Slash: Ready to make next record

Slash is ready to make the third Velvet Revolver record sooner rather than later, hoping to avoid the two-and-a-half year gap between the band's 2004 debut, Contraband, and last year's sophomore effort, Libertad. The band is touring until April, and the guitarist said that they're likely to hit the studio right after that: [ Click to listen if you have a backstage pass] "I'm really jazzed about doing it. I've, you know, been working on new ideas, and had a couple times where the guys all got together and worked on some stuff. I'm itching to see what this third record's gonna be, 'cause I think it's gonna be awesome, and I think that we don't need to necessarily spend two years on the road like we did last time."

Slash said that the group did not have any songs in finished form, but only basic ideas and arrangements.

Velvet Revolver begins a North American tour on Thursday night (January 24th) in Chicago, heading to Europe and Australia after that.

Velvet Revolver's exact recording plans for its third effort could be affected by singer Scott Weiland's recent announcement that a reunion of his previous group, Stone Temple Pilots, was on tap for later this year.

Meanwhile, Blabbermouth.net received an official statement from Weiland's publicist clarifying why he missed Velvet Revolver's show last Sunday (January 20th) at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. The statement claimed that Weiland's private flight from Miami to Utah was diverted because of bad weather and forced to land in Los Angeles, where attempts to get him on either a commercial or private plane to Utah proved unsuccessful.