Don’t call Them Crooked Vultures a supergroup, says Duff McKagan, who recently gushed about his love for the band in his Seattle Weekly column. (We already did — whoops!)
“When I first heard that John Paul Jones, Dave Grohl and Josh Homme were forming a band last spring, I must say that I was jealous,” wrote McKagan. “Are you kidding me?! These three mega-talented and unique figures playing hard rock in a unified and focused group? I was excited, to say the least, from a player’s perspective AND as a fan. Then came the inevitable ‘supergroup’ tags.”
McKagan says his band Velvet Revolver had to battle against the same thing in its first year and that it undermines a band’s real intentions.
“I've heard this title being bandied about in reference to Them Crooked Vultures, and I think it is a cheap way out … To label an act a supergroup somehow suggests — to me, anyway — that they were formed to cash in on the members' superstar power … For these three guys to come together and form a real band — well, hell, it must be like some sort of fairy-dust s*** just being at a band practice! Can you imagine? Them Crooked Vultures have created something new and fresh with no obvious nods to any of their past bands. A hard feat, for sure.”
Them Crooked Vulture’s self-titled debut is set for release in the U.S. this week.