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Former GNR returns to the country to play with Loaded, before, about his book, his past addictions and what the future holds for Velvet Revolver and Guns original
The guy who speaks from the other side of the phone used to take almost two liters of vodka a day and when she had to go out and play, was given a pass from market to raise some. If the thread and was going way up, took another bit of vodka, and so on. Imagine touring complete with that recipe. When the skin of his hands cracked from dehydration and his body swelled up like a balloon, let the vodka and started with the wine. Ten bottles a day, he says. But the tour ended, and meant to go home not knowing what to do with free time, and take and hope seemed to be the solution. When in 1994 Duff McKagan was awakened at his home in Seattle with an unbearable pain, she asked her doctor to kill him. Years and years of scabies had inflamed her pancreas until it literally exploded. Morphine detox and a warning: "If you take another drink, you die."
The biographies of rock musicians are full of such anecdotes, but It's So Easy (and other lies)-the story of Duff in his years of madness gunner and post-Guns-is so stark, vivid and set sail as a film fiction worthy of being filmed by Brian De Palma after Scarface. But no, the guy did not die and was saved with a recipe that included mountain biking, martial arts, wife and daughters. Also with a degree in Economics and Business at the University of Seattle, he learned several things. First, to manage their earnings, and second, to invest in companies such as Starbucks and Microsoft, and third, to write his columns on ESPN, Playboy and Seattle Weekly, among others. And while realizing cost him to return to the rock did not have to re-involve addiction, he did. First with his solo album (in parallel with the latest Guns), then with Neurotic Outsiders and Velvet Revolver and now with Loaded, the band with which he returns to Argentina and play this Saturday at the College Theatre, opening for Coverheads + Phil Lewis of LA Guns.
Argentina is a country gunner, how it feels to come back? We've lost count of how many times you came ...
I think that I am on the fourth or fifth time in Buenos Aires, and is easy to see how the city grew and became a "mecca" of rock n 'roll. The first time I went out there were not many bands that visit, and now seem to go together. You can say they are few specialists in rock!
The Taking, the latest album Loaded, punkrocker sounds pretty heavy. Is that back to the sources was intentional or just gave you?
The truth is I never tried to go in one direction or another, and I started thinking about making songs a certain way. The songs emerge and grow, or not. I was always influenced by punk, but more than anything by the music emanating fresh, spontaneous hand. So this new album is heavily influenced by the tours and what one sees and lives there.
In your book you talk about how difficult it was the transition from playing clubs to large stadiums. How do you feel now playing in places guys?
Mmmm. Loaded played in something like 300 shows, and do not do that to touch only on what we find most comfortable. For example, the last time we were in Argentina for Pepsi was a show under the sun, but the good thing was that there were many people. Of course it's good to touch in places kids, but most important is to connect with audiences no matter how big the place.
How long does it take you to write your book and how did the idea?
It took something like 14 months, which seems to be enough time, only during those months I also wrote two weekly columns, I recorded an album, I was on tour and I became a father and husband. The truth is that writing became something very pleasant for me, and ended up being something much longer and more detailed than a simple column. I started to look a little here and a little there about what he had to say, and I began to write short stories, mostly about how I ended up in hospital and the time I spent there in 1994. I wondered how I had become an addict, how it was possible that happen, and what else had been on had some kind of responsibility. And all that ended up being a pretty big book.
In the story he told in the book, you can say you're a true survivor of a rather extreme lifestyle. How do you handle your past now that you're the father of two teens that sometimes imagine, you have to set limits?
My daughters know my history and my problems. I am very honest with them, or they forreo not lie. My past is my past, and do not think they are aware of how close I was to die several years before they were born, and I think those stories about alcohol and drugs are more attractive to others, but not for them, because I am your father, you know? I have an eye on them all the time, and if all that is boring or embarrassing to them, it's all good. I will not have conversations with them from the side of "I did this because you do not have to do." I do not want to tell you what to do and what not to do, but I say this: I know everything about every drug and alcohol and tricks between them, so if you have doubts, here I am, as a parent or friend.
It is very common to hear you say that rock musicians are clean and sober, but after one in their entire term autobiographies that have relapsed again, even if one's looking pretty good. Is it really possible for you to be completely clean? Why is it so difficult and many can not do it ever?
Ugh, I could write another whole book on that. I think there are many influencing factors, and musicians are a little special for this topic. It is good to know that you're fucked, you know? And the decision to leave this really is one and no more than one. In the real world you can have a friend or an attorney to advise you, but in the rock world that often does not exist and one has to choose for yourself. Over the years I met a lot of musicians who were very smart, but I think sometimes with all that intelligence is not enough, and ends up earning what you feel. And that feeling becomes a drink or whatever. I remember every morning what happened to me was a rather extreme way to learn. Sucks to do so, but I learned.
Many bands are back together and formed many supergroups. Why a band Neurotic Outsiders was a single album?
I see Steve Jones all the time, we usually go around, I want it to death, and sometimes he tells me "Should not we put something together and go play again?". I love that band, but now I'm with Loaded.
Both Slash as you seem to be very busy with their current projects. ¿Velvet Revolver is a band yet? Is there anything new about the new singer?
The truth is that there is nothing new, and look forward to being a band, but we need a singer. I guess at some point we get together and see what we do, but sorry I can not say when.
Guns N 'Roses is nominated to be introduced into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012. Both Izzy Stradlin like you were a guest in some of the current GNR concert. Did you think about what could happen next year? Do you see possible meeting?
I think you and I are thinking the same, but the truth is that I have no idea what will happen. I really want us to do something good for us and the fans. My relationship with Axl is good, and really appreciate the feeling of the fans, wanted to please them and pass something that falls short of our history, who can attest to our past. I hope so.
12/07/2011
Duff McKagan World
