Ex-Velvet Revolver drummer Matt Sorum has made a fairly bold claim by suggesting that the acclaimed supergroup could have eventually become as big as his other former band, Guns N' Roses. Sorum makes the claim in a new interview with Get On The Bus, where he discusses the formation of Velvet Revolver - also featuring fellow GN'R alumni Slash and Duff McKagan, alongside Stone Temple Pilots frontman Scott Weiland and former Wasted Youth guitarist Dave Kushner - and his sadness at the band never reaching its full potential.
"It wasn't as big as GN'R, but it could have been," he states (as transcribed by Blabbermouth). "It just didn't last long enough."
He then goes on to express that his regret at the band ending when it did isn't to do with their potential success, but the positive state of mind he and his bandmates were in while working the project - at least at the beginning.
"I don't think it's about the size, actually," he says. "You're playing an arena, and you're plenty big enough. But I was a lot clearer minded. I'd gone through stuff, we'd all gone through stuff. We'd all made some mistakes...we really wanted to keep it together."
Sadly, it wasn't to be: after six years, two well-received studio albums and even a Grammy award for Best Hard Rock Performance in 2005, the band imploded following Scott Weiland's relapse into drug abuse, and despite a much-reported search for a new singer, Velvet Revoler never recovered. They did, however, reunite with Weiland for a one-off performance at a benefit show for ASCAP composer John O'Brien in 2012.
"Unfortunately, it kind of fell into bad habits again and the same old shit and the wheels came off," Sorum explains. "But I still reflect back on that [period], especially picking up the Grammy. We never got a Grammy with GN'R - ever. But that was a big moment. Three Grammy nominations and then we won one. And people say, 'Oh, awards, whatever.' But I don't know. It's nice to get one!"
Slash and Duff McKagan would make a long-awaited return to Guns N' Roses after almost two decades away in 2016 and have remained in the band since. Scott Weiland was found dead on on his tour bus following a drug overdose in 2015.
Watch Matt Sorum's interview below.
