Papa Smurf

Pharrell Williams will be a producer on Velvet Revolver's new album -- follow-up to Contraband -- along with Lenny Kravitz, bassist Duff McKagan revealed Tuesday before a Camp Freddy show in Times Square, reports Jennifer Vineyard of MTV.com.

As far as Velvet Revolver are concerned, they're going to take a different approach for their sophomore album. Instead of working straight through with one producer, they'll work with several.


"We've already started recording some stuff," McKagan said, "and we're going to try out a few different producers on a few different songs, more piecemeal, here and there. It's not as conducive to doing it straight, like, 'We'll take this month to make this record.' It's more informal."

As such, the band is approaching its wish list of collaborators by treating it more like jamming than working. "We were at a party last night, and I went, 'Hey, Lenny, want to try and record some songs? Come on, let's go,' " McKagan said of inviting Kravitz to join the sessions. Same with Pharrell, although that invite was extended a bit longer ago.

"[Frontman] Scott [Weiland] and I met him at a Clive Davis party in L.A. a year and a half ago. That's when it started," McKagan said. "We said, 'Hey, man, want to do a track with us?' And he said, 'I'd love to.' "

Schedules being what they are, it's taken this long for the producer and the band to meet up. "He was insanely busy, we were busy ourselves, but it's finally coming together," McKagan said. Plus, in the time since they first met up, Pharrell's written a song called "Happy" that Weiland plans to use for his next solo record, since the singer said he felt the song spoke to recent experiences he'd gone through.

Here's what McKagan thinks about Pharrell and Velvet Revolver collaboration: "I've always been a huge fan of early Motown and soul and Prince, so to explore something like that with Pharrell would be amazing. There's nothing like that out there. It's uncharted territory. Dude, it's going to be way cool. It's going to be stinky. Pharrell's a genius."

In related news, Duff McKagan and Scott Weiland are set to appear as guest judges on the Tuesday, April 25 episode of "Nashville Star" airing live from the Acuff Theater in Nashville, TN at 10:00 p.m. EST/9:00 p.m. CST on the USA network. "Nashville Star" is a joint effort between RCA Records and USA network to conduct a nationwide talent search for the next great country-music artist.