VELVET REVOLVER Drummer Drops More Hints About Potential New Singer

VELVET REVOLVER guitarist Slash told ARTISTdirect.com that the band has "moved leaps and bounds" in its search for a new lead singer. The group has been without a vocalist since dismissing Scott Weiland in April 2008. Following a new round of auditions last fall, the band seems to have zeroed in on one potential candidate.

Drummer Matt Sorum gave The Pulse Of Radio a few hints about the singer that the band is, in Sorum's own words, "dating." "[The] guy that we're liking right now is a known guy," he said. "A very strong guy, too. And it seems to, at this point, in my opinion, metaphorically, it makes perfect sense because... a little younger, a little stronger, a little bit heavier rock 'n' roll than we are, that's all I can say, but in a way we want to come out stronger. The older you get, the stronger you have to be, the harder you have to work."

Matt Sorum talking to The Pulse Of Radio about VELVET REVOLVER's candidate for vocalist (audio):

Sorum recently told Billboard that the prospective frontman has been in other known bands before. "He's a guy we've had our eye on, but the timing wasn't right," the drummer said. "We don't like stealing people or any of that shit. [Scott] Weiland was available. He was out of STONE TEMPLE PILOTS. It wasn't like we went and said, 'Hey, dude...' He came to us, basically, like, 'Hey, I'm out of my band. I've got time. Let's do this.' And it's a similar situation with this particular individual."

Slash told ARTISTdirect.com that VELVET REVOLVER "should be making an announcement one way or another (sometime in January). So it's gonna be interesting going into the third record because we're gonna have a whole different personality as a vocalist. Chances are it's gonna be a lot heavier than anything VELVET REVOLVER has done so far. 'Cause that was the only thing missing for me — the sort or heaviness of it — in the first two VELVET REVOLVER records."

The only vocalists known to have auditioned for the band last year were SPACEHOG's Royston Langdon and Franky Perez from SCARS ON BROADWAY.

As previously reported, VELVET REVOLVER bassist Duff McKagan has launched a new weekly sports column for ESPN.com. McKagan already writes a blog for Seattle Weekly and has penned a financial column for Playboy.com. In his first installment for ESPN.com, posted on Wednesday (January 5),the Seattle Seahawks fan wrote, "A whole lot of sports teams use my old band's song 'Welcome To The Jungle' as their war cry. This fact alone could have probably sated some of you sports fans' 'Why him?' inquiry. Honestly though, I am a huge sports fan myself, and am glad and honored to be given a bit of a pulpit here to voice some of my opinions and insights."