Velvet Revolver always seemed like the answer to a quintessential L.A. rock & roll question: what does the engine of Guns N' Roses do when they're left to rust by the side of the road? It was long past the point when Slash, Duff, and Matt Sorum could possibly hope that Axl would abandon Buckethead, Tommy Stinson, and whoever else was toiling away in the studio under the GNR banner and go for a reunion tour, and old rockers need a place to make noise even while they're in the process of fading away, so they started a new band (Izzy may or may not have been invited to the party, but he long ago started following his own path and never seemed interested in coming back into the fold).