2005.04.28 - St. Paul Pioneer Press - We've Got Good News And Bad News: Slash Is Coherent

WE'VE GOT GOOD NEWS AND BAD NEWS: SLASH IS COHERENT

By ROSS RAIHALA
Pop Music Critic

The first thing one notices while talking to Slash is that he's surprisingly lucid.

This is, after all, the guy who spent a decade in Guns N' Roses perfecting his stance as the ultimate junkie savant. This is the guy who was usually seen with a whiskey bottle in one hand, a cigarette in the other and that magnificent top hat and mop of curly hair ensuring he wouldn't have to bother with eye contact and/or sunlight.

But during a tour stop in Vancouver, Canada, the guitarist spoke like someone more concerned about his music than his next heroin fix.

"What we do in this band is set our own goals, what we think we should be doing," said the man born Saul Hudson. "We're not out to keep up with the Joneses or try to prove anything to anybody. We do what we want to do."

Slash, who turns 40 in July, was talking about his latest venture, Velvet Revolver, which pulls into Xcel Energy Center tonight. The band is clean and sober -- or at least sober-ish -- and that newfound temperance is reflected in its debut, "Contraband."

It's still fun and dirty stuff, to be sure, but VR's music arrives with a certain slickness and, whisper it, maturity.

Fans have responded, snatching up more than 1.5 million copies of the disc. The group joins two other former Gunners (bassist Duff McKagan and drummer Matt Sorum) with guitarist Dave Kushner (who has played with McKagan in the past and is a childhood pal of Slash) and ex-Stone Temple Pilot Scott Weiland on vocals.

"Well, it's been a blessing, I've got to say. We definitely put out a record that's not like anything else that's been out for a while," Slash said. "It's definitely not part of what you would consider the commercially viable trend of album releases over the past few years."

That success wasn't simply built on the band's inherent car-crash appeal.

"I think we hit a nerve. As cliched as it sounds, people want to have a good time. And when people see this band live, it sort of explodes. There are still plenty of people out there who are excited about being in a rock 'n' roll environment."

While Velvet Revolver plays both Guns N' Roses and Stone Temple Pilot songs live, Slash is none too eager to discuss his past, nor his notoriously difficult former friend and bandmate Axl Rose.

"No, I haven't talked to him in years," he said. "But I don't think that concerns anybody."

OK. What's it like with Weiland up front instead of Mr. Rose?

"I don't like getting into those comparisons," Slash said. After a pause, he continued: "There's really no similarities when it comes down to it. Regardless of my playing with Duff for 20-odd years now, (Velvet Revolver) is so much like a new band that you don't really think about that stuff. I'm all about the now, not about going backwards."

And this band is moving forward. Unlike Axl -- who has spent 10 years making "Chinese Democracy," with no release date in sight -- Slash and company hope to have a second studio album out by the end of the year. A live CD is a possibility, as well.

"We've already got a lot of material, and there's more coming," he said. "We don't want to spend too much time dwelling on the next record. This band is evolving and growing and expanding. It just keeps getting better and better."