VH1 Radio – Skin Back Alley

Guns N’ Roses keyboard player Dizzy Reed has said that the band’s new album could be released “really soon.”

Speaking in interview, Reed told VH1 Radio: ” “There’s a lot of material that’s already done and I think it’s in the process of being finished and eventually we’ll pick out which songs need to come out with which other songs… So that’s in the works. Hopefully it will be out really soon.”

Reed’s prediction comes in the wake of other members of Guns N’ Roses hinting that a new album is not far off.

Back in June, G’N’R mainman Axl Rose seemed to suggest that the album, a sequel to 2008’s Chinese Democracy, was already finished: “We recorded a lot of things before Chinese was out. We’ve worked more on some of those things and we’ve written a few new things. But basically, we have what I call the second half of Chinese. That’s already recorded. And then we have a remix album made of the songs from Chinese. That’s been done for a while, too.”

Guitarist DJ Ashba also went on record recently saying: “Axl has two full albums that he has recorded. He has played me a bunch of songs off of that that are incredible! I can’t wait to get in and kind of dive into those as well.”

Guns N’ Roses fans might not be wise to hold their breath, then, but the signs are strong that they won’t have to endure another 15 year wait for new material.

Watch this space.

Duff McKagan has said in interview that the Scott Weiland era of Velvet Revolver is over.

Weiland said last month that he was hoping to arrange an “easy money” return to the VR fold, and then just this week said that he had been through “cattle call” procedures with a view to getting his old job back.

But, speaking to VH1 Radio, Mckagan said: “No, that played itself out. That was a chapter in life, you know. Not a defining moment, just a chapter. I wish that guy the best of luck and I hope he’s okay.”

Guitarist Slash recently insisted that Velvet Revolver have a future as a band and that he had been lining up an audition with a new singer.

When asked, McKagan said that he wasn’t aware of a specific audition, but agreed with Slash’s assessment of the band: “I think when it’s the right time to happen again, it’ll happen.”

“That band was so good and started with all the right intentions. We wrote a lot of material near the end of that band. We got really free musically – so we’ve got all this material, and it’s a really talented band.”