‘Cause apparently he’s out. No word yet on whether he was quit or fired, but either way, this news should be about as shocking as the fact that Axl Rose walked off-stage during a show in Dublin last week. Why? ‘Cause Jane’s Addiction have had four bass players just since 2001. Either these dudes are really hard to get along with, or they have terrible luck. And I don’t believe in luck.

And it’s too bad, really, ’cause for people like me, who basically gave up on Jane’s Addiction when they heard Strays (y’know, from the band’s second reunion), having McKagan in the group was probably a good incentive to pay attention again. And McKagan seemed like a good fit for Jane’s Addicition, ’cause Jane’s and GN’R are similar in that they’re both bands that released a couple of killer records forever ago, and whose members manage to milk those records’ popularity to remain in the spotlight even as their work becomes increasingly lackluster.

No word on who Jane’s Addiction’s next soon-to-be-former bassist will be, although I’m really pulling for Jason Newsted. Meanwhile, I imagine McKagan will now go back to his non-solo solo project, Loaded, and calling Slash at all hours of the night, asking when Velvet Revolver can get back together.

-AR

If Velvet Revolver’s second album, Libertad, had a bed, it shat all over it. The sales would have been considered top-notch for your average metal band, but for mega super duper rockstars likes Guns Without Rose, it was bad enough for their major label to promptly drop them.

There’s a few reasons this might have occurred. Personally, I think that VR’s debut, Contraband, was good but not great, and I think once the curiosity factor (with regards to a supergroup) had passed, the band was kind of doomed. Being a major success means doing crossover business (e.g., attracting people beyond the hardcore fanbase that would’ve bought the album even if it was by Slash’s Snakepit 3), and I know a lot of people who bought Contraband, went “meh,” and then never bothered to check out Libertad.

But even if we assume that Contraband really was Appetite‘s second coming, the band released a shit first single that impressed absolutely no one. And I seem to be the only person in the world who actually thought that Libertad was superior to Contraband. So it’s possible that being creatively lackluster is why the album undersold.

Keeping all of this in mind, here’s Matt Sorum basically saying that Libertad sucked, and that it’s all Scott Weiland’s fault:

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