Velvet Revolver is a hard rock supergroup consisting of former Guns N' Roses members Slash, Duff McKagan and Matt Sorum, and Dave Kushner, formerly of punk band Wasted Youth. Stone Temple Pilots vocalist Scott Weiland was Velvet Revolver's lead singer from their formation until 2008. In 2004, the band achieved commercial success with their debut album, Contraband. Some critics initially described Velvet Revolver as a mere combination of Stone Temple Pilots and Guns N' Roses, one of them criticizing the band for a "disconnection" between Scott Weiland and the rest of the band.^[1] With their single "Slither", they won the 2005 Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance.

The band released Libertad in 2007, driven by the release of the single "She Builds Quick Machines", and embarked on a tour with Alice in Chains. In April 2008, Weiland parted ways with Velvet Revolver and has since reunited with Stone Temple Pilots. Velvet Revolver has been on indefinite hiatus since April 2008, and in November of that year, the band was released by their record label RCA Records at their request to allow them "complete freedom to go through whatever process it would take to accomplish" replacing Weiland.²

The early incarnation of Velvet Revolver began in 1998 when three former members of Guns N' Roses, Slash (guitar), Duff McKagan (bass), and Matt Sorum (drums) joined together to record original music (composed by Sorum, Lanny Cordola, and Michael Stearns) for the independent film, Soundman, written and directed by Steven Ho.^[6][7]

On January 24, 1999, the ex-Guns N' Roses members (joined by Lanny Cordola of House of Lords, Chuck Wright of Quiet Riot, and Teddy Zigzag) reunited for a special one-hour plus concert at the Slamdance Film Festival in Park City, Utah to promote the film. Rumors spread about a possible Guns N' Roses reunion, but their set list avoided any Guns N' Roses songs, although they did revisit Bob Dylan's "Knockin' on Heaven's Door," a famous cover that they performed during their days in Guns N' Roses. "Before we left, people were saying... it's on the Internet, it's in 'variety' that Guns is back together to play," McKagan told MTV News, who covered the event at Harry O's Bar. "It's so blown up," Sorum added. "And that's just like so far away from anything that's true," McKagan said. "We're just here to play. It's not that big of a deal, but we play good together."^[8][9][10]

In 2002, after meeting during a tour of Japan, McKagan added former Wasted Youth, Electric Love Hogs, and Dave Navarro guitarist Dave Kushner to his band Loaded's lineup following the departure of Mike Squires. Loaded announced a tour of Europe^[11][12] however some of the shows were soon canceled when McKagan began collaborating with his former GN'R band mates

Velvet Revolver recorded its first track, "Set Me Free", which was for the soundtrack for the movie Hulk in 2003. The band also recorded a cover of Pink Floyd's "Money" which is featured in the movie The Italian Job. The band played its first live gig at the El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles in June 2003. They recorded their first album, Contraband, in the latter part of 2003 with recording complicated by Weiland's court appearances for drug charges and his subsequent sentencing to undertake rehabilitation.

During 2005, the group announced that a second album was in the works. Scott Weiland announced at the 2005 Radio Music Awards that it would be a concept album, and would be less single-driven than its previous effort, but later in the summer of 2006, Matt Sorum dismissed the claim that it would be a concept album. In December 2006, the band set Libertad (Spanish for "liberty") as the working title of the album. In September 2006, Matt Sorum confirmed via Camp Freddy Radio on Indie 103.1 that the band had recently signed a deal with Rick Rubin to produce the new album. However, on his website, Sorum later claimed that former Stone Temple Pilots producer Brendan O'Brien would be producing the album.

On March 12, 2007, Velvet Revolver stood in for Van Halen for their induction ceremony into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Of Van Halen, only former bassist Michael Anthony and former singer Sammy Hagar attended. The band played a medley of "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love" and "Runaround". Sammy Hagar introduced Velvet Revolver as "the best rock and roll band left on the planet."

On June 21, 2007, Velvet Revolver performed in a concert at the 9:30 Club in Washington D.C. that was streamed live via MSN Music. On June 23, 2007, four songs off the album were available in full stream audio onto the internet ten days before retail on Best Buy's website. It was announced by WWE that "Let It Roll" would be the official theme song for the 2007 Diva Quest Search.^[26] "Slither", "She Builds Quick Machines", and "Messages" appear in a downloadable Velvet Revolver pack in the videog ame Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock.^[27] "She Builds Quick Machines" was on the game NASCAR 08.

On their official website, Velvet Revolver gave a chance for fans to vote in a poll for the third single off of Libertad. "Get Out the Door" won with 53% of the votes, winning over "Let It Roll" and "She Mine". "Get Out the Door" was released for airplay on January 28, 2008. MTV has recently reported that Slash told Northwest Herald that the band will begin working on its next LP in April 2008. Slash said that he was also planning to record a solo album sometime in the next year or two. Velvet Revolver began a tour of Australia, Europe, and the United States, starting with a concert in Chicago on January 24, 2008. According to Blabbermouth.net on February 7, Scott Weiland voluntarily entered a rehab facility.^[28] This led to Velvet Revolver cancelling their Australian tour which had already been postponed for 2 months. They returned to the stage on March 8, 2008 in Dubai for the Desert Rock Festival.