VELVET REVOLVER Bassist Talks About MATT SORUM's Injury, Playing OZZFEST

Paul Maldonado Jr. of The Albuquerque Tribune recently conducted an interview with VELVET REVOLVER basist Duff McKagan (ex-GUNS N' ROSES). Several excerpts from the chat follow:

On playing this year's Ozzfest:

"We'll do all right; we'll hold our own. We did Ozzfest in Europe last month - we did Donington (Castle in England) . . . and Greece. We did it for about a month, but Ozzfest only plays twice a week, so we did our own gigs, too.

"Sharon and Ozzy really like us; they asked us to play. Sharon is a sweet, sweet woman.

"We kind of got experienced in Europe, what we could play and what we couldn't get away with. Like we can't encore with (PINK FLOYD's) 'Wish You Were Here'; we do a medley with 'You Got No Right'. That didn't go over too well.

"The fans just wanted us to get back to the rock. So we just keep it hard, fast and in your face. The second stage is where it's all hardcore. I don't think it'd work over there."

"We'll figure it out; we'll keep to our own songs. (The ballad) 'Fall To Pieces' goes over quite well; it's not completely alien. But it's BLACK SABBATH, man. I mean, if it was just BLACK SABBATH and us, it would be totally compatible."

On drummer Matt Sorum's recent injury, which has forced him to miss the group's current dates:

"Matt broke his pinkie water skiing; he's having surgery today. I mean, we're all kind of extreme guys. We like to do extreme things; it could've happened to any of us. We've been off four weeks; we're into jet skiing and motorbiking, things like that.

"Like right before the U.S. tour began, I cut myself and had stitches on my index finger right on the part I play with. I was able to make it through the whole tour, though."

On changing drummers for the current tour:

"We got Brian Tichy playing with us; he's BILLY IDOL's drummer. We're rehearsing right now so he can learn the songs. He's doing at least seven gigs with us.

"But we're not going to pressure Matt, make him come back before he's ready; we want the guy around for the next record. We'll just play it by ear. We'd do it for any of us."

On writing the follow-up to "Contraband":

"Oh, man, we have tons of new material. We've been writing since the beginning of the U.S. tour. We probably have enough for five records. The problem is paring it down to one record; it's a lot of stuff. We each have a CD and we each come back with the ones (songs) we like.

"On days off, I come up with riffs and partial songs. But our songwriting, . . . we really have to be together to be able to write, to come up with the song. Nobody's brought in a whole song. Like Matt'll have a drum riff, or I'll have a bass riff, or Slash will come in with a guitar riff; we all contribute. We're real prolific when we're all together. We are the sum of its parts.

"We'll probably start work on it at the end of September, but it probably won't come out until March or April. We record real quick, in a matter of weeks, but it's all the other stuff (mixing, tracking, packaging) that takes time.

"We don't want to rush it, but we want to keep this momentum that we've got right now going."