Guns N’ Roses covered a song by Velvet Revolver for the very first time on the opening date of their European tour.
GN”R, who headline the Download festival on Saturday 9 June, played Slither at a show in Berlin on Sunday June 3, with Axl Rose filling the shoes of late Velvet Revolver frontman Scott Weiland.
A 15-second teaser clip recently appeared of Guns N’ Roses rehearsing the song, which originally featured on Velvet Revolver’s 2005 debut album Contraband, but this marked the first time they had publicly played a song by Slash and Duff McKagan’s former band.
Velvet Revolver were put together in 2002 by Slash, Duff, ex-GN’R drummer Matt Sorum and on-off Stone Temple Pilots singer Weiland. The latter became embroiled in a public spat with Axl Rose in 2006, accusing his counterpart of being a “fat, botox-faced, wig-wearin’ fuck” after Rose claimed that Slash had turned up at his house at 5.30am wanting to “end the war” between them.
Velvet Revolver released two albums before splitting in 2008. Weiland returned to Stone Temple Pilots and later embarked on a solo career. He was found dead on his tourbus in Bloomington, Minnesota on December 3, 2015. The cause of death was given as an accidental overdose of cocaine, MDA and ethanol.
Slash and Duff rejoined Guns N’ Roses in 2016. The reunited band’s Not In This Lifetime… tour has grossed more than $480 million dollars, making it the fourth highest-grossing tour in history.
Original GN’R guitarist Izzy Stradlin’ recently broke his silence to reveal why he wasn’t part of the reunion. "The current GNR tour has been a great success for the guys,” he told the Wall Street Journal. “My non-participation was simply not being able to reach a happy middle ground through the negotiation process. That's life, sometimes things don't work out.”
As well as their impending Download appearance, Guns N’ Roses reissue their classic debut album, Appetite For Destruction, on June 29 via UMC/Polydor. It will be available various formats including CD, 2CD deluxe edition, 2LP 180g vinyl, a super deluxe edition CD box set and a massive Locked N’ Loaded vinyl box set. A previously unseen video for It’s So Easy, filmed at infamous Los Angeles club The Cathouse, was recently released for the first time.
