VELVET REVOLVER's DUFF MCKAGAN Says The Group's Debut Album Is A 'Journey'

VELVET REVOLVER's still-untitled debut album, due in late March/early April through RCA Records, will include twelve of the more than fifty tracks the band co-wrote before and after singer Scott Weiland (STONE TEMPLE PILOTS) joined the group last spring, and is being co-produced by the group and Josh Abraham (LIMP BIZKIT, STAIND). "We're going to try to finish it up and get it mastered by the end of the year," Abraham told Rolling Stone magazine.

According to bassist Duff McKagan (ex-GUNS N' ROSES),the leading contender for the album title was suggested by a fan. "There's a fan web site," McKagan explained, "and somebody came up with 'Uppers & Downers', which is pretty brilliant." Though the album is still a few months from release, touring plans are coming together. "We're going to go to Japan, Europe and play some shows, and then come back here," McKagan says. "Then our record will come out and we'll do some guerilla touring in major cities in the U.S. And then we were offered to headline Ozzfest."

Among the tracks set to appear on the CD are "Slither" (described by Weiland as a "dark, prodding heavy one that definitely has an old STP vibe to it"),the heavy ballad "Falling to Pieces" ("an arena rocker," according to McKagan),"Superhuman" and "Illegal Eye", which McKagan compares to "a REFUSED song, like an older punk rock song." But altogether, he says, "It's an album. It's twelve songs. It's not a single with eleven fillers. It's a journey."

"As a whole, the album is a true representation of the best aspects of STP's music, and the best aspects of GUNS N' ROSES, when they were at their best — vicious, streamlined, living off strippers, and their music was great. It's a perfect marriage between the two," Weiland explained.