Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
KING OF CHAOS
Matt Sorum of Guns N’ Roses and Velvet Revolver discusses his supergroup Kings of Chaos, Las Vegas, career highlights and more ahead of three shows at House of Blues
Kings of Chaos leader and drummer Matt Sorum is ushering his supergroup to House of Blues in Mandalay Bay for three evenings Thursday through Saturday. The band has a revolving lineup, and Las Vegas is the only scheduled appearance for this version of members.
Guitarist Billy Duffy (The Cult), vocalist Billy Gibbons (ZZ Top), vocalist Chester Bennington (Linkin Park, Stone Temple Pilots), vocalist Corey Taylor (Slipknot, Stone Sour), drummer Matt Sorum (Guns N’ Roses, Velvet Revolver), bassist Robert DeLeo (STP) and guitarist Steve Stevens (Billy Idol) will be the assemblage for the three shows.
Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee Sorum answered questions over the phone and discussed the upcoming dates, Las Vegas and career highlights.
A brief background on supergroup Kings of Chaos for those who are not familiar?
It’s really a bucket-list thing for me. Obviously, I’ve been in bands my whole life: The Cult, Velvet Revolver, Guns N’ Roses. I got together all my favorite guys. The setup rotates a little bit. Kings of Chaos is what I call a community of my favorite musicians that I play with.
What we do is everybody who comes and plays brings with them some of their best songs, which they’ve written or been in a band with that has written those songs. What people are going to see are a lot of hits.
All great songs from a catalog of all these members from all these groups played by a set of characters. It’s not a cover band because it’s guys from those bands. I don’t consider it a cover band — I consider it a catalog band.
I’m the leader of the band. I keep everything going, and everyone’s happy to come. I make it super fun. The crowd will see that, that we’re all excited to be there playing other guys’ music and doing our interpretation of their songs. It’s fun for everybody.
Are these the only dates we will see this particular lineup of members?
I’m pretty sure these are the only three dates you are going to see this particular lineup. I’m going to announce some dates in the next couple of weeks that are going to be a little bit different, but that is more of an East Coast run. It may never be the same again. How much rehearsal time will be put into the Las Vegas shows?
People are going to be seeing it fresh. We’re going to come into Las Vegas early, rehearse there, and get ready for the show. A couple days. What is the future for Kings of Chaos?
We’ll see where Kings of Chaos takes us. It could turn into a band, it could be an album, we don’t know yet. I’m thinking about making some original music with it. Seeing if a singer will want to come in and be a permanent member.
Right now I just want to have fun. I just want to keep it loose, very spontaneous, go out and play for people and have them enjoy the music. I haven’t thought too far down the road yet, except maybe to record original music.
People ask, “Why would you want to record original music; nobody is buying records anymore?” I go, “Well, that’s not a very good attitude.” The only thing you can do is make music for yourself, and you hope that people gravitate toward it.
However they are going to gravitate toward it. You are playing music because you love it, not because people are going to buy it. I made a solo record last year, and I think it sold five copies. I didn’t ...