A Replacements reunion isn't close, Westerberg says

Billboard reported recently that Paul Westerberg , whose North American tour stops Friday at the Grand Emporium, will be the subject of a solo retrospective this spring via Rhino.

The 20-track set will feature two new songs, B-sides and rare tracks, Westerberg's soundtrack contributions and highlights from his post-Replacements releases.

Westerberg also revealed on Steve Jones' L.A. radio show last week that he's recorded a song with former Replacements bassist Tommy Stinson that might appear in Cameron Crowe's next film, “Elizabethtown.” But, he told Jones, a former Sex Pistol, that a Replacements reunion is still a pretty slim idea.

“It can't be the Replacements without Chris (Mars, the drummer), and he's moved on into art and doesn't really want to come back,” Westerberg said.

So Replacements fans will have to settle for a host of reissues that are in the works. Rykodisc, which owns the rights to the band's Twin Tone releases, will reissue the Replacements' first four albums in the fall, bolstered with bonus tracks. Rhino will give the same treatment to the group's late-period albums for Warner Bros.

Last summer Westerberg told Billboard.com there are probably some unreleased tracks in the archives somewhere, but…

“There probably are, but (tracks) that haven't already been bootlegged in some way? The real fans have probably heard most of it. The only stuff that might be (unreleased) is cassettes of things that I have from real early on — in the basement kind of stuff when we were rehearsing.”

Westerberg admitted he still reflects fondly on the ‘Mats' early days, especially “when we were riding in the van and we ripped the seats out and would just listen to tapes and listen to Black Flag. (We'd) sort of slam dance and stuff around in the back of the van and be drinking hard liquor at noon and it was just, you know, carefree times. We didn't give a damn.”

Westerberg is touring now with the three-piece His Only Friends band. Early last week Westerberg fanatic Lucinda Williams joined the band for a cover of the Kitty Wells-popularized “It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels”** at the show in Los Angeles.

**The cover song performed with Lucinda Williams was the "The Wild Side Of Life."