LOS ANGELES (CelebrityAccess MediaWire) — Velvet Revolver has left their label, RCA records in order to provide the band with the "freedom" they need to fill the shoes of former frontman Scott Weiland. RCA had been the band's label home for both their albums.
"The band is thankful that RCA understood the task at hand and has allowed the band to continue on their own," manager Carl Stubner told Billboard.
Velvet Revolver's 2004 debut "Contraband" hit big, moving more than 1.9 million units, but their sophomore effort, 2007's "Libertad," proved to be listless and has only sold a hair over 300,000 copies, Billboard reported. Since then, the band has been in the news mostly for in-fighting and because of Scott Weiland's legal troubles.
Velvet Revolver formed in 2002-3, primarily of ex Guns n' Roses alumni, including Slash, Duff McKagan, and Matt Sorum. A number of singers were considered for frontmen for the band including Alter Bridges' Myles Kennedy (lately bandied about as a replacement for Robert Plant in Zep,) but they eventually settled on Scott Weiland, formerly of Stone Temple Pilots.
The band's first blush of success with "Contraband" was complicated by Weiland's legal entanglements over drug charges and a court-mandated visit to a rehab facility. The other members of the band must have felt a distinct sense of deja vu when in 2008, Weiland was charged with DUI and did another stint in rehab, forcing the band to cancel the Australian leg of their tour in early 2008. He subsequently announced that he was taking up with his old cohort, Stone Temple Pilots and since then, Velvet Revolver has been on hiatus but that may soon be over and the band appears to be actively auditioning replacements. – CelebrityAccess Staff Writers
