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.

Fizzles and Bringdowns 2009

January 17
VH1's Sober House Premieres. Steven Adler shows up wasted, with syringes in his pants pockets, and a tin foil package full of heroin down his pants. Chaos ensues and he gets taken to the home of a staff member to spend the first night, both to protect himself and the other participants.

January 26
Steven Adler is arrested again.

January 27
A mere 8 weeks after it's release, Chinese Democracy plummets to number 57 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart.

January 29
Former Guns N' Roses manager Alan Niven tells Classic Rock magazine that Axl fired him "to wrestle control of GN’R!" Of the new GN’R, Niven comments: “Y’know, everyone has the right to make the music they want to with whomever they wish. But just be up ’n’ up about it. All this ‘last man’ standing stuff from Axl is horseshit. He wore us all out. Drove us all off. And for a personality like Axl, solo work only makes sense. If he wants to be Elton Rose then more power to him. Go for it. Pull it off. He has the talent to do that. But don’t pretend that one person alone represents the idea of Guns N’ Roses."

February 6
Axl Rose breaks his silence and gives his first public interview in 9 years with Billboard magazine. He addresses rumors of an upcoming tour, "no plans, but there's talk. Management and our promoters are really excited with the offers coming in both here and worldwide." Axl mentions that they're "finalizing a video for 'Better' and writing a couple others now." On the subject of Slash, Axl had this to say "one of the two of us will die before a reunion and however sad, ugly or unfortunate anyone views it, it is how it is. Those decisions were made a long time ago and reiterated year after year by one man. Anyone putting his own personal entertainment above everything else is sickening."

February 9
Matt Sorum reveals that Velvet Revolver hopes to announce their new vocalist in April.

February 9
Steven Adler heads back to rehab (again).

Febraury 9
The third single from Chinese Democracy, "Street of Dreams," appears on eBay and YouTube. It is never played on the radio, seen in stores, acknowledged by the band or heard from again. Copies of the promo disc are fetching over $150 a piece on eBay.

February 13
Regarding Velvet Revolver's new singer, Duff McKagan tells Opie and Anthony that "I think we have the guy ... yeah. You'll be blown away by the quality. I think we have the right guy. We all know he's killer."

February 14
Nick Sterling auditions for Guns N' Roses.

February 18
Jimmy Fallon says that he wants Axl Rose to appear on his new late-night show. Jimmy calls Chinese Democracy "awesome."

February 23
Rumors of a European festival tour begin to trickle in. Organizers of Spain's Kobetasonik festival list Guns N' Roses as a headliner on the festival's web page. Other rumored dates include June 26 in Norway, August 1 at the Sonisphere Festival in Knebworth, England and June 12-14 at the Download Festival also in England. There are also reports of dates in Italy for the month of June.

February 27
Axl is interviewed by his longtime friend Del James. In the interview Axl says the he considers Slash "a cancer and better removed, avoided -- and the less anyone heard of him or his supporters, the better." In regard to a release date for the sequel to Chinese Democracy Axl says he has no idea and that he doesn't care.

March 4
Rolling Stone reports that Axl Rose intends to follow last November’s release of Chinese Democracy with a worldwide Guns N’ Roses stadium tour this summer. Guns’ manager, Irving Azoff, tells Rolling Stone that the band has big plans for this year. "We have some exciting things in the works this year for GN’R, I’m looking forward to it." Hits Daily Double reports that a co-headlining tour with Van Halen is in the works. Rumors suggest that Guns' set will feature a full orchestra and lavish stage show.

March 5
Canadian Sports Station, TSN, announces a contest to win a trip to see Guns N' Roses perform live "somewhere in the world."

March 9
Velvet Revolver demos with Gord Prior leak.

March 18
Bass Player magazine publishes an interview with Tommy Stinson where he mentions tour dates beginning in April. "I have a feeling it's going to happen, but I'm not holding my breath. It seems that every time that ball starts rolling, it rolls a bit Like a square wheel at first."

March 20
An update on Nomad Recording Studio's MySpace page reads "JT Longoria is the process of mixing new tracks for Izzy Stradlin" As of today (July 24), there is still no release date for this record.

March 21
Guns N’ Roses add guitarist DJ Ashba for “upcoming tour.” The phrase "upcoming tour" is later redacted from the band's website.

March 26
Duff McKagan's Loaded announce Spring tour dates.

April 14
Chinese Democracy comes to the Rock Band 2 videogame.

April 17
Sick, the new album from Duff McKagan's Loaded, sells 1,400 copies in the United States its first week of release.

April 22
Guns N' Roses front-of-house engineer, Ken "Pooch" van Druten appears in a pair of videos discussing the band's Waves audio set-up for their upcoming tour. Pooch talks about the challenges of live mixing a 9-piece band. You can hear the musicians rehearsing "Sweet Child O' Mine" in the background. The videos are removed from YouTube in a matter of hours and the tour is called off several days later.

April 28
Richard Fortus tells KDHX 88.1 FM that Guns "hopefully, will be announcing dates soon, I hope."

April 30
Matt Sorum tells Joe Bosso at MusicRadar that Velvet Revolver needs "a singer soon. We need the right guy in six months. We can't wait another year. Otherwise, it might not matter."

May 7
Slash appears as a mentor on American Idol's rock week.

May 19
Bumblefoot jams with Duff McKagan's Loaded at the Gramercy theater in New York City.

June 1
Slash announces that Izzy Stradlin will play with him on his upcoming solo album.

June 7
The NY Daily News reports that Axl Rose has fired and rehired his manager, Irving Azoff, at least three times in the last five weeks.

June 15
Amazon announces a June 30 release date for the Chinese Democracy guitar tablature book. As of today (July 24) it has not been released.

June 16
New, alternate artwork for the Chinese Democracy booklet appears online. An indie record store in Hollywood is selling copies of the promotional disc for $100. A rep at Universal told me that there are no plans to re-release the album.

June 30
Slash and Friends play the Quart festival in Kristiansand, Norway. The 90 minute set featured appearances from Ron Wood, Ozzy Osbourne and Fergie. The band, which featured Franky Perez on lead vocals, covered songs by Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, Velvet Revolver, The Rolling Stones, Guns N' Roses, Black Sabbath and more.

July 7
Mister Saint Laurent resurfaces in an attempt to obtain and release a collection of hoarded, unheard songs from the Chinese Democracy sessions. He is, unfortunately, unsuccessful.

July 14
Blogger Kevin "Skwerl" Cogill is sentenced to 1 year probation for leaking 9 songs from the Guns N' Roses album Chinese Democracy. "No fines, no restitution, no jail."

July 15
A live chat with new Guns N' Roses guitarist DJ Ashba fails to deliver any information on the group.

July 17
Slash tells Classic Rock magazine that Velvet Revolver is "at a standstill."

July 23
Kevin Cogill tells the GN'R Syndicate that Beta Lebeis' son Fernando lied to the FBI and was responsible for past leaks of GN'R material. "He may have been trying to play hero to redeem himself, or he may have mistakenly thought he was somehow responsible. I don’t know."

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

John 5 to Replace Zakk Wylde in Ozzy's Band?

via Blabbermouth
Ozzy Osbourne has revealed to Classic Rock magazine that he is currently searching for a new guitarist for his solo band.

Classic Rock caught up with Osbourne last week at the Slash & Friends gig in Norway, where the whispers backstage had guitarist John 5 lined up as a possible replacement for Zakk Wylde.

"Well, I'm getting a new guitar player as we speak," Ozzy told Classic Rock, "and everyone has been saying to me for a long time, 'Get Johnny 5!' And I tried him at one time and I didn't really give him a chance. We'll see, I don't know. I haven't fallen out with Zakk, but Zakk's got his own band, and I felt like my stuff was beginning to sound like Black Label Society. I just felt like I wanted a change, y'know?

I've got a guy from Greece coming in — not the musical, the country of Greece — but I'm not going to say too much about it, 'cos I don't know myself at this point. I've got a new album, I'm working on it as we speak. I've got a studio at my house and I've got a guy called Kevin Churko, the guy that did the last album — he's great to work with.

And it's great to have your own studio. On one hand it's great and on the other it's not, 'cos when you're at the studio you can go, 'Sorry darling, I can't get home for dinner, I'm stuck at the studio' But she can fucking come down stairs now! But I'm just enjoying my life now"

Classic Rock: So you're taking it easy recording this album?

Ozzy: "Oh yeah. Zakk came down and did a bunch of stuff and I don't know if I want to use it but I've got it there if I do. And this Kevin Churko is a bit of an all-rounder so I'm getting back to basics in some respects. One thing about a guy who can't do all the finger-tapping stuff is that he plays better on the riffs 'cos it's not all [hums riff for 'Iron Man' followed by over-the-top widdling]."

Classic Rock: Does Heaven & Hell having a new album out make you more competitive?

Ozzy: "No. Not in the slightest. I really wish them well. I mean I've been out of that band three times longer than I was ever in them. But people say, 'What do you think about Dio?' He's great singer. I've grown up since the days when I used to get pissed and slag him off. For whatever it's worth, good luck to them. I don't want to make enemies — I made enough when I was drinking, I try to make friends with people these days!"


You can read the full interview here. Thanks to IngridMJ for the photos.

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."

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.