Duff McKagan’s Hopes For Weiland

Duff McKagan hopes ex-bandmate Scott Weiland can pull himself together after being fired by Stone Temple Pilots.

And even though Velvet Revolver also fired him in 2008, the bassist has good memories of working with the wayward singer.

Weiland was dumped by STP in February, and they’ve reconfigured themselves with Linkin Park frontman Chester Bennington in his place.

McKagan tells Billboard: “You could kind of see it coming, I suppose. It’s a sad situation any way you look at it. That guy… you hope he pulls it together. I shared enough good times with that guy that I wish him nothing but the best.”

Velvet Revolver has been on hiatus ever since they split with Weiland, and guitarist Slash has said he’d never work with the singer again. But McKagan insists it’s not over. “We talk about it every now and again. We’ve tried out a bunch of singers but we’re waiting for the right person to coma along.

“The chemistry of Matt, Slash, Dave and I is really good, so do you don’t want to let that just go away.”

Meanwhile, he’s concentrating on his latest project, Walking Papers, which he says came about organically.

“Jeff Angell called me and said, ‘Would you come up and play bass on some songs?’ One thing led to another after that. It wasn’t pre-planned.

“I hadn’t played bass in a band for a little while so I loved the idea. Live, we go for it quite a bot more than on the record. It’s much more thunderous. I’m really excited about the prospects for this band.”