Revolving Rehab

Over the past few weeks I've had the opportunity to enjoy the new CD from Velvet Revolver, which is a collaboration by former Stone Temple Pilots frontman Scott Weiland and three members of the enigmatic Guns n Roses, including the immortal Slash.  Supergroups, or all-star collaborations, are often disappointments.  I believe it is because to be a great band you have to have common experiences with your band mates over an extended period of time that make the members vulnerable and trusting in one another, and when you haphazardly throw artists together you simply cannot get that kind of rapport and bond.  I think you may have to go all the way back to the 60's and 70's to find solid supergroups, such as The Yardbirds, Derek and the Dominoes, and Cream (the surprising thread being that Eric Clapton was featured in all of them) to see solid and consistent brilliant work.  My guess is because that was during a time when rock wasn't so commercialized, the music was the most important thing they did, and there was common fraternity amidst those brothers of rock that cannot be afforded today.  Needless to say, it is a difficult concept that often doesn't get past the first album.
 
And so we have Velvet Revolver's debut album "Contraband."  While parts of the album are uneven as the band is getting used to each other, the album features some amazing songs that are able to combine Weiland's lyrics with Slash's classic Les Paul sound.  Perhaps it is because Slash already knows what it is like to work with a certifiably insane lead singer that allows Weiland to translate his sound into Slash's snake pit so well, but I do think they pulled off the rare feat of actually blending Weiland's amazing lyrical voice with Slash's soaring solos and machine gun rhythm to derive a tremendous sound.  Among my favorites are "Fall to Pieces," "Slither," "Loving the Alien," and "You Got No Right." 
 
So the fact that they actually pulled it off makes it all the more frustrating to see that Weiland has once again found himself back in drug rehab after a DUI.  It both saddens and frustrates me because fans of Weiland already know how the story goes- he spent numerous stints in drug rehab while leading Stone Temple Pilots, struggling mightily and publicly with heroin addiction, which probably prevented them from becoming one of the all-time great bands.  Lyrically and vocally, I feel he was one of the best lead singers of the past 20 years.  When the band was together, they possessed a synergy and music ability that was glaringly absent when they were doing solo projects.  What I always found most remarkable about Weiland was that he could alter his voice so easily to fit the tone of a given song.  This ability was on full display when you compare the electric versions of the songs "Plush" and "Interstate Love Song" with their acoustic counterparts.  In the former, his voice is rocking, raunchy, and resonant.  But in the acoustic versions, his voice becomes soft, delicate, thoughtful, revealing past pains that inspired him to write them. 
 
And now he finds himself back in rehab, hurting his present effort in the same way he hurt his past one.  Unfortunately, we as fans probably know how this one ends.  A few years ago the same sad saga unfolded for another talented singer, Lane Staley of Alice in Chains.  Almost a decade earlier, Kurt Cobain, not a favorite of mine but still respected, took his life after struggling with his addictions.  For some, the source of their pain is also the source of their muse, and it is sad that the dichotomy has to be that way.  Weiland's life just seems to be another case of charging on down the road full speed ahead, ignoring the signs that say DANGER AHEAD.  I hope someone helps him before it is too late.