Photo via PaulWesterberg.com
While a reunion of The Replacements doesn’t seem to be in the cards, Tommy Stinson has revealed that he’s recording a track with Paul Westerberg to benefit their former bandmate Slim Dunlap — who joined the ‘Mats following the expulsion of Bob Stinson — as the guitarist recovers from a stroke he suffered in February.
That news comes as former Replacements drummer Chris Mars releases his own benefit song for Dunlap, a new composition called “When I Fall Down” that is Mars’ first new music in 16 years; that track can be purchased for 99 cents via Mars’ website, with proceeds going to Dunlap and his family “as he continues in his in-patient rehabilitation and treatment.”
As for the Westerberg-Stinson reunion, the current Guns N’ Roses bassist recently told The Jerusalem Post (via Minneapolis’ City Pages and Consequence of Sound) that he and Westerberg are collaborating on a track for a planned compilation of Dunlap songs that will be sold to raise money for their former bandmate’s rehabilitation.
Of reuniting with Westerberg, Stinson says:
“Paul and I always end up doing things together, but I don’t think there’s any point to a reunion. There’s such baggage, more so for Paul. I still think he’s a little bummed out his career didn’t skyrocket after the Mats broke up. He’s had to deal with competing with his past, and for him it was kind of tough.”
It won’t be the first reunion for the two ex-Replacements, though. In 2006, they recorded a pair of new songs — with Mars lending backing vocals, but not playing drums — for the best-of set Don’t You Know Who I Think I Was? That same year, Stinson played bass on a couple songs Westerberg recorded for the soundtrack to the animated film “Open Season.”
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