Listen to Duff McKagan: The Rolling Stone Interview

[jarmo]

The Guns N’ Roses bassist digs deep on his new solo album and his entire career on Rolling Stone Music Now podcast

By Brian Hiatt

“I’m in a band right now that’s playing the biggest rock songs in the biggest places, and I love it,” Duff McKagan says on a recent episode of our Rolling Stone Music Now podcast. “That’s what I meant to do. I was born to play in Guns N’ Roses.” But the Guns bassist also found time to make an intimate, Americana-infused new solo album, Tenderness, which he discusses in depth, along with the mega-successful Guns N’ Roses reunion (including the reasons behind Izzy Stradlin’s absence) and much more in a career-spanning interview with host Brian Hiatt.

A few highlights from the interview:

On becoming a lead singer “I think if you’re me, you can’t really care,” he says. “I’ve never claimed to be Pavarotti. Being out on this tour with Axl, watching him, he is a master. The guy is a pure master. He preps for a show with an hour and a half of vocal warm ups. When we play these long songs like “Coma,” so we can’t, there’s no chance to breathe. It’s circular breathing. And then his warm down. I’m already in bed reading a book, man. And he’s warming down for an hour and a half up until like three in the morning.”

On Izzy Stradlin’s absence: “It wasn’t from us not trying, for sure,” McKagan says. “I don’t know if I have a take beyond that. I know what we tried to do and how hard we worked at that. Touring and a big rock band is not for everybody.”  Stradlin has suggested it came down to money, but McKagan didn’t directly respond to that assertion: “Yeah, I don’t even know. At the end of the day, I just couldn’t figure it out.”

On whether the Guns N’ Roses reunion is finite:   “I don’t have that feeling at all. Because we’ve done no press yet, nobody knows. And  kind of dig it, to be honest with you. I’m not trying to keep you in the dark. But it’s kind of nice. It’s a thing where nobody needs to know our business. I think that’s where we got into trouble a long time ago, where people knew our all of our business  So we talked about things with each other now — something that maybe we never did before.”

On his new solo album: “I would be lying if I said I had a country background,” he says. “And I wouldn’t want to step into that world now because it wouldn’t be genuine. My country background, if any, is Johnny Cash. But it was also Johnny Thunders acoustic, like [1985’s] Que Sera Sera. Mark Lanegan’ s first two records: Winding Sheets and Whiskey for the Holy Ghost.  And I have this demo of Greg Duhli and the Twilight Singers with this broken-hearted version of “Deepest Shade,” this song he wrote. And it’s a four track demo, and I played it for [producer Shooter Jennings]. I’m like, I want the record to have this heartbroken sound.”

On his secret to staying young: “Martial arts. And a lot of sex, to be honest with you.”

On Guns’ early tours: “I knew how to find a drug dealer in many lands. I could say ‘cocaine’ and ‘heroin’ in a lot of languages.

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/duff-mckagan-podcast-interview-listen-854091/





/jarmo

[Ignatius]

This tour was not definitely for everybody. I kind of understand where Duff's coming from.

Maybe it was just not about the money. Maybe Izzy was not really committed to something as big as this. Maybe the band also thought he could somehow be a liability in the long road. Who knows... I love Izzy but the guy never liked long tours and playing stadiums. He could've done well in the first leg, but what about the remaining million legs we've had so far?

I mean, Axl, Duff and Slash seemed to be pretty much committed to the cause. Look at Axl himself, the guy does 2 hours warm up pre-show and 90 minutes warm downs after the gigs. That's just pure commitment...and then we go on complaining some times there's not much interaction with the crowd (rants etc) other than the performance itself.

These guys are in their mid-late 50's and they've been able to pull this gigantic tour for three years now. Sometimes I ask myself If I could do this (and I'm ten years younger than Slash).

They are in fantastic shape, yes we know Axl doesn't have a six pack anymore, but how many of us have his physical endurance?

Kudos to the band 

Now if we had a new song (or two) this year I'd shit my pants...how incredible would that be?

[axlvai]

The Guns N’ Roses bassist digs deep on his new solo album and his entire career on Rolling Stone Music Now podcast

By Brian Hiatt

“I’m in a band right now that’s playing the biggest rock songs in the biggest places, and I love it,” Duff McKagan says on a recent episode of our Rolling Stone Music Now podcast. “That’s what I meant to do. I was born to play in Guns N’ Roses.” But the Guns bassist also found time to make an intimate, Americana-infused new solo album, Tenderness, which he discusses in depth, along with the mega-successful Guns N’ Roses reunion (including the reasons behind Izzy Stradlin’s absence) and much more in a career-spanning interview with host Brian Hiatt.

A few highlights from the interview:

On becoming a lead singer “I think if you’re me, you can’t really care,” he says. “I’ve never claimed to be Pavarotti. Being out on this tour with Axl, watching him, he is a master. The guy is a pure master. He preps for a show with an hour and a half of vocal warm ups. When we play these long songs like “Coma,” so we can’t, there’s no chance to breathe. It’s circular breathing. And then his warm down. I’m already in bed reading a book, man. And he’s warming down for an hour and a half up until like three in the morning.”

On Izzy Stradlin’s absence: “It wasn’t from us not trying, for sure,” McKagan says. “I don’t know if I have a take beyond that. I know what we tried to do and how hard we worked at that. Touring and a big rock band is not for everybody.”  Stradlin has suggested it came down to money, but McKagan didn’t directly respond to that assertion: “Yeah, I don’t even know. At the end of the day, I just couldn’t figure it out.”

On whether the Guns N’ Roses reunion is finite:   “I don’t have that feeling at all. Because we’ve done no press yet, nobody knows. And  kind of dig it, to be honest with you. I’m not trying to keep you in the dark. But it’s kind of nice. It’s a thing where nobody needs to know our business. I think that’s where we got into trouble a long time ago, where people knew our all of our business  So we talked about things with each other now — something that maybe we never did before.”

On his new solo album: “I would be lying if I said I had a country background,” he says. “And I wouldn’t want to step into that world now because it wouldn’t be genuine. My country background, if any, is Johnny Cash. But it was also Johnny Thunders acoustic, like [1985’s] Que Sera Sera. Mark Lanegan’ s first two records: Winding Sheets and Whiskey for the Holy Ghost.  And I have this demo of Greg Duhli and the Twilight Singers with this broken-hearted version of “Deepest Shade,” this song he wrote. And it’s a four track demo, and I played it for [producer Shooter Jennings]. I’m like, I want the record to have this heartbroken sound.”

On his secret to staying young: “Martial arts. And a lot of sex, to be honest with you.”

On Guns’ early tours: “I knew how to find a drug dealer in many lands. I could say ‘cocaine’ and ‘heroin’ in a lot of languages.

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/duff-mckagan-podcast-interview-listen-854091/


/jarmo

Oohh yeah. This is very promising imo. I loved it!!!!