MIGHT THERE BE A SUITABLE VELVET REVOLVER FRONTMAN HIDDEN IN THE TRACKLISTING OF SLASH’S SOLO ALBUM?
Friday, November 20th, 2009 at 12:00pm by Gary Suarez
All this talk about Slash’s upcoming solo album has got me playing “Fantasy Velvet Revolver” in my head once again. Though I still hold out hope that Axl’s idea of having Perry Farrell front the band comes to fruition, I know in my heart that there’s probably a better chance of Scott Weiland rejoining the band, which is admittedly a pretty remote possibility. Remote like Siberia.
So looking through the list of vocalists purportedly gracing the axeman’s new record, I see a number of qualified albeit unlikely candidates to fill Weiland’s still-vacant spot. Yeah, it would be a heavy music lover’s dream to have Ozzy Osbourne sing for the band, considering the craptastic nature of his last few solo albums. Realistically, that would be an unholy managerial nightmare with the potential capacity to yield a catastrophic clusterfuck to put the legal woes of Black Sabbath and Guns N’ Roses to shame. Dave Grohl’s too busy counting his money and playing geriatric rock with his idols to commit to yet another band. These days, Alice Cooper and Lemmy Kilmister have the commercial drawing power of, well, Alice Cooper and Lemmy Kilmister, and maybe would shift a few more units than a Velvet Revolver fronted by an unknown (anyone remember Eric Dover or Rod Jackson?) or that dude from Spacehog. Don’t even get me started on Fergie.
One other name on that list, however, actually makes sense…
As we’ve extensively documented on this here blog, Chris Cornell needs a rock-and-roll bailout, having undeniably decimated his credibility this year by releasing the Timbaland-produced pop travesty Scream. Fortunately, he has taken several steps towards rebuilding his badly damaged career, including re-recording “rock” versions of Scream tracks. Still, I can’t think of a better way (other than an arguably unlikely Soundgarden reunion) to bring Cornell back from the brink than for him to join Velvet Revolver. Cornell’s got one hell of a set of pipes on him, a voice that easily tops Weiland’s raspy croon. There’s a pretty clear benefit to the band as well: a recognizable name with two hugely successful bands and several hit singles on his resume. A lineup like that would have absolutely no problem finding a record label willing to throw thousands and thousands of dollars at them.
Of course, when Slash’ album is released (read: leaked), we’ll get a better sense of the chemistry between these two hard rockers. Until then, I’m pretty optimistic, though this is, as Vince once put it, “reckless speculation” on my part.
-GS
[Gary Suarez has seen fire and rain. He usually manages WHOLLY DIVER (a Dio tribute site) and the consistently off-topic No Yoko No. Say, why don't you follow him on Twitter?]
Ryan Seacrest!
It’s too bad Velvet Revolver are too uninteresting for me to care.
I think the crappy Audioslave records will make the possibility of Cornell joining another ’supergroup’ very unlikely. I hope Soundgarden resistst the reunion pressure, as much as I like them, just let their great legacy be!!
Totally agree. He’s not going to go and front ANOTHER band made up of essentially another band. Just not going to happen. The dude from Alter Bridge actually makes more sense.
FUCK radio rock.
This. And an additional FUCK YOU goes out to all those who use it as background noise and don’t really give a shit anyway.
And fuck Gary for continuing to post about this shit.
+1
Is that guy trying to remove his pants, or show us his dick, or what?!
Scott Weiland’s just showin’ some neck.
Well played,sir. At least he’s not showing any bottom ball…
ROD STEWART
Fuck this & convince Lenny Kravitz.
Hopefully Chris’ loss of credibility will lead him to reunite Soundgarden for a tour. I could care less about Velvet Whatever…
How about Seth Putnam from Anal Cunt?
Velvet Revolver just needs to go away. Talk about a boring-ass group. As much as I really didn’t know what to make of train-wreck that was Chinese Democracy, I actually prefer it to either VR album.
if they wish to be taken seriously as a real band and not just a ’supergroup’, which I think they do, then they need some unknown guy with a powerhouse voice. I still hold out hope that one will emerge. you know there are hundreds if not thousands of guys out there singing in dark little bars with great voices they could lend to this band. we shall see
Mark McGrath, you’ll see
NERGAL! He would be perfect!
Hugh Dillon.
I can see it… I’m not the biggest fan, but Velvet Revolver isn’t that boring when you just have a couple of their songs on your playlist. They’re pretty good in moderation. And, fuck, it’s better than Nickleback and nevershoutnever emo shit.
Udo
YOU GOTCHA BALLS TO THE WALL MAN
Maybe they should try that Axl Rose guy… they might be able to hit it big.
Slash is a fucking joke.
+2^x, where x exists over all positive real numbers.
Rod Jackson from Slash’s Snakepit MkII had an amazing voice.
Call me sick and twisted, but I’m actually thinking Dee Schnieder.
Lenny Kravitz is also a good idea.
But please god not Perry Farrel.
who is Dee Schnieder ?