SLASH: Why COREY TAYLOR Was Not The Right Singer For VELVET REVOLVER

Corey Taylor of SLIPKNOT and STONE SOUR was the singer that came "closest" to replacing Scott Weiland in VELVET REVOLVER, but he was eventually ruled out of the running by Slash, who felt that Corey's voice "didn't have certain elements" the guitarist thought it needed.

VELVET REVOLVER has still not found a new singer following its April 2008 split with Weiland and is more or less on hiatus, although it reunited with the former STONE TEMPLE PILOTS frontman for a short one-off performance at a benefit concert in January 2012.

While the team-up of Taylor with VELVET REVOLVER never officially took off, VELVET guitarist Slash did confirm that the band got together with Taylor to jam and even record some new material.

Asked during a question-and-answer session with Australia's Rolling Stone magazine why Taylor and former SKID ROW singer Sebastian Bach weren't the right singers for VELVET REVOLVER, and which vocalist came closest to replacing Weiland, Slash said: "Well, Sebastian [auditioned for the VELVET REVOLVER singer spot] before Scott [became a member of the band]. And I love Sebastian, but, if you can imagine, it sounded sort of like 'SKID N' ROSES.' It was cool, but you knew that everybody who heard it was gonna be, like, 'Oh, yeah, that makes sense.' It was a little bit too predictable. But as far as [vocalists that we have auditioned] since Scott [was dismissed from the band], probably [the one that came] the closest [to landing the gig] would have to be Corey, 'cause everybody was rallying for him. And I love Corey to death, but something about it was just a little bit too… What's the word for it? You know how Corey sings. It's a very macho kind of thing. But it didn't have certain elements I thought it needed. So we just didn't go down that path. And that was the closest so far."

Back in January 2012, Taylor was asked by ESPN.com what he felt he would have brought to the VELVET REVOLVER team had he quarterbacked it. Taylor replied: "What I would have brought to VELVET REVOLVER would have been more of the attitude that I think they wanted from Scott, but they got the negative side of it, you know what I'm saying? Scott, to me, has always been the guy who — he's much more interesting when he's being a dick to other people than he is onstage, to be honest. I mean, he does the lizard weird-thing-dance and everything, but that gets old after a while. When you need that strong frontman, he just really didn't do it because he was too busy just being into himself instead of engaging the audience."

Corey added, "So I would have tried to basically build a bridge between what [the members of VELVET REVOLVER] had with Axl [Rose during their time with GUNS N' ROSES] and what they had with Scott, but with a little more good time feel to it — 'cause I can have an attitude and still smile, all fucking day. I think, in a lot of ways, they could have relaxed a little bit, knowing that they wouldn't have to worry about, What's the singer going to do? Are we going to be able to go onstage on time? Are we going to be able to play our show without a fit being thrown? Are we going to be able to play the songs the way they were written?

"I am a firm believer in, give the fans what they want. Do what you do, but give the fans what they want. They're the whole reason that you are where you are, and they deserve every fucking bit that you can give them."

The Pulse Of Radio asked Taylor what he and VELVET REVOLVER worked on at those rehearsal and recording sessions in 2010. "We did a bunch of stuff, you know," he said. "We did a bunch of stuff from the first album, we did a bunch of stuff that we had been kind of demoing back and forth and whatnot, seeing if it would work, you know, just like that, and it was a lot of fun, man. You know, we ended up writing a bunch of stuff as well and just kind of seeing what would happen in that creative sense, you know."

Slash admitted in an interview that he was the main reason Taylor didn't get the frontman job, explaining, "It just didn't seem to fit right to me. And he's great, and I love Corey, but it didn't seem like the answer to the VELVET REVOLVER problem."

Taylor told a Canadian radio station after hearing of Slash's comments, "I guess it just wasn't working for him, which... He's Slash and he's entitled to have that, and I'm not gonna argue with him. But it was cool to just be able to get together and jam with those guys and I made some really cool friends."