The caption on Slash's picture in the Velvet Revolver article on 
 says, "Gear Box - Guitarist Slash-AXES Various Gibson Les Paul Standards 
- AMPS Marshall JCM 800, 2555 Jubilee head, 4X12 cabs - FX Dunlop wah, 
Boss EQ and delay."
  
The article:
  
" 'We're the biggest unsigned band around,' laughs Slash, referring to 
Velvet Revolver, the 'supergroup' featuring him, bassist Duff McKagan, 
drummer Matt Sorum, guitarist Dave Kushner, and after eight months of 
searching for a singer, Scott Weiland.  At press time, the lineup had six 
songs fully completed, 50 more without lyrics, a first gig, scheduled for 
Los Angeles' El Rey Theatre; and two songs on soundtracks-- Pink Floyd's 
'Money', from The Italian Job, and the original tune 'Set Me Free,' from 
Hulk.  No producer or record company was in place, but considering the 
tumultuous last year, this is major progress.  And, yes, Velvet Revolver 
plan to play at least one GN'R and one STP song in their live set.
  
" 'It was a pretty arduous f---ing task to find someone to fit in with 
us,' says Slash of the singer search.   'All the kids out there who are at 
the age where they might possibly fit in-- a little younger than us-- have 
shit for influences.  The first guy we thought of who would be great was 
Scott.'  Slash had never met the singer, though the rest of the band had.  
'I just knew he sounded good on whatever songs I had heard on the radio.  
We sent him a tape, and he was really into it, but he was still in Stone 
Temple Pilots, so we didn't go there.'
  
" The band, formerly known as The Project, began with Slash and Sorum in 
April 2002.  'I was bouncing around, and in my travels one night, I ran 
into Matt,' Slash recalls.  'A friend of ours, Randy Castillo, had just 
passed away, and Matt told me there was going to be a benefit for Randy's 
family at the Key Club in L.A.  He asked me if I'd like to play.
  
" 'I thought, 'What do we do?  Let's call Duff!'  And I knew Josh and 
Keith from Buckcherry.'  At the benefit, the lineup played a few Guns 
tunes.  'It was so f---ing powerful,' he continues.  'The experience of 
Duff, Matt, and myself. . . that was the first time the three of us had 
been together in, what, 10 years?  We did an Aerosmith song, and Steven 
Tyler got up and sang. The next day Duff said, 'We should really do 
something.' 
  
"Since the Buckcherry boys didn't work out, and with Weiland still in STP, 
the search for a singer began midway through 2002.  It took until June 
2003 to come back (continued on page 26) around to Weiland, and in that 
time the band had penned nearly 60 songs-- several with former Gunner Izzy 
Stradlin'-- and conducted a fruitless search:  'We listened to thousands 
of people,' says Slash.  'We got like 200 CDs a week for months and 
months.  The quality people we actually auditioned-- I'm not going to 
mention any names-- were great guys, but they just weren't right for 
this.  It's an easygoing band, but it is what it is-- a very bona fide 
rock 'n' roll thing, and you have to have a certain kind of chops.'
  
"When Weiland, sans STP, joined the guys for a trial run on the 
aforementioned soundtrack songs, the first song they played and wrote was 
'Set Me Free,' produced by Nick Raskulinecz (Foo Fighters).  Slash says 
the tune has 'a different kind of energy; it sounds pretty fresh.'  Of 
'new' guitarist Kushner, whom he's known since junior high, Slash says, 
'He's a little bit more eclectic than I am; he's the guy who will have a 
pedalboard, whereas I'm still bare-bones.  We sound good together.  He 
always comes up with a counter-riff to whatever I write.'  As for 
Stradlin's time with the band, it ended with his studio contributions.  
'Izzy got a taste of the 24/7 way back when, and I think Axl really made 
an awful impression on him about dealing with singers,' Slash surmises.
  
"Velvet Revolver-- 'the name has a lot different connotations, which I 
won't get into,' says Slash-- has a checkered personal past.  Though 
Weiland was busted for drugs as recently as June 2003, Slash says the 
lineup's varying stages of sobriety and fatherhood 'are not really a big 
issue.  As far as the drugs, I think we all kinda grew out of it.  For me, 
I just got bored with the whole thing.  It was such a pain in the ass.  
Anytime it ever had an effect on what I was doing creatively, I just 
stopped.  So after years of going on and off, bouncing back and forth-- in 
between tours I'd be on, then I'd clean up for the tour-- I got sick of it.'
  
"Things are already 'blowing up' for the band, and Slash is thrilled about 
the shape Velvet Revolver is taking.  Though they have a manager, 
internally, there is no band 'leader.'  'We started it together, 
so we take care of it together,' he concludes.  'Right now we're 
just really focused on making an amazing record.' " -- Katherine Turman