Slash and Sebastian Bach cook up top-secret project

DETROIT (Billboard) - Sebastian Bach says Velvet Revolver guitarist Slash has contacted him "out of the blue" for a top-secret job, but not as the replacement for the group's fired frontman Scott Weiland.

The former Skid Row singer said that stepping in for Weiland would be "awkward" given his friendship with Slash's former Guns N' Roses bandmate Axl Rose.

Slash quit Guns N' Roses in 1996, frustrated with Rose's imperious manner, and they have been estranged ever since. Bach and Rose, however, are on good terms: Bach sings on the as-yet-unreleased Guns album "Chinese Democracy," while Rose sang on three tracks on Bach's 2007 solo album, "Angel Down," and gave him the opening slot on two Guns N' Roses tours.

Bach said the Slash project was "mind-blowing," but that he had been sworn to secrecy and nothing was happening right now.

Weiland was thrown out of Velvet Revolver in April, with the band citing his "increasingly erratic on-stage behavior and personal problems." Weiland responded by saying that Bach would be a "fantastic" substitute.

Reuters/Billboard