Post by Gilby Admirer on Sept 15, 2002 1:50:26 GMT -5
SMOKIN' GUN - After the drugs and alcohol-fuelled craziness of Guns N'Roses, it's been a long hard road back to normality for their ex-bassist. Now Classic Rock talks to Duff McKagan about life after GN'R - and the prospect of doing it all over again. Under no illusions: Jon Hotten
There was a time when a half an hour on the phone with Duff McKagan would have been a wearing proposition. For some years at the peak of his fame he was, in his own words, 'willfully fucked up'. So it's a heartening surprise that the funny, loquacious dude chatting away at the other end of the line in Smog Angeles is indeed the ex-GN'R bassist. Like his former and now current again partner in grime Slash, Duff has been through a hell of his own creation and come up smiling.
His latest band, Loaded, have a new album called 'Dark Days', but by the time we speak it already sounds old hat. Duff has hooked up with Slash and Matt Sorum again, and they're looking for a singer to fill some big ol' shoes. He's returning, professionally at least, to L.A., his city filled with ghosts. He expects to encounter some unfinished buisness there.
Let's not pretend to be too interested in Loaded. Like many of the records issued by former members of GN'R, it's a solid piece of work that exists in the shadows of one of rock'n'roll's defining moments. I know it, you know it, and Duff knows it, too. And with the hint of a reunion of sorts on the cards, it's a time to look forwards.
Nonetheless, 'Dark Days' is an appropriate title. While original drummer Steven Adler is GN'Rs' most obvious casualty, each one of the original five has gone through trauma of one kind or another: Izzy Stradlin is back in Indiana after throwing the heroin monkey off his back; Slash has recently bade farewell to uncle Jack; Axl Rose, reclusive and unhinged, is the Howard Hughes of rock'n'roll; McKagan, too, was wholly freaked out by stardom and what came with it. He moved to Seattle, his home town, and went back to college to major in accountancy.
"The Guns thing always seemed slightly unreal," he begins, as if articulating the thought for the first time. "I was never quite comfortable. It never quite felt like real life. I came from a far humbler place, we all did. I'd never felt that I constantly had to be the centre of attention, but I was. I didn't move out of LA because Guns finished, I had a house in Seattle already - that was real life to me."
When he called Axl and informed him that GN'R - already without Izzy, Slash and Adler - was no longer the deal that he'd signed up to, he knew that he couldn't stay in LA. The city was like a big ol' drink perched on a bar right in front of him, and Duff had fought hard to get himself sober.
"I don't think: 'Oh, this city has all this shit that nearly killed me'," he says. "I have a lot of great friends here. But when I got sober I couldn't drive down the streets in LA without thinking: 'That's a drug dealer's house there, that's a drug dealer's place...' I had to get away from that when I was sober. I'd earned the right to not be there."
He pauses for a second, maybe unsure about committing his next thought to tape. "What LA came to represent for me was that attitude of 'keep them on the road, get them whatever they want, just keep them out there making their money.' That is what LA is. When it was ripping the band apart, I remember thinking to myself: 'This is hell.' We weren't the first band to go through it. We knew the stories, we'd read them. We knew it was happening.
There was a time when a half an hour on the phone with Duff McKagan would have been a wearing proposition. For some years at the peak of his fame he was, in his own words, 'willfully fucked up'. So it's a heartening surprise that the funny, loquacious dude chatting away at the other end of the line in Smog Angeles is indeed the ex-GN'R bassist. Like his former and now current again partner in grime Slash, Duff has been through a hell of his own creation and come up smiling.
His latest band, Loaded, have a new album called 'Dark Days', but by the time we speak it already sounds old hat. Duff has hooked up with Slash and Matt Sorum again, and they're looking for a singer to fill some big ol' shoes. He's returning, professionally at least, to L.A., his city filled with ghosts. He expects to encounter some unfinished buisness there.
Let's not pretend to be too interested in Loaded. Like many of the records issued by former members of GN'R, it's a solid piece of work that exists in the shadows of one of rock'n'roll's defining moments. I know it, you know it, and Duff knows it, too. And with the hint of a reunion of sorts on the cards, it's a time to look forwards.
Nonetheless, 'Dark Days' is an appropriate title. While original drummer Steven Adler is GN'Rs' most obvious casualty, each one of the original five has gone through trauma of one kind or another: Izzy Stradlin is back in Indiana after throwing the heroin monkey off his back; Slash has recently bade farewell to uncle Jack; Axl Rose, reclusive and unhinged, is the Howard Hughes of rock'n'roll; McKagan, too, was wholly freaked out by stardom and what came with it. He moved to Seattle, his home town, and went back to college to major in accountancy.
"The Guns thing always seemed slightly unreal," he begins, as if articulating the thought for the first time. "I was never quite comfortable. It never quite felt like real life. I came from a far humbler place, we all did. I'd never felt that I constantly had to be the centre of attention, but I was. I didn't move out of LA because Guns finished, I had a house in Seattle already - that was real life to me."
When he called Axl and informed him that GN'R - already without Izzy, Slash and Adler - was no longer the deal that he'd signed up to, he knew that he couldn't stay in LA. The city was like a big ol' drink perched on a bar right in front of him, and Duff had fought hard to get himself sober.
"I don't think: 'Oh, this city has all this shit that nearly killed me'," he says. "I have a lot of great friends here. But when I got sober I couldn't drive down the streets in LA without thinking: 'That's a drug dealer's house there, that's a drug dealer's place...' I had to get away from that when I was sober. I'd earned the right to not be there."
He pauses for a second, maybe unsure about committing his next thought to tape. "What LA came to represent for me was that attitude of 'keep them on the road, get them whatever they want, just keep them out there making their money.' That is what LA is. When it was ripping the band apart, I remember thinking to myself: 'This is hell.' We weren't the first band to go through it. We knew the stories, we'd read them. We knew it was happening.
