Velvet Revolver and RCA Records part ways

Having fired singer and songwriter Scott Weiland earlier this year, remaining Velvet Revolver members Slash, Duff McKagan, Matt Sorum and Dave Kushner have opted out of their recording contract with RCA Records so they can continue searching for a replacement for Weiland.

“Their sole focus has been, and continues to be, finding the singer-songwriter who will stand alongside them,” band manager Carl Stubner said in a statement issued today, the same day Weiland's solo album " 'Happy' in Galoshes" is being released.

Slash and his bandmates announced in April that Weiland was being dismissed because of “increasingly erratic onstage behavior and personal problems.” Weiland responded the following day with a statement of his own that downplayed the announcement, saying that he had “already claimed the group dead in the water March 20 in Glasgow…The truth of the matter is the band had not gotten along together on multiple levels for some time."

Weiland’s solo tour will include a Dec. 14 stop at Gibson Amphitheatre, where he’s expected to draw from the album that includes guest appearances by Tom Dumont and Adrian Young of No Doubt and Gary Beers of INXS.

-- Randy Lewis

Photo of Velvet Revolver from 2007 by Jim Marshall/RCA