Alan Niven (ex-G'NR Manager) Rips Scott

[Casper]

Alan Niven (apparently, the former everything of G'NR) talks  a lot of smack... And in some of his banter, he rips on Scotty boy and the rest  of VR. Here are the excerpts of just the Scott related stuff. But the link at  the bottom has the rest of the article and it is quite interesting. He really  opens up about how he feels on Axl and new G'NR:

Industry Vet ALAN NIVEN:Working With GUNS N' ROSES, GREAT  WHITE In Exclusive BraveWords.com Interview

BraveWords.com: After the band (G'NR) fired you, you went  ahead and worked with Izzy, Slash and eventually ‘the project’ (which would  become VELVET REVOLVER).
Alan Niven: “Let me clarify that as far as ‘the project’ is  concerned. I came into L.A. with my daughter and we had a dinner with Slash and  Duff. Duff looked across the table and said ‘how about it Niv?’ I was very  flattered to be asked, but it seemed to me that it wasn’t a good idea. I didn’t  like the prospect of everybody, but Axl being involved. I thought that would  raise an unfair bar and unreasonable expectations for everybody, so that was  something I felt very very nervous about.”

BraveWords.com: Is that why, in the end, you think Velvet  Revolver failed (because everybody expected it to be Guns N' Roses)?
Alan Niven: “I don’t think you can consider Velvet Revolver  as a complete failure.”

BraveWords.com: But they did fail…
Alan Niven: “Yes, but they did have a number one and sold  over a million copies and that’s respectable. That was better than SLASH’S  SNAKEPIT, for example. I think the weakness in Velvet Revolver was the material  and writing. In that respect, I was really nervous about Scott Weiland too. I’m  not sure what he’s got to contribute as a writer…”

BraveWords.com: Did that pick as a singer baffle you? You go  from Axl Rose who’s a troubled singer to a guy with a reported heroin addiction  who walked out on his band. Did it make any sense to you?
Alan Niven: “I thought it was an unfortunate compromise to  make. I felt that there was an aspect of marketing behind the idea that could  have worked, but you have to look at the individuals themselves and when one of  them is turning up semi-coherent at rehearsal with a ‘minder’ it’s quite  obvious that they are still using. That’s another reason why I was less than  thrilled at the idea of Velvet Revolver. The other thing was… that the heart of  the soul of Guns N' Roses was Izzy and a lot of those songs work well because  of his musical intelligence and his feel. He’s got a beautiful rock n’ roll  sensibility about him that informed and influenced everybody’s writing and  without Izzy being fully involved in Velvet Revolver I wasn’t sure where it was  going to go. I’ll be blunt, I think Slash is one of the best guitar players  that has ever lived. I love his soul. I love his note selection. I love the way  he plays - but he’s not a great songwriter. Duff won’t appreciate me saying  this, but on his own, Duff, is not a great songwriter - brilliant at bass parts  and drum structure but not a great songwriter. You only have to look at his  first solo album to note that. Guns N' Roses was an amazing collective and a  chemistry that worked and any successful entity can be looked at with the  analogy of the molecule. You can take out the smallest part of a molecule and  that molecule will collapse and that’s Guns N' Roses.”
 
source: http://www.bravewords.com/features/1000820
 

[RCLAR]

In all honesty, he's not too far off in his assessments. However, I strongly disagree with him about Scott and Slash's songwriting abilities. They are both very talented as songwriters, in my opinion.

[Slither]

In all honesty, he's not too far off in his assessments. However, I strongly disagree with him about Scott and Slash's songwriting abilities. They are both very talented as songwriters, in my opinion.

Yeah i agree i think he was pretty fair and not overly objective in his comments. just honest.

plus it seemed like the interviewer was basically egging him on and asking for an insult to VR/weiland

[Strange-Content]

These types of interviews are getting really annoying.

[Shangri]

I do not trust in a manager's opinion

[born2boogie]

what came to mind for me was one of my poems..
 
it goes like this.........
 
Scrabbled eggs please!
For the egg is not whole
Wash it down with some coffee
Fall into the deep hole
Mongoose jumping on a pogo stick
While fly’s still fly around giving shit
Give thanks for your daily breed
Hum was this real worth the read
No need to reply – its just the drink that makes me fly high
To desperation unknown unknown unknown…….
To desperation unknown unknown unknown…….
 
 
sorry got board after a few lines of reading 
   
 

[Mister Saint Laurent]

i know a lot of people don't like niven, but he's normally dead on

[STP92]

This wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. No reason to really overreact to this article.

[loungefly611]

An honest assessment to me.

[Chris Pepper]

Never heard of this guy.

Scott has a very prolific catalog of music.  But, he needs strong players to add his touches to make things great.  VR had some touches of greatness.  C'mon they won a grammy for Slither.  And a couple of songs were solid, at the least.  I thought this guy hit it on the head with regards to the whole being greater than the sum of its parts with great bands. 

I must say, though, Scott's solo music and past couple of albums have been mediocre.  Libertad, Happy in Galoshes, and the self titled album just haven't been good enough to be great.  Much of it feels lazy/going through the motions.  Even his biography felt half assed. 

The interesting thing is you know greatness is there, the question is can he dig around all the scars, divorces, drug relapses to find it.  I think his best shot to do this is with STP.  I'll be listening..............

[Unglued812]

He is wrong about Slash...

Sure, he is an specialist in solos, but he can work out a whole song too... his solo album proves it

[Silvergun Picture Show]

I wouldnt give two flying fucks what the ex manager from overrated GNR has to say....

[stpunderground]

I wouldnt give two flying fucks what the ex manager from overrated GNR has to say....

^ What he said

[Unglued812]

I wouldnt give two flying fucks what the ex manager from overrated GNR has to say....

^ What he said

Id like to know why you guys think GNR is overrated?

[Mister Saint Laurent]

He is wrong about Slash...

Sure, he is an specialist in solos, but he can work out a whole song too... his solo album proves it

the album he made with an all star cast of collaborators proves he can work out a whole song? have you heard the slash's snakepit records? utter garbage.