Duff McKagan Ultimate Guitar Interview

[FunkyMonkey]

Duff McKagan: 'Music Is Always Gonna Be Part Of My Life'

04/18/2011

UG: You?ve had this pretty extraordinary success with Guns N? Roses and Velvet Revolver. You?ve been involved in recording a lot of albums. Can you still get revved up when you release a new record? Are you able to muster up the same feelings about the release of The Taking as you did when Appetite For Destruction came out?

Duff McKagan: I think probably the biggest release for me was like the first punk rock single I ever made in 1979. It?s the first time your music?s on a record that other people can hear. People were buying it and it got distributed in little punk rock record stores around the country and that completely freaked me out. But I was young and it was really exciting and really amazing. Then I made records and EPs in my early career and moved to LA.

Where you eventually formed Guns N? Roses and released Appetite For Destruction.

The Appetite was my first major label release and it was funny because we made the record we wanted to make and that?s all it was about. And that?s the rewarding thing. We knew when we went out and started touring that record that we made the record and that was the representation of us. It got through to vinyl and we were happy if nothing else and only for that reason. It was like, ?That?s our fuckin? record.? There was success that came a year later after that.

What did that success feel like?

Everything was a first like, ?Wow, people are dressing like us.? That was weird you know? And it went from that cute sort of like, ?Wow, this is strange; people recognize me at the supermarket? to a kind of alienating thing. Really music has been for me over my career and it?s about the record you?re doing and is that truth getting through? I?m always gonna write songs and music is always gonna be part of my life. I?ve made some records and maybe the whole thing didn?t get through right and those are the records you try not to make. But I think with Loaded and the last two records and this one with Terry [Date], fuck, it was kind of epihpanerial [an epiphany] when we started recording the actual songs because we had made demos of all the songs for.

Even after all the accolades with Guns, you still feel unsure?

And VR and everything; sure. Of course. But I think it makes you better; it makes you keep getting better. I wouldn?t know what it?s like just being completely comfortable like, ?No, that?s good enough? because if I start doin? that, it?s gonna suck. I know that. So it?s a challenge doing every new record to answer your question.

When you left GN'R did you think, ?What am I going to do now?? or were you looking forward to the freedom?

Historically, I made the Believe In Me album while we were on the Illusions tour. But after I left I was sober and everything in life to me was brand new so there was no sort of, ?Oh, my god? shit. There was, ?Oh, what?s fuckin? out there?? I was going to school; I was doing martial arts; and I had just met my wife and I was exploring what it?s like to be in a relationship where you?re actually fuckin? there and present. You know? Having kids and moving on. Loaded happened in ?99 while I was goin? to Seattle University and we would just kinda go out and play in Japan; like on my spring break, we played in Japan. One thing to led another and school, Loaded, and being a father ? being a father, the band and school in that order happened. You never know what?s gonna happen in your professional life and especially mine; I had no plans and there was nothing in the cards. Like me and Slash and Matt [Sorum] are gonna get back together and play because there was that kind of stigma around us like, ?Oh, what are you gonna do? Go find another singer?? And when we played a benefit show in 2003 [a concert to commemorate the passing of drummer Randy Castillo], we kind of threw all that out the window. It was just that first moment of the three of us playing in the same rehearsal place ? again. Sort of an anger, you know? We really knew at that point but not before. It was like, ?OK, well, this is kind of meant to be and let?s explore this some more.?

You, Slash and Matt put together Velvet Revolver and recorded two really good records.

I?m glad we did and we made a couple really strong records. I don?t know if they really represent what we could be. Maybe the first record was, nah, I don?t know if either of those VR records are really representative and maybe we haven?t made that record yet and maybe one day we will.

You moved on to once again pursue the Loaded project and now you?ve just released the third album, The Taking.

These last two records from Loaded [Dark Days and Sick] are really representative of the growth of this band and I?m really proud of this new record. I?m really happy that Terry Date came onboard.

What did you think of the Slash record?

Oh, I thought it was great. I was happy for him because obviously I?d known him for a long time. I know he wanted to make this record in like 1992 and he finally got his feet underneath and pulled himself together. A lot of these songs he?s had stashed away for a long time. I thought it was really great.

Certainly you know that Steven Adler played on ?Baby Can?t Drive? from the Slash record. He talks about it in his book, My Appetite For Destruction, and talks about you in the most positive ways.

I haven?t read that. Is it OK?

It was a very cool book.

I saw Stevie in London a few days ago; I hadn?t seen him for a couple years.

I had interviewed him a while ago and he sounded really great. He had amazing things to say about you like, ?When me and Duff first got together, we clicked instantly.? Do you remember the first time you met Steven Adler?

I do remember the first time I met him, of course. I met Slash over the phone; his name was Slash and I answered an ad in the paper. It was 1984 so I thought he, like me, was a punk rock guy and I went to Canter?s to meet him and he said he had this drummer, Stevie, and I went and met these two longhaired dudes and I had short blue hair. And I just moved to California and in Seattle I didn?t know any longhair rock dudes so it was kind of culture shock for me. They were probably a little surprised by me, too, with blue hair. But it wasn?t important what we looked like; we sat down at the table and we just talked about music and that was the common ground. We were young but we were grownup as far as, ?Yeah, I?m interested in your idea musically.?

And what was Steven like?

Steven was instantly a happy guy and I was new and didn?t know a fuckin? soul. So havin? two friends was more than I had five minutes earlier in LA. Yeah, we clicked as friends instantly and when we played together it was great; it was a great groove. And then he and I developed a thing; we really worked hard on it to develop a rhythm thing and discovering what we were.

Were you good during those early rehearsals or did Guns N? Roses just gradually become a great band?

I don?t know if we were good but there was a feel that was definitely there. That?s what we went after. I don?t know if we were good technically at all. I don?t know if we ever got good technically but we always had a feel.

You?ve finished your own memoirs?

I wrote a book; I wouldn?t call it a memoir at all. There are a lot of those. I?ve been writing for the last two years now and I write a lot and I decided in writing my Seattle weekly column there was some discovery in there; when you write something there are statements and then you?ve got to follow it up by supporting things. You look back in your rearview mirror and it?s easy to accuse others of your own faults. And in writing, I started to discover my part and really be kind of honest about my own part in my demise in drugs and alcohol. Maybe it wasn?t everybody else?s fault this whole time. It starts off in the present day being a father and it goes back to how did a guy like me get so into those stages of addiction and then how did I get my way out. Two of the biggest common questions to me are, ?How much did you fuckin? drink and how much drugs did you do?? and ?How did you get sober?? So it?s not really my Guns N? Roses story; it?s not my story about my relationship with Slash or Scott Weiland. It?s about my journey down and my journey back out. That?s it.

Talking about Scott Weiland, might there be a third Velvet Revolver record?

Well, in a perfect world there would be that record that?s just fuckin? raw and brutal. But we?d have to have a singer and it would have to like it was in 2003 and 2004 when it just seemed right and things appeared in front of us. We can?t force it so I don?t know. To be honest with you, I don?t know.

And finally, you jammed with GNR in London recently for the first time in 17 years.

It was a bumble you know? No pun intended. Yep, I did. I go to London a lot for non-music related business and I stay at the same hotel every time I go and Axl?s room was next to mine this particular time when I arrived. So it gave us a great opportunity to reconnect and that was it. One thing led to another and I?m onstage and looked out at all the people and went, ?Oh, I?m gonna have to answer interviews about this.? There?s nothing more to it than that really.

Edited to fit continue here: http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/interviews/interviews/duff_mckagan_music_is_always_gonna_be_part_of_my_life.html