The Little Band That Could

摘要

Train wreck? car crash? Trailer Park in a Tornado? Any of these would have been a more appropriate name than Velvet Revolver. This supergroup, comprising some of rock's most notorious bad boys- Slash, Duff McKagan and Matt Sorum of Guns N' Roses, singer Scott Wei-land of Stone Temple Pilots- spent the past year working hard on an album that everyone just knew would never happen. After all, Weiland had been busted on drug charges three times in the past decade, traded punches with STP band mates onstage during their final tour and was in and out of rehab during the recording of Velvet Revolver's debut, "Contraband." Slash, McKagan and Sorum had also been in and out of rehab, and they hadn't played together since their band imploded and Slash left in 1996. But against all odds, "Contraband" is out this week, and the first single, "Slither," is already in the top five on the rock charts, and the album is even being em- braced- rather than eviscerated, as expected- by critics. The band is now finishing a club tour whose every date sold out in minutes-and that was before anybody had even heard the album. "I call it the Evel Knievel factor," says Weiland, 35, backstage before their New York show. "He filled stadiums, but not because people wanted to see him make the jump. They wanted to see if he'd crash and burn."