Matt Sorum is convinced Velvet Revolver “could have been as big” as Guns N’ Roses.
The drummer formed the supergroup side project in 2002 with his GNR bandmates Duff McKagan and Slash along with guitarist Dave Kushner and Stone Temple Pilots frontman Scott Weiland, but they only released two albums before the singer was given the boot in 2008 and the band crumbled.
Sorum now admits Velvet Revolver could have been massive but it just “didn’t last long enough”. During an interview with Get On The Bus, he explained: “Scott Weiland came in, and we made that record Contraband. And Scott [was] just one of the greatest.
“It was difficult times, early days, but so worth it. [There] was a lot of drugs and stuff. I’d gotten clean. And everyone else was cleaned up, and we went through all of our obvious cliche rock and roll s*** … We’d all gotten cleaned up, and we made a pact that we were gonna do this. At that time, we were in our forties, which was f****** really old. It was, like, ‘Oh, s***’ …
“Weiland came in. And I remember it really jumpstarted the band. At that point we became Velvet Revolver, and it was just game on. It was so exciting …
“Obviously, I was in the other band, but it was a new band and we had to recreate. We really couldn’t be Guns N’ Roses. We couldn’t just rest on that …”
He added: “We were all in the best shape of our lives. We got really serious about: ‘How are we gonna compete?’ We never talked about it like this ever, but it was known. It was just: ‘We have to be the best we can be. Let’s just f****** throw it down’.
“The [debut] album blew up. It wasn’t as big as G’N’R, but it could have been. It just didn’t last long enough.
“We really wanted to keep it together. Unfortunately, it fell into bad habits again and the same old shit and the wheels came off.”
However, Sorum revealed he still has a lot of fond memories of Velvet Revolver – especially when they won a Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance for Slither in 2005.
He added: “I still reflect back on that [period], especially picking up the Grammy. We never got a Grammy with GN’R – ever.”
The band got back together for a one-off performance with Weiland in 2012. The singer died three years later at the age of 48 after suffering an accidental overdose on his tour bus.