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VR in not-so-happier times

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Your chances of singing with Slash, Duff McKagan and the rest of Velvet Revolver are as good as they were a few weeks ago.

Although it was previously reported that Spacehog's Royston Langdon was a lock for frontman duties, bassist Duff McKagan tells Billboard that the band is still undecided as to who will replace Scott Weiland. "He's fucking awesome," McKagan says of Langdon, "[but] at this point I'd have to say no" on him becoming the band's lead singer.

"We just have to make sure it's the right guy," he says. "Karmically, we deserve the right guy. It's a tough thing, man. We make a pretty big noise."

McKagan admits that Weiland's acrimonious exit from Velvet Revolver brought him closer to the band's other members. In his view, Velvet Revolver isn't so much auditioning vocalists so much as they're "just seeing how it feels, We wouldn't know how to do an audition. We wouldn't have somebody come in and go, 'Okay, play Slither! Play Fall To Pieces!"

Band working on new material

For now, the band is channeling their unfortunate set of circumstances into new material. "We have a bunch of stuff finished," says McKagan. "It's great. It's killer, We started getting really productive when a ton of drama started happening on the road. It was like our safe place to go to. Sometimes that's how you get some feelings out."

One thing McKagan won't be drawing inspiration from are any of the online leaks from his former band Guns N' Roses' long-awaited, endlessly delayed Chinese Democracy. "I wouldn't even know where to look," he says, "Slash said he heard a couple of tunes. I wish [Axl Rose] all the best."