2004.MM.DD - Velvet Revolver Live In Houston DVD - Interviews (Slash, Duff, Weiland, Kushner)

The DVD was released in 2010, but the interviews were obviously recorded in 2004 (the show was on June 18, 2004)



Transcript:
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Duff: I was always… I saw myself playing rock and roll and I was never going to stop. You know, once Slash and Matt and I got in the same room to do this benefit, it was like, “Whoa, okay. Wait, there's more.”

[Cut to VH1 – The Rise Of Velvet Revolver documentary, aired Dec. 1, 2004:

Matt: It was just a feeling, you know? It was like, “Oh, this feels good.”]

Duff: Once we got back together and played, we had a very powerful vision of what we could be. [We wouldn’t let] anything get in the way. And Kushner came in - you know he was playing in my band Loaded, and by chance Slash came down and saw us play at the Viper Room.

Dave Kushner: A month later, Duff called me. I came in, made some funny noises and got to stay.

Duff: And Dave was the perfect, you know, muse for slash's style of guitar playing.

Dave Kushner: And then we looked for a singer for a year, which was brutal.

Slash: It’s always I find it easy to start a band, but it was always hard to find a singer. It's, like, the hardest thing to find in the world because a singer, rather than using an instrument, has this thing and it's all tucked inside, so you have to - it's really… you can't fucking lie.

Dave Kushner: I think we have a road case, like a standing road case, that's, like, eight feet tall that is full of CDs.

Duff: We listened to 100 and there was one that was kind of close, you know, and it was brutal.

[Cut to VH1 – The Rise Of Velvet Revolver documentary:

Matt: I mean, what are we doing here? You know, why don't we just all go home, and when we find the singer, we'll come back and bash the shit out.]

Duff: I mean, there came points where we were getting kind of, you know, “Are we going to find a singer?”

[Cut to VH1 – The Rise Of Velvet Revolver documentary:

Matt: We’ve been here since fucking last May.

Duff (to Matt): You're the most negative guy I’ve ever seen. Then another guy came here and sang and you were so negative. You couldn't go through the practice and be just a fucking pro and talk about it afterwards. You have to be negative during the thing. It’s bullshit, dude.

Matt: What are you talking about now?

Duff: We're talking about you!

Matt: But we need the big fucking man up front that may be then a known guy, I think. My opinion.]

Dave Kushner: We actually wanted to get Scott in the beginning. He wasn't available.

Duff: But STP had broken up, like, two weeks prior to that. It all happened very quickly and I just called Scott. I said, “Do you want to sing on these two soundtracks?”

Dave Kushner: And he was kind of a mess at that time. But even so he was still like… when he walked in the room, you're like, “Okay, let's get that guy.”

[Cut to VH1 – The Rise Of Velvet Revolver documentary:

Matt: Scott walked in. It was like, “Hey, there's fuckin’ Scott Weiland. Right on, rock star, “hey, I know that guy.” He's the real deal, that cat.]

Duff: Everybody could tell at that point, you know, like, the power in the room, the vibe… Everything was right. And Scott just kind of turned around, you know, after we’d done another song, and he said, “Man we could be a fucking - one hell of a rock ‘n’ roll band.”

Weiland: I guess right after we did the songs, then we did the gig - that's the only way to really find out if you're a real rock and roll band, to do a gig - at the El Rey that's where we did the show. Right after the El Ray show that's sort of when god came into play in the shape of a black and white police car.

Duff: We had all gone through our own substance phases to the extreme and Scott was at his point of his extreme.

Weiland: I kind of looked at those guys, you know - they had lived the same kind of life that I had lived. I wasn't the only one who'd OD’d several times or been arrested several times.

Duff: So a lot of people, like, on the outside - I remember at this point people were going, “Oh, what are you fucking…” - you know, people were calling, “Don't take that guy, he's fucking…”
And it’s like, “Look at who you’re fucking talking to,” you know? And Scott wanted to stop. I remember so many times that I wanted to stop and I couldn't. So he couldn't have been in a bunch of better guys than us.

Weiland: So when I came into the situation, I wasn't judged and, you know, I came in wanting to change.

Duff: After that he said, “Can I try it your way?” you know, which was basically through martial arts - it was how I got sober. So Dave and Scott and I went away to eastern Washington to this Kung Fu master. I don't think Scott really even knew where he was, because we flew to Seattle and the doctor, before we left, gave me, like, a bag full of drugs and syringes and stuff. Now he knows, thank God; you know, because we had to detox Scott. But he wanted it more than anything else. You know, nobody got Scott sober but Scott; and he made the 190,000% effort to get to the place where he is now.

Weiland: I kind of looked at the band sort of as a life draft in a way. And I wasn't sure how I was going to do it, but I just kind of knew I was going to do it.

Duff: Really the band - we became like brothers really quickly. It’s like, that experience in the mountains bonded Scott and myself and Dave, you know, forever.

[Cut to VH1 – The Rise Of Velvet Revolver documentary:

Dave Kushner: The real unity came when the five of us banded together. With the five of us banding together, that's where the strength comes from.

Matt: I think Scott was sent to us. You know, there's a real reason behind this and it's not all about the music.]

Slash: It was just… it's hard work, but it was perseverance and was definitely worth it. I think everything happens for a reason, so that ten months of listening to 200 and 300 CDs and cassettes a week, for five days a week for ten months, was what we had to go through, some sort of paying your dues or something (laughs). You know, it paid off in the end, because if we'd given it up we wouldn't be here.