet Revolver, the supergroup formed with ex-Guns' bandmates Slash and Matt Sorum.

He told me: "Our show at the SECC in Glasgow in 2004 is one of my three favourite gigs of my entire career. The crowd was figuratively carrying us on their shoulders. I felt so in the moment. I'd put it up there with when Guns played at Rock In Rio in 1991."

But Duff has promised we've not seen the last of Velvet Revolver.

In 2008, singer Scott Weiland announced on stage at the SECC he was quitting the band but Duff says plans are in place to reform the band next autumn.

He said: "We've got a top 10 list of singers we'd like to try out, and enough material for a great new record."

Scott Weiland Suffers Seizure

Scott Weiland Has Seizure on an Airplane

TMZ has learned Stone Temple Pilots front man Scott Weiland experienced a seizure during an American Airlines flight just hours ago.

Sources close to Scott tell us he suffered the seizure while flying from Los Angeles to Miami. The plane was forced to make an emergency landing at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport.

TMZ has been told that Scott has a history of seizures - he was taken to the hospital for precautionary measures. Despite the seizure, we're told Scott plans on attending the launch of his clothing line "Weiland for English Laundry" on Saturday.

A rep traveling with Weiland tells Rolling Stone exclusively that the airplane staff called for medical assistance over the loud speaker and had to administer oxygen to Weiland. Shortly after, Weiland had come to and was “in good spirits” as was taken off the plane for the hospital.

Weiland was traveling with his Scott Weiland Band to Miami for a performance and the launch of his clothing line Weiland for English Laundry at the club Mansion. The rep said the singer has a history of seizures, but is now “doing great” and expects to leave for Miami tomorrow and appear at the club as scheduled.

Slash to Embark on Massive Tour Next Year

From Slash's MySpace blog:

"I don't know how I'm supposed to wait until next year to put out this record! It is so fucking cool & I am so anxious to get it out already. We start mixing soon & that will be that, ready to go. But, I have to wait, there's no way around it, for all kinds of logistic reasons & that's the reality.

But, my VR bandmates & I had a meeting a couple of weeks ago & although the search for a singer will continue, I am going to tour on my solo record most likely thru next summer starting in March or April. We (VR) will keep the word of mouth system going & listening to submissions from singers & checking out different singer's sites etc, we know the right guy is out there somewhere. It's possible somebody could turn up before I do my tour & we could start working on new material sooner than later, in a perfect world.

As far as my tour is concerned, I have already started to put together ideas for a kickass band & the plan is to perform some new stuff, Snakepit, VR & Guns stuff. The new album is really great & deserves that I should support it. Plus, I'm really looking forward to getting out there & doing some gigs, its been more than a year since I was on a proper tour & all these one off jams are basically just a tease.

So, there's the update for now, I'm still tinkering away on the solo record but there really isn't much left to do on it but mix it, which starts in September."

Baz: I Was In VR For Three Weeks

Ask any musician, and they'll tell ya: one of the hardest thing about this "business" is finding the "right" band members. I can remember being in Velvet Revolver for about 15 minutes or so (about three weeks, actually) and the thing I loved about that experience (working with Duff McKagan especially) is that those guys had at least 30-40 songs on the demo CD Duff gave me, and all of us had one goal in mind: creating some great music.

That's it.

We rehearsed at Mates for five hours at a time. No one asked, "How much am I getting paid to rehearse?" "Who's paying my gas money to write this song?" etc. The subject of money never came up. We rehearsed, wrote songs and hung out together because we loved playing more than anything else, and are happier playing music than doing anything else.

www.sebastianbach.com

Slash's Weekly Update (July 15)

Hey all, what's happening? Everything's good on this end. It has been a pretty productive summer so far. My record should be done next month & the recording has gone smoothly & sounds fucking great.

Steven Adler played on the 1st of the last 3 tracks yesterday, along with Flea on bass. The song kicks ass & the drums & bass sound so recognizable & sound so fucking good. Steven is staying clean, which is great, flea is just amazing, period. Steven, Flea & I all lived & met in the same neighborhood in West Hollywood back in the day. Yesterday, we had a great time reminiscing about when we all 1st started playing Rock & Roll & how school didn't fit into the plan, we were like 15. Flea was the 1st one to join an "established" band called "Anthem," I remember being envious. I had a band called "Tidus Sloan" but we didn't have a singer. Sound familiar? Steven & I didn't really have a band together until a few years later when we joined Nikki Sixx's old band "London" after Izzy left. Which, incidentally, was very short lived.

Izzy came down & played on a track a couple weeks ago, that sounds great too. It was good to see him, it's been awhile. Our guitars together really do have a sound all their own.

Besides having some friends of Eric Valentine's come down from Northern California & play cello & violin on a track, I haven't had any other guest musicians so far. Having Flea, Steven & Izzy play has been a real gas. There might be a couple more surprise musicians on this record I think.

The movie I scored while I was writing songs for my record last summer, "This is not a movie," is in it's final production stage & being shopped for distribution. I went to a closed screening of it at Warner Bros a couple weeks ago, its a really dark but funny movie, very indie & very raw. It really surprised me to hear/see it all put together. The score is awesome & almost entirely comprised of electric guitar. It gives the picture a distinct musical personality, which has many moods. Edward Furlong & Peter Coyote star in it, by the way & are phenomenal. Its funny, Edward Furlong was teenage delinquent "John Conner" being chased by the Terminator in "Terminator 2." His key scene was when he was escaping on his motorcycle to the tune of GnR's "You could be mine." Now he is staring in a movie that I did all the music for 18 years later.

The Norway gig happened & was a fucking blast. The band (Jason Bonham, John 5, Ted Andreadis & Franky Perez) was amazing & Ozzy, Fergie & Ronnie Wood were stellar to say the least. But, what really made the gig great was the crowd, they were pretty fucking fantastic. There is some talk of doing some more shows like that in the not too distant future, its too good of a time.

There's a lot of stuff coming up actually, all good. As it happens I will keep you up to date in as timely a fashion as I am capable.

Slash

Duff at Download: Talks Sick, VR and Money

Duff McKagan's Loaded played Download 2009 over the weekend, and I have just a few videos to share, but first, the news.

Duff told Contact Music that he expects their new singer to "land in their laps."

He said, "either you've got the guy or you've not and we've worked with some really talented guys. The trick is getting the chemistry right. Slash is making his solo record, which he's desperately needed to do for years, so I'll keep working with my other band Loaded, he'll do that and music will happen when it's supposed to happen. The right guy will fall into our laps when he is supposed to and maybe that's why it hasn't happened yet."

In a separate interview with Noisecreep, Duff says, "anybody that spends too much on a record these days, that's fool's money spent. Nobody sells records like we did in the '90s or '80s. It's not the business model anymore. People get their music for free off the Internet."

"We signed with a small, indie label which was really cool. There's not a lot of pressure like you get from a major. Major labels are becoming a thing of the past."

"The great thing about this band is that we just don't give a fuck. We'll play anyplace, and it's refreshing. It is kind of rewarding when you become the buzz of a town when someone sees you and finds you are playing. We sell records at the gigs. Who knows? By July this could be an underground summer record."

Fall to Pieces

Mary Weiland, the estranged wife of Stone Temple Pilots/ex-Velvet Revolver singer Scott Weiland, will publish her memoir, Fall to Pieces, on October 27, 2009 via William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.

A description of the book reads as follows:

"A visceral, rollercoaster ride inside bipolar disorder, rock 'n' roll, celebrity culture, and the competitive world of modeling from a rock star wife and recovering drug addict.

On the surface, Mary Weiland had a fairy-tale life. She was a highly paid fashion model married to successful rock star Scott Weiland, the notorious frontman for Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver. Then came the rampage in a Burbank hotel room and the resulting media frenzy that revealed to the world her bipolar disorder and drug abuse.

In Fall to Pieces, Weiland describes the extreme highs and lows of her life, the volatility of which long hinted at mental illness. Working with acclaimed journalist Larkin Warren, Weiland tells her story with refreshing candor, unflinching detail, and more than a little humor. Reminiscent of celebrity memoirs by Tatum O'Neill, Brooke Shields, and Valerie Bertinelli, Weiland's story offers a window into the world of modeling and rock 'n' roll celebrity while providing deep insights into a serious and misunderstood psychological disorder."

Scott Weiland had this to say regarding the book:

"When I was 16 years old I dreamed of being a famous rock star. I never knew what came along with it - the good, the bad, and the straight up bullshit. I thought that creating beauty would bring beauty... Not always. At 16, Mary dreamed of being a famous model. She came close but she gave up her career for Noah, Lucy, and myself. She never got to see the 'what could have happened.'

Well as everyone knows by now we are getting divorced and yes, Mary is writing a book which I have not read. But what I want everyone to know is that it has nothing to do with infidelity. Neither the divorce, nor the book. Please don't place the red letter upon my children's mother.

One last thing... My love for her will never end. We just forgot how to be friends. She has now chosen a public career and one that brings both accolades and public scrutiny. There will be more of this sort of thing to deal with as time goes by... both good and bad.

Divorce is hell, I remember it well and we deal with it every day. And if you think about it, we both have our 'what ifs' and 'why nots,' but it's no cheaters story and all I ask is to not see her cry."

Franky Perez

Las Vegas, Nevada singer and guitarist Franky Perez dropped some news on his MySpace blog

"On June 30th I'll be Singing with Slash & Friends at The Quart Festival in Kristiansand, Norway. Other Artists performing with us that night will be Ozzy Ozbourne, Ronnie Wood, Jason Bonham, Fergie, and many more... "





It looks to me like Slash found himself a pretty cool singer.