What brought Velvet Revolver together?
Duff McKagen: “This was all done so organically. I had met Scott before, but because we were both so loaded at the time we didn’t remember a lot about our meeting. Slash and Matt and I started playing together in April 2002 for this benefit show for Randy (Castillo, former Ozzy Osbourne drummer), where Josh Todd of Buckcherry sang with us, and Steven Tyler made an appearance. The feedback from the audience was amazing, and the next day we decided to get into it a bit more. Fate just brought some of the other players together. What was important to us was getting the right chemistry.” The former Gunners began to work on new songs with Todd and Buckcherry guitarist Keith Nelson in the spring of 2002. When matters didn’t pan out with the younger duo, McKagen, Sorum and Slash decided to still make a serious go of things. McKagen brought in former Infectious Grooves/Electric Love Hogs guitarist Kushner, who’d been playing with McKagen in Loaded and who was a boyhood mate of Slash’s. Izzy St
