Country star Shooter Jennings has twice turned down the chance to replace Scott Weiland as the frontman of Velvet Revolver.
The supergroup, featuring former Guns N' Roses stars Slash, Duff MCKagan and Matt Sorum, sacked Weiland after a series of public rows in April (08) and have been looking for a new lead vocalist ever since.
They had earmarked Jennings as the perfect replacement but despite repeated pleas to join the band, the country rocker has decided to concentrate on solo material.
He tells Classic Rock magazine, "It pained my heart not to say yes, because those guys are the best players in the world. They're literally one of the best bands I've ever heard and to be able to sing with them has been amazing.
"But I had a talk with them about it, and I would absolutely still, to this day, get in a room and jam with them, but first of all, I knew I was gonna be doing another record and that what I wanted to do was really special to me, and I didn't feel I could stifle that.
"I didn't feel like my next step should to be to go from feeling like my back was broken by Nashville to stepping into the shoes of Scott Weiland and singing that stuff. I kinda said, 'If you wanna get together and do some stuff, that'd be fine, but I don't know about me going out and singing those songs, and being the replacement for Scott Weiland, after Axl."