WHAT DOESN'T KILL VELVET REVOLVER MAKES IT STRONGER.

Byline: Phillip Zonkel Staff Writer

`Collectively, the five of us have flat-lined 12 times.''

That's Velvet Revolver bassist Duff McKagan in what almost sounds like a boast about the band.

On the other hand, since heavy-metal veterans Metallica aired their dirty laundry in the documentary ``Metallica: Some Kind of Monster,'' proving you're a rock 'n' roll survivor may be a way of showing you can still rock.

``We're like Vietnam War veterans,'' McKagan continues. ``We've been through it; we've seen it. We've been through rehabs ... ''

As he then chronicles the numerous rehab (drugs and alcohol) and hospital stays that he and his bandmates - singer Scott Weiland, guitarist Slash, drummer Matt Sorum and guitarist Dave Kushner - have racked up, you wonder how they ever survived.

Somehow, each has. And when McKagan and Weiland talk, it's with same intensity (and wildness) the hard-rock band puts out on stage.

Velvet Revolver was formed out of the ashes of two mega groups - Weiland comes from Stone Temple Pilots while Slash, McKagan and Sorum are from Guns N' Roses. Kushner had his own tour of duty with Wasted Youth, Electric Love Hogs and Dave Navarro's band.

Many scoffed when the five got together. ``They thought our pasts would catch up with us, but the opposite was true. It's a cool support group,'' McKagan says.

The band's debut, ``Contraband,'' became a platinum-seller, soaring to the top of the Billboard charts last summer and snaring a hard-rock performance Grammy in February. Critics have also been swayed.

``Velvet Revolver offers a Russian-roulette mix of cautionary tales and rock indulgence volatile enough to thrill any STP (Stone Temple Pilots) and GNR (Guns N' Roses) junkies who need a fix now,'' wrote USA Today's Edna Gundersen.

``We all knew what we were getting into,'' McKagan says. ``The music was too powerful for us. We weren't going to let somebody fail in this band. It was a mission.''

One example of looking out for each other occurred in mid-2003, a few months before the band had entered the studio to record ``Contraband.'' Weiland, whose drug arrests and attempts at sobriety were well-known, was again struggling to be clean. Weiland's wife and kids were gone, and he felt he was sinking fast.

He asked McKagan, a recovering alcoholic who got clean in part by adapting martial-arts disciplines, for help.

``We went away for about a month to the mountains in eastern Washington,'' says McKagan. As a result of that experience and court-ordered rehabilitation, ``(Weiland) got his family back, his wife and kids,'' McKagan says. ``He's learned the key aspects of martial arts, how to be the captain of your own ship, but now his wife and family keep him going.''

Musically speaking, however, Weiland at first wasn't sure if he wanted to jump on board Velvet Revolver.

``I'd just gotten out of a long relationship with STP that had really worn thin,'' Weiland says. ``That was a tight family with four guys who had been through hell and back. I wasn't too excited about going through the whole thing all over again. It really took some coaxing to get me down to that studio.''

Weiland was impressed with the demos he heard, and the five then recorded ``Set Me Free'' for the soundtrack of ``The Hulk.'' But what ultimately sealed the deal for Weiland was a show at the El Rey.

``It answered every question and was worth more than any time in the studio or hanging out,'' Weiland says. ``This was undeniable and the most sonically violent thing I've ever been a part of.''

Songs like ``Fall to Pieces,'' ``Headspace,'' ``You Got No Right'' and ``Big Machine'' unleash that audio arsenal like a double-barreled shotgun. Weiland says the recent emotional and mental chaos he has endured from trying to get his life back on track was a well of lyrical inspiration.

``It was a change-or-die period for me,'' Weiland says. ``I had to man up. It was a difficult thing to do. I had to find strength to be able to do everything that I had previously not been able to do.''

Once he did, Weiland was exhilarated. ``Those guys were able to lay down an instrumental bed of music for me to write melodies and lyrics on top of. It was extremely powerful, extremely high-energy, extremely emotional, extremely vicious, extremely angry, extremely sexual. ... As I got out of the medicated phase I was in and into the complete live-wire, raw-nerve phase where there was nothing blocking my emotions, I had so much to write about.''

VELVET REVOLVER WITH HOOBASTANK

Where: Arrowhead Pond, 2695 E Katella Ave., Anaheim.

When: 8 p.m. Saturday.

Tickets: $25 to $55. Call [phone] or go to ticketmaster.com.