Velvet Revolver howls those post Guns N' Roses rock-rehab blues

Scott Weiland, Slash, and Duff McKagan.

Playing music is great when you're straight. Well, if you'd have told Duff McKagan that in the early '90s he would've given you the finger and slugged another shot of vodka.

In a music career spanning more than 20 years - most famously as the booze hag bassist in Guns N' Roses, and now in Velvet Revolver - he was wasted most of the time he played.

"I used to think I needed a couple of shots before I went on stage, but you really don't - your biggest fear is that you're not going to be able to play," says McKagan from Miami during a break in Velvet Revolver's tour schedule.

His new band is a mini-supergroup that includes former Guns N' Roses members Slash on guitar and Matt Sorum on drums, singer Scott Weiland from Stone Temple Pilots, and guitarist Dave Kushener from Wasted Youth.

Velvet Revolver, whose debut album Contraband is out now, play Auckland's Supertop on February 19.

Today, McKagan is relaxed, obliging and open. His favourite topic is about being a family man but he'll happily talk about the booze, getting a second chance at life and what it's like to play straight.

"Luckily, when I got sober, Steve Jones (Sex Pistols), John Taylor (Duran Duran) and Matt Sorum asked me to play with them in the Neurotic Outsiders. Those guys were all sober. And Jonesy is one of my idols, you know. So I was sober for my first gig with them and I was elated that I could play better.

"But I'm not the one to go out there and talk about sobriety. I'm not the AA guy. Each to their own. I'm not preaching to anyone."

This is the guy who kept drinking even though his pancreas was about to explode in 1994. To be fair to McKagan, he did transfer from vodka to wine in that period to ease the effect on his ailing insides. "It's a whole different thing now than it was 12 years ago with Guns," he says. "It's a whole different way of touring. We've all got families now so we've been trying to get home once a week, or we have the kids out touring with us. But the travelling, the interviews, going to radio stations, going to the gym, doing the meet-and-greets, and then finally doing the gig that night, that's what we live for now.

There had been years of excess, debauchery and decadence that came with being in Guns N' Roses. "My focus 12 years ago might have been getting enough alcohol, and then the gig was somewhere in the top three.

"My wife [former model Susan Holmes] and kids are my grounding. I have people I have to take care of and it's nice being a father. When I was drinking and doing drugs I wasn't capable of doing that.

"I've grown up and I feel like a man. Susan didn't know me during Guns N' Roses, she just met me as this sober guy and when we got married I was going to university [studying accounting]."

Slash is the only one in Velvet Revolver who still drinks. But the 39-year-old looks a picture of health - something of a miracle, given that he has been taken to hospital to be revived on at least three occasions. He, too, is disarmingly forthcoming about his past.

"Sure, I died," he says. "It was pretty stupid. I've done a lot of stupid things but I've gotten away with a lot, too. Whatever's happened, I always wake up, so I figure someone's up there looking out for me.

"Obviously, I'm a lot more aware of the consequences of my actions now, especially now I've got kids. You won't find me down in the basement with a needle hanging out of my arm any more. I'm prepared to admit I'm still a heavy drinker but it's nothing compared with what I used to be."

Slash and McKagan left Guns N' Roses in the mid-90s, fed up with singer Axl Rose dominating the band. In 1995 Slash had started a side project called Slash's Snakepit and McKagan continued doing solo projects and playing with the Neurotic Outsiders and Ten Minute Warning.

When asked about the state of his relationship with the reclusive Rose, McKagan refers to the shooting of Damageplan guitarist Dimebag Darrell. "In light of what happened to Damageplan the other night in Ohio, I'm not really going to talk about the past," he says. "I don't want to go there and open the door for any crazy fan."

Although Velvet Revolver will never be as big as Guns N' Roses were from 1987 to 1991 - the years spanning Appetite For Destruction and Use Your Illusion I and II - it is a classic return to form. Contraband is a seedy, raw and raunchy rock album. The chugging first single, Sliver, vividly recalls Slash's past glory. And on the slower second single, Falling To Pieces, Weiland, in drug rehab only a year ago, laments - albeit quite glamorously - the effects of his lifestyle. Contraband is oh so very rock'n'roll.

When they formed in 2002, Slash and McKagan had not played together for seven years. That year the pair joined up with Sorum to perform at a memorial concert at the Key Club in Hollywood for Motley Crue drummer Randy Castillo. When news of their brief reunion came out, the gig sold out in minutes.

On stage, the chemistry was "too powerful to ignore", McKagan says, and the three decided to start a band. Having been hired to write the song Set Me Free for the film The Hulk, they searched for a singer. After eight months of auditions, Slash says he had all but given up. "Perhaps naively, we were waiting for that magical moment when the right person just walks in the door. At that point, Scott showed up. I hadn't met him before but, ridiculous as it sounds, I knew immediately he was what was missing. He was the first person we saw who had that genuine rock'n'roll voice."

Slash accepts that, to outsiders, Weiland might seem to be a liability among a group of rehabilitated addicts. "We had to go through a lot with Scott. He was in the worst period of his life when this thing started and he needed support from all of us. He was at a point where he'd lost his wife, he'd lost his kids, and he was completely strung out. But he managed to get through it. He was dedicated to writing and rehearsing and, on top of that, getting clean. When the dust cleared, we'd established a solid vibe.

"I don't see Scott going off the deep end. Right now he's doing really well and he's accomplished so much."

But, says Slash, "This band is salvation for all of us."

McKagan says there was never any talk among the band members about the direction of the sound or the need to steer clear of becoming clones of Guns N' Roses or Stone Temple Pilots.

"During that time ... we grew as musicians and in other areas. And bringing Dave Kushener in was a real bonus because he's not afraid to play with Slash - he plays this crazy soundscape-type stuff. Then Scott came in and the writing process was pretty seamless."

McKagan confesses to never being a huge fan of STP, but after recording Contraband he listened to all their albums to find some songs the band could cover in live shows. "I noticed that there wasn't really one song that Scott had sung like he sings on Contraband. I don't think he did it consciously, I think he just dived into the chaos that we had created. But the more the band play, the less we get compared to our other bands."

LOWDOWN

WHO: Velvet Revolver

FORMED: 2002, Los Angeles, California

MEMBERS: Slash (guitar, formerly of Guns'n'Roses/Slash's Snakepit), Duff McKagan (bass, formerly of Guns'Nn'Roses), Scott Weiland (vocals, formerly of Stone Temple Pilots), Matt Sorum (drums, formerly of the Cult/Guns N'Roses), Dave Kushner (guitar, formerly of Wasted Youth)

ALBUM: Contraband (2004)

KEY TRACKS: Slither (if there's a Guns N'Roses track here, then this is it. Rockin'). Fall To Pieces (in a blaze of glory, Weiland gets his past life out of his system). Sucker Train Blues (opening track on Contraband which signals that Slash is back)

LIVE WHERE & WHEN: Saturday, Feb 19, Mt Smart Supertop, Auckland

- additional reporting, The Independent