Velvet Revolver, the band that consisted of guitarist Dave Kushner, Stone Temple Pilots vocalist Scott Weiland, Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash, bassist Duff McKagan, and drummer Matt Sorum had a smash hit in 2004 with "Slither." The album Contraband was received pretty well, and the band's 2007 followup Libertad (and final album) still did considerably well, selling 92,000 in its first week.
Contraband just seemed like it was the more solid of the two albums, and clearly I'm not the only one that feels that way. According to Kushner in an interview with Appetite For Distortion, he says the album just felt like it was cobbled together, and recounts the band firing Rick Rubin.
"I just don't think we were ready to make a record. When we did that one, we started with Rick Rubin. He has a very laid back way of making records.
"You just write a bunch of shit, you record it, he listens to it and he goes, 'Oh, that thing's good – why don't you work on that some more?' When he thinks you're ready, he'll say, 'Alright, let's make a record.' But we were getting really impatient. At the time, he charged at two different tiers for new bands and established bands.
"Because we were a new band in our minds, we thought we would get the cheaper rate, and we got the more expensive rate. Scott flipped out – he was like, 'Fuck that! I'll fucking call Brendan O'Brien right now!' He literally called Brendan, and Brendan was available in like a week and was like, 'Alright, I'll come out.'
"That's literally how we switched producers, and the band agreed to it, because we were getting impatient too. We were like, 'Alright, Brendan's great too. Let's do it.'
"I think that we just weren't ready, I don't think the songs were there. I think there's some great songs on there, but there's no 'Slither.' 'The Last Fight' could have been like 'Fall to Pieces,' but there was no big hit song.
"I didn't like the first single being 'She Builds Quick Machines.' I was never a huge fan of that song, I fought for 'Get Out The Door' to be the first single, it was just a catchier tune.
"I don't know, it just seemed like we Frankensteined a lot of the songs together during the production process.
"We just weren't ready."
So Dave, maybe we could get a followup to fix how much you don't like Libertad? Maybe? I mean, the band already has 10 songs recorded with Slipknot's Corey Taylor that they won't release.
