VELVET REVOLVER members Slash and Scott Weiland have confirmed to MTV.com that they and the remaining members of ALICE IN CHAINS will be joining forces late this summer for a run of U.S. and Canadian gigs that will stretch well into the fall.

"We'll be closing out the shows, as far as we know," Slash said. Texan rockers SPARTA have been tapped as the opening act for the tour's second leg, and VELVET REVOLVER are still mulling a number of potential openers for the trek's first half.

Scott Weiland said he didn't catch any of ALICE IN CHAINS' reunion shows last summer, but he's looking forward to the matchup nonetheless. "They're good friends of ours, and obviously they have amazing songs," he said. "People have been saying the shows were amazing, and they were drawing some pretty big crowds, so we figured it would be kind of a cool gig. It would be fun to watch them play every night and listen to those songs."

Before the tour, though, comes "Libertad". On July 3, when VR fans will finally be able to get their hands on the follow-up to 2004's "Contraband", Weiland and Slash agree they'll be hearing a different VELVET REVOLVER — a collection of seasoned rockers who are more laid-back and more comfortable with one another.

"I think that when we made the first record, that record rocks with a real focus, and it is what it is," Weiland said. "I think it's vicious, and we felt we had something to prove because people doubted us in a certain way. On this record, we'd been touring for 18 months straight, and [in that time], you learn how to be a band. You learn each other's idiosyncrasies and then there's a trust that develops from that. So when you want to try new things musically, you feel a lot more safe to be able to do that in the studio and when you are writing and recording. That's probably why this record has a bolder feel. It's a more soulful record, as well as more experimental."

Read more at MTV.com.