Contraband

Velvet Revolver began in 2002, when Slash, Duff McKagan and Matt Sorum reunited at a benefit in memory of the drummer Randy Castillo, who had died of cancer that March. The three former Guns N' Roses members added the guitarist Dave Kushner, a friend of Slash's since their school days. An open call for singers, filmed by VH1, tried Sebastian Bach, formerly of Skid Row, and Neurotica's Kelly Shaefer among others before Scott Weiland of Stone Temple Pilots, a friend of McKagan's, joined in spring 2003. That June "Set Me Free" appeared on the soundtrack to the film Hulk, and their cover of Pink Floyd's "Money" ran over the end credits of The Italian Job. Their first concert, an invitation-only show at the El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles, was on 19 June 2003. Signed to RCA in September 2003, the band began recording the next month, co-producing with Josh Abraham, and Andy Wallace mixed the album. Weiland's legal troubles ran alongside: after a car-crash arrest in October he was ordered into residential treatment, with four hours a day in the studio for ten days from 7 November. Chosen from more than fifty songs, the twelve titles announced in February 2004 became thirteen with "Dirty Little Thing", which Slash called the band's oldest song, co-written with Buckcherry's Keith Nelson. Weiland said the lyrics were mostly about a damaging relationship and what his divorce had done to him. Postponed three times from 27 April, the album came out on 8 June 2004. It sold 256,000 copies in its first week and entered the Billboard 200 at number one, putting a rock band on top for the first time in a full year. It reached number 11 in the UK, number one in Canada and number six on Japan's Oricon chart; the RIAA certified it gold in July 2004, platinum in August and double platinum in July 2005. "Slither" topped the Mainstream Rock and Alternative charts, and "Fall to Pieces" led the Mainstream Rock chart for eleven weeks. At the 2005 Grammys, "Slither" won Best Hard Rock Performance; the album and "Fall to Pieces" were nominated. By November 2008 it had sold 1.98 million copies in the US.