This is the final installment of the Japanese magazine Burrn!'s interview with Velvet Revolver. Each band member except Scott was interviewed individually, and this is the interview with Dave Kushner. The other interview summaries are below or in the archives. Thanks to SLASH fan Akihiko from Texas for the translation and typing! Burrn first gets into Dave's background, the bands he's been in including Duff's band, Loaded. Dave says he was in Infectious Grooves, a side project of some Suicidal Tendencies members, and he played on Grooves' first record. At one time, Dave was a member of the touring band, Zilch. It was a band formed by a Japanese guitar player, HIDE, who passed away soon after their first album was made. The other Zilch members wanted to do a farewell tour for HIDE, and Dave was asked to play on that tour. Loaded also participated in the tour, and that's when Dave and Duff met up. Eventually, Duff asked Dave to play in Loaded. Also, The Cult happened to open for the last day of the Zilch tour, so Matt also knew Dave. And Akihiko reminds us that SLASH and Dave went to the same school and have known each other since Dave was 15. Ever since then, SLASH and Dave have been friends and have kept in touch. So by the time Dave was asked to play with Velvet Revolver, all the band members knew Dave personally and professionally. Dave says SLASH has always been his hero, and there is nothing better than playing with SLASH.

Burrn! asks about Dave's musical influences other than SLASH. Dave said before he started playing guitar, he was into Led Zep, Hendrix, Black Sabbath and Van Halen. Then, after he started playing, he got more into punk bands like X, Circle Jerks, Black Flag. Once he tried to copy "Stairway to Heaven", but he gave up and didn't play guitar for two years! After that he started listening to other players like Yngwie Malmsteen, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Doyle Bramhall.

The interview then turned to Velvet Revolver. Dave said he feels comfortable in the band. Of course, he's a new face compared to the three original ex-Gunners who have played together for so long, but he says the guys all made an effort to make him feel more at home and don't treat him as an outsider. Asked about Scott Weiland, Dave says he's known Scott for 14 years, back when they were both still unsigned. Dave's old band and Scott's old band used to play together many times. He and Scott go to the same gym.

Burrn! then asked about Scott's drug problems. Dave replied that as all the other members have said, they all went on this same path; and the band are very supportive in helping Scott kick his addiction. Dave says there is no better support group than Velvet Revolver. Thanks again to Akihiko for this great translation job and sharing it with those of us who don't read Japanese!

We have no news on Velvet Revolver other than that they are busy in the studio rehearsing and writing lyrics for their debut album due out in February 2004. There's some news on Scott that popped up this week. The VR frontman has formed his own record company, Softdrive Records. In a joint venture with Interscope Records, Softdrive's first release will be the Campfire Girls album, Tell Them Hi, due out October 14. Campfire Girls was originally signed with Interscope, but the band fell apart when drugs and infighting made further work as a band impossible. Weiland got them going again and produced some demos for them at his home studio, and the band is recreating itself on Softdrive.

A recent issue of Rolling Stone listed their Top 100 Guitarists. You may recall that SLASH did not make the list which was really startling considering the guitarists were judged on the entire body of their work. SLASH has done considerable work during his career. He's an icon of rock and roll! Frustrated fans wrote and emailed the magazine. Dave Navarro, in a subsequent interview, commented on the list. You may have noticed Dave's name was not listed either. Dave told The Toronto Eye he was shocked that his own name was omitted until he learned that SLASH had not made the list either. He said he did not feel quite so badly then. Dave was generous in his praise for SLASH, saying SLASH is "at the top of his game. I've played with him and worked with him and he's a mind-blowing guitar player." Dave dismissed an early rivalry between his band, Jane's Addiction, and Guns N'Roses. He said that Guns was from the Sunset Strip rocker world while Jane's were from the alternative world, coming up at the same time. There were times that Guns wanted to perform with Jane's, but Jane's wanted alternative shows. Since then, "Jane's has grown and learned that there is a musical community, and it's unnecessary to have rivals in something as sacred as creativity." The most recent issue of Rolling Stone (Johnny Cash on cover) has some letters to the editor protesting some of the "missing in action". SLASH is mentioned in several letters. There's a picture of three of the missing...SLASH, Lindsey Buckingham and Bonnie Raitt. Nice "cutout" color pic of SLASH. Thanks to Ray for finding that for us.

Some Scandinavian news: Erik says to watch for the TV show ValenTV on TVNorge. It's a well-known Norweian artist who parodies famous people. He did an imitation of Axl doing the "Don't Cry" video, and it was on about 5 minutes. Thanks, Erik! During his work break, Jonas saw a magazine called hant extra (in English, Extra Events). There was an article about the Rolling Stones being in Sweden, and Ron Wood having a small party where he showed his paintings. The one Ron drew of SLASH was printed! Good choice! Thanks, Jonah! Another Scandinavian TV show was counting down a list of favorites. "Don't Cry" was at #53 and "Sweet Child O' Mine" was at #77. They are doing the top 967 songs in Pittsburgh, PA at rock station 96.7. "November Rain" was at 871!

On October 28, 2003, get ready to buy a whole flock of DVDs! Guns N'Roses is releasing Welcome to the Videos, Use Your Illusion 1: World Tour - 1992 in Tokyo, Use Your Illusion 2: World Tour - 1992 in Tokyo on DVD. You can pre-order this item on the net. If you pre-order through Amazon.com, we'd appreciate it you would first go to www.snakepit.org/ad.html and click on the Amazon symbol so we make some money, too. (This costs you nothing extra.) We don't have any word on extra footage, but we are hoping like you are for additional live, backstage and interview footage and some cool photos. This is released by Geffen and is not the South American or Asian versions that have floated around for years. At Amazon, the list price is given as $14.98; and their price each is $10.49.

Marta is from Spain, and she sent us some information she read in a recent issue of Rock N' Roll Popular. The magazine was interviewing goth-metalist Glenn Danzig (Misfits, Danzig), and he mentioned working with SLASH on a blues album! As SLASH formed what was to become The Project and then Velvet Revolver, the project fell by the wayside. Danzig said that he and SLASH had been discussing a blues album for some time. Right now, the project has been sidelined for the future, but it might be sooner than you think. Danzig thinks it could be a very interesting album for both of them. Like SLASH, Danzig says he doesn't like to feel limited to one genre of music; and he looks for opportunities like this one to try new things and make some good music. Right now, Danzig's own priority is to return to the studio and record. Thanks, Marta!

Here's another postponement for SLASH. Rhino Records announced that Black Sabbath's 8-CD box set, "Black Box:..." featuring 1970-78 recordings, has been postponed to early 2004. No reason was given at this time. The box set will retail for about $100. The connection with SLASH is that there will be original interviews from artists heavily influenced by Black Sabbath such as SLASH. Others include Rob Zombie, James Hetfield, Beck, Henry Rollins and others. SLASH does not play on the box set, but he does come up for an interview.

This continues the interview that the Japanese magazine Burrn! did with Velvet Revolver (minus Scott). Each band member was interviewed individually, and the accompanying pictures are just great. Our translator is Akihiko from Texas, and we thank him very much for doing this. The summary is ours. (Other sites..provide link only.)

This interview is with Matt Sorum, and they lead off asking about the beginning of Velvet Revolver when they were jamming with the ex-Buck Cherry guys, Josh and Keith. (SLASH, Matt and Duff had enlisted Josh and Keith to play with them at the Randy Castillo benefit. The band got a huge reception, and the ex-Gunners continued to work with Josh and Keith in the studio.) Matt said that one day SLASH came into the studio and told him this was not right, and SLASH said that he quit! (Ed. - exclamation, ours) Matt asked, "What do you mean you quit?" And SLASH finally confessed he did not want to work with Josh. And he also didn't know if he really wanted to continue with The Project at all. Matt persuaded SLASH not to quit and just keep going. SLASH wanted to keep Keith, so they kept Keith and moved to a new studio. (Ed.-leaving no forwarding address for Josh!). After a couple more weeks, SLASH decided he didn't want to work with Keith either, so Matt and Duff had to do a tough job, asking Keith to leave the band.

Burrn! then asks, "So whose idea was it to ask Dave (Kushner) to join the band?" Matt says that was Duff's idea. Matt said he actually joked around with the band saying..."How about Izzy? How about Axl? We might as well restart that band again. Let's call them up! Call! Call!" And the other guys were like, "What the heck? What are you talking about, Matt?" For a time Izzy did join them, and left them fairly quickly; and Burrn wants to know why. Matt said one day Izzy just called them. (Akihiko says that every member has said that's THE Izzy style). Izzy was there about a month. Then, the Strokes band called them up asked if the band wanted to tour Europe with them. (Ed.-Matt, Duff and SLASH appeared on one of the Strokes videos not long ago). Izzy was totally up for the idea. SLASH said he didn't want to play till they had a lead singer. Izzy said there was no need for a lead singer because he and Duff could sing. SLASH didn't like that idea, and so Izzy left the band. Matt said he thought Izzy probably left because he didn't want to argue about it with them.

Burrn! wants to know about the band name and how it came to be Velvet Revolver. Matt answered that when they did the soundtrack for the movie The Hulk, people asked them what the band name was. The band was thinking of Revolver at first, and then Scott came in and said, "What about 'Dead Velvet Revolver'?" The guys thought it sounded like Stone Temple Pilots. Then SLASH suggested, "How about Velvet Revolver?" And a couple of days later, the official band name was Velvet Revolver. Matt said that this is the first band where he can say he is an official member, and it's his band. In the past, he has always been a hired gun.

Matt always has other side things going on, and Burrn wanted to know about those. He said he is working with several people, and one of them is Ian Astbury from The Cult. (Ed.- Matt was the drummer for The Cult recently). Matt said it was interesting that now Ian asks him to write songs with him ever since he heard "Set Me Free" and found out that Matt wrote most of it. Also, Matt is in the cover band Camp Freddy which finally got a record deal with Sanctuary. He said, "Hello, Axl" because the new GNR is signed with them, too. Speaking of Axl, Burrn asks if Matt saw last summer's MTV Music Video Awards where the new GNR played. Matt said, "Yeah, I saw it. And (pause) I wanted them to rock hard, but they didn't at all..." (laughs).

Thanks again to Akihiko. Our final installment coming soon is a summary of the interview with Dave Kunchner, possibly the least well known member of Velvet Revolver.

News Reported: 10/01/03