VELVET REVOLVER singer Scott Weiland's latest battle to get clean led to the cancellation of VR gigs Down Under and there are no assurances the UK leg of the tour will finish as planned. At least not from the group's bassist Duff McKagan. "Scott is OK as far as I know but I can't say he'll be fine when the tour kicks off or when it finishes," McKagan told UK's JournalLive. "You just never know. Addiction is crazy and I should know. I can't be cagey and say, 'Oh no, we're going to be fine and everything's going to go without a hitch.' The truth is I just don't know what will happen. I don’t want to read this interview where I've said there'll be no problems and then for us not to finish the tour. I don't want to have to eat my words. All I can say is that right now I'm confident it will happen and we've never sounded better as a band."

McKagan added, "VELVET REVOLVER is something that's going to be around for a long while yet. Because of the individuals involved, there are always going to be things going on around the band that will confuse fans once in a while but we're here to stay. Slash and I have been doing this job for 20 years and nothing is going to get in the way of what we're doing now.

"This band is the main thing in my life. It's the thing that I need to fulfil myself mentally. It's the perfect way for me to express myself musically and artistically. It's not something that I look at in a commercial sense at all. That's what will guarantee its longevity."

Read the entire interview at JournalLive.