| Duff McKagan was born
Michael McKagan (though the name Michael was never used) on February 5, 1964 in Seattle,
Washington. Duff was the youngest of 8 children in a Catholic family. His father left the
family early on, after retiring from the fire department, and starting in a new job, which
gave him more free time. "He married my mom back in World War II and he'd never
gotten to sow his wild oats so he started doing it", Duff later said. "I'd come
home from school and he'd be in bed with some other lady. So he was gone pretty
early." Duff had two big interests when
he was young, music and sports. "I used to be an athlete when I was a kid. I played
football, basketball and baseball. I was good at all three." But music took over
interest and so did drugs. Duff smoked pot by grade 4 and snorted cocaine by grade 7. Duff
went to Roosewelt High School, and he dropped out of school at age 15. "I got great
grades and was in the gifted program and all that shit and I learned all I needed to
learn."
Out of school, Duff reached further in music than in sports.
His brother Matthew taught him to play bass, and Duff did his first concert in 1978. In
1981, he joined the Fastbacks, and played drums with them, but left the following year.
Duff then joined the Fartz (later renamed Ten Minute Warning) where he played guitar, and
he stayed in the band until 1983. Duff also moved briefly to San Fransisco to play with
Silly Killers: "I played with the Silly Killers for awhile. Did a mass West Coast
tour with Silly Killers and made 14 dollars playing three gigs. That's not just me; the
whole band only made $14." Duff played for several other bands in Seattle. including
the Veins, where he played the bass.
In 1983 Duff and his friend Greg Gillmore, also from Ten Minute Warning, decided to move
to LA. Duff escaped Seattle in part to avoid the scourge of heroin that had claimed some
of his friends. Duff also opted for LA bringing more success musicwise. But he had heard
that LA was full of talented guitarists, so he switched over to bass instead. In 1985, he
answered an ad for a bass player in Recycler. The man behind the ad was Slash. Slash and
Steven were searching for a bass player for their band Road Crew. Duff thought 'Road Crew'
sounded like a punk band and decided to join the band. Eventually Duff left the band after
a few months because it didn't work out, and they didn't get success.
At this time another band called Guns N' Roses had been formed by Axl Rose, Tracii Guns,
Izzy Stradlin and Rob Gardner. Izzy Stradlin (guitar) played the bass in the band the
first months, but they needed a permanent bass player. Duff knew Izzy because he lived
across the street, and when he was offered the spot, he accepted.
Duff immediately started rehearsing with Guns N' Roses, and he booked a tour in Seattle.
Three days before the tour, Tracii Guns and Rob Gardner told the band they wouldn't go
with it, so Duff asked Axl and Izzy if they could try Slash and Steven as replacements.
Axl and Izzy agreed, and the new line-up was completed on June 6, 1985.
In 1986, Geffen Records offered a record deal to Guns N' Roses. The band soon went in
studio and started recording their debut album. In July, 1987, it was finally released
under the title, "Appetite For Destruction". The title suited. For Duff's case
he might have escaped heroin, but his self-destruction led to abuse of alcohol, which
continued to worsen throughout the following support-tour. Musicwise, Duff proved his
talent by co-writing the single "It's So Easy" from the album.
In May 1988, Duff married Mandy Brixx. Duff was forced to take a day off the tour, because
Guns N' Roses had booked a gig at his wedding day. "We had planned the wedding for a
year prior, and I asked our manager [Alan Niven] when he thought a good time would be,
that we wouldn't be touring. So he told me to make it for May. And he promised me. So
every two weeks I would remind him: 'All right, we've set the date, we've paid all the
money, and made all the plans.' And then, a month before the wedding, he calls me and he
goes, 'Yeah, we're on Maiden tour now!' And I said, 'What about May 28, Alan?' And he
says, 'What's May 28?' And I said, 'My fucking wedding!' It pissed me off, but you've got
to deal with it, so I called Haggis [ex-Cult bass player], took one day off to get
hitched, then came back to the tour." Duff didn't want his wedding to affect the
band, and he tried to keep it outside the band: "My wife's a musician, so she
supports what I'm doing one hundred and fifty percent. I try not to bring my marriage into
the band's business at all, because it's really my personal life, and there's no need for
it to be public knowledge. But I'm real happy with it."
In September, 1991, Guns N' Roses released "Use Your
Illusion" I and II. The albums features the song "So Fine", written by
Duff, and sung by Axl and Duff. The album also feature the song "Get In The
Ring", mostly written by Duff.
In 1993, Guns N' Roses released their cover album, "The Spaghetti Incident?".
Duff sang four songs on the record, including a Johnny Thunders song - "You Can't Put
Your Arms Around A Memory". The song had originally been recorded for his solo debut,
which was released around the same time as GnR album. The album was titled "Believe
In Me", and featured appareances by Slash, Matt, Gilby, Jeff Beck, Lenny Kravitz,
Skid Row's Snake and Sebastian Bach, as well as West Arkeen. To support the release, Duff
put together a touring band, called DUFF, which included Teddy Andreadis on keyboards. In
1993, Duff also married Linda Johnson - his second wife.
On May 10, 1994, Duff was close to death. As a result of his long-time intense and
prolonged abuse of drugs and alcohol, his pancreas had exploded. "It was the constant
seven-days-a-week drinking and drugs," Duff said. He was ordered by his doctor, never
to drink again. "The doctor said, 'If you go and just have one drink, you will die.
Just have a beer, and you'll die.'" Duff later revealed that this made a strong
impression on him.
Another thing that made an impression was that his mother
passed away from Parkinson around the same time. "Before that she came to visist me
in a wheelchair and I - her youngest son - was in a wheelchair. It wasn't cool," Duff
said. "I was all bloated and had tubes comming out... I really felt like I'd let her
down when she was all crying." As a result of the near-death-experience, Duff had to
cancel a solo tour in Australia, and obviously since the day he left the hospital he has
done no drugs or alcohol.
On March 10, 1995, the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada opened. A lot of artists
performed and Duff was part of the houseband called Wayne Neutron. The other members were
Matt Sorum and Steve Jones (Sex Pistols). Wayne Neutron was joined by Duran Duran, Billy
Idol, Iggy Pop, Bo Diddley, Izzy Stradlin and Seal. After the consert, Duff, Matt, Steve
Jones and John Taylor (Duran Duran) met. They started talking about doing something
together later, and soon they formed Neurotic Outsiders. For Duff this ment working with
one of his old heros. "It's amazing working with Steve (Jones). It was really bizarre
at first, but I tried to play it cool. I suppose to me it's like being some kid basketball
player and all of a sudden playing on a team with Michael Jordan. That's the impact it had
on me. Playing in the same band, recording an album and going on tour with Steve was
pretty incredible. It feels great to think that Steve Jones is one of my best
friends."
Neurotic Outsiders was never supposed to release a record, but after being offered several
record contracts they finally gave in. "We had a kind of agreement at the
beginning," Duff said. "'Let’s play for fun and be friends.' When record
companies started to show some interest in us, we were a bit reluctant, cause we were
scared the business would spoil our friendship. It happens so often." Eventually
Maverick records got the guy's signatures, and the band started working on the debut
album. "We were very honest with them", Duff said. "'This band is just
starting, we’re friends first and foremost and we only play for fun.' For me, this
band was the opportunity to play with clean guys. In a way, I learnt to play again.
We’ve enjoyed all our little shows at the Viper room and that never jeopardized our
friendship." In August, 1996, Neurotic Outsiders released their self-titled album.
The album featured three songs sung by Duff, including one co-written song by him.
Neurotic Outsiders toured in North America and Europe the fall of 1996.
Earlier in 1996, Guns N' Roses was starting work on their next album. The line-up featured
Axl, Slash, Duff, Matt, Paul Tobias and Dizzy. The process did however not go far since
Slash left the band. The following year, after touring with Neurotic Outsiders, Duff was
asked to go back to GnR. Matt had been fired at this point, making Duff and Axl the only
original members left. Duff did a few rehearsals, before deciding to quit. "They
wanted to keep me in the band, they were depending on me," Duff recalls. "I was
offered a lot of money to stay in Guns N' Roses, and I was very honored by that. I
thought, 'Wait a minute. I have a house, I've got a car. More than that, I never did this
for the money in the first place, so why would I start now?'. "I went to dinner with
Axl and his manager. I said 'Axl, we had very fun together, but it's your own band now.
I'm not interested in you as a dictator. Enough is enough. This band is a dictatorship and
I don’t see myself playing in those conditions. I didn't come here to talk about the
money advanced for next record. You can have it. Find someone else.'" "He
brought a guy and said 'He is our new guitar player.' I said 'What a fuck?' That's not
right. That's same thing I bring a guy and say 'He is a new member.' There was no
democracy." Duff also thought the band wasn't Guns N' Roses: "I didn't want to
stay there, cause that's not GN'R any more. There were only three guys left. What they
want us to do? Me and Axl release the album as GN'R?" After Duff left, Axl hired
Tommy Stinson to replace Duff. "I hope Axl won’t feel like I let him down. I was
just honest."
Another reason for Duff leaving happened two weeks later. In the summer of 1997, Duff
finally became a father, as his daughter Grace was born. Grace was named after the album
by the singer-songwriter Jeff Buckley. The mother was Duff's girlfriend at the time, Susan
Holmes. The two married in August, 1999. Becoming a father was kind of the beginning of
Duff's "new" life. He spent lots of time with his family, started working out,
and he said he even started going to bed before 11pm. Duff also got back to studying:
"I started going to Santa Monica Community College here. I took a securities class
first. I had a certain amount of money and I was starting to meet with financial advisors.
I knew what a mortgage was at that point, but, really, PE ratios or yields on a bond or
risk on the stock - I didn't know what any of these terms meant. So I took this great
securities class, with a great professor at Santa Monica. Great school. I excelled at the
class, and he said, "You know, you're good at this." And he said, "Why
don't you take this business class?" So, I did."
In the mid-nineties (probably 1997), Duff got a call from
legendary Seattle record label Sub Pop, asking Ten Minute Warning to record an album for
them. They agreed and put together the original band and recruited Christopher Blue as
their singer. Their selftitled debut album was released on May 5, 1998. A few gigs were
played that summer, before the band once again parted ways. "We didn’t think:
'Let’s go on tour, let’s form a real band.' We recorded this album just for
fun," Duff said.
While being in Ten Minute Warning, Duff was also working on
his second solo album. The work started late in 1996. and Duff worked on it when he had
time. The record was produced by Duff and Noel Golden, and featured Abe Laboriel on drums
and Plexi's Michael Barragan on guitar. The ex-gunners Slash and Izzy also guested on a
few tracks, and Izzy even co-wrote a song. Duff originally wanted the album to be with a
band and not as a solo artist. He had gotten together with his old pal Kurt Bloch, of
venerable Seattle punk band the Fastbacks (Duff was their first drummer), and Kurt's
brother Al. "We did write and record some songs, and we did one of Al's songs,
'Shinin' Down.' But you can't get into a room and go, 'OK, let's write some songs.' It's
just gotta happen, you know?" So instead Duff decided to make it a solo record.
In 1999, when the album was done and set to release, Duff met with Geffen records to
discuss the release of his album, titled "Beautiful Disease". "Everybody
was really enthusiastic," Duff said. "I started the promotion and tons of
magazines reviewed the record. Then Seagram came, bought Polygram and fired everybody at
Geffen in less than a month. So I had another reunion and I just wanted to know if the
album was going to be released or not. The only answer I got was that it was impossible to
answer me! I was out of my mind! Finally, the album was supposed to come out on the 9th of
February and that very day I discovered it wouldn’t." "Beautiful
Disease" got good reviews, and the press ranked it as one of the best solo projects
by the GnR members. "It's the best [record] I could do. I didn't write this record to
get hit songs. I wrote it because it meant something to me. I'm very proud of it."
The songs on "Beautiful Disease" deals with Duff's personal life, and songs like
"Who's To Blame" and "Beautiful Disease" touch on his personal
experiences in the aftermath of life with GnR. Duff feels that his Geffen A&R rep,
Todd Sullivan, summed up the album's mood perfectly. "He said, 'It reminds me of the
Apocalypse, but you're still standing afterwards, going, 'Fuck it all, I'm still here!'
Lyrically, that's kind of what it is. I'm not criticizing any one thing; if anybody, I'm
criticizing myself."
With the album failing to be released, Duff started thinking of other ways to release the
material he had written. "Suddenly that idea came up to me. The only way to get round
Seagram was to turn the album into a live one". For this purpose, Duff formed a new
band called Loaded in 1999. Besides Duff, the band featured Paul Roessler (keyboards),
Michael Barragan (bass) and Dez Cadena (guitars). "I met Michael through mutual
friends. Dez and I met when we sang a song with the Melvins, but I'd seen him in bands
before. I remember when he joined Black Flag. We're brothers. He's a good guy. Paul was a
recommendation." Loaded started a mini-tour in March, 1999, and they released their
live album, "Episode 99: Live" containing a few songs originally supposed to be
on "Beautiful Disease".
In the summer of 2000, Wayne Kramer (ex-MC5 guitarist) and Brian James (ex-Damned
guitarist) formed The Racketeers. After writing songs for the record, they asked Duff to
join their band playing bass for their album "Mad For The Racket". As a fan of
both MC5 and the Damned, Duff accepted immediately. The band also featured Stewart
Copeland (The Police) and Clem Burke (Blondie), both on drums. After the release in late
2000, The Racketeers went on tour in the UK without Duff.
Duff has also made his acting debut in the sci-fi adventure series "Sliders."
"It was so much fun," he recalls. "I read the part, and I was really bad
and nervous. Eddie [Barry Livingston] from 'My Three Sons' played a rock critic who wrote
a bad review of our band. So I blew him up. And later, they killed me." But Duff,
while killing the critic, did admit he was no Matt Sorum on drums...
On April 29, 2002, a tribute show to the Ozzy Osbourne
and Motley Crue drummer Randy Castello was held. One of the performing bands were reported
to be Slash, Duff, Matt Sorum, Izzy Stradlin and Joshua Todd (Buckcherry). Izzy never
turned up and was replaced by Todd´s bandmate in Buckcherry, Keith Nelson.
This was the start of what later became Velvet Revolver.
Duff, Matt and Slash started working together, later bringing in Dave Kushner on rhythm
guitar. Scott Weiland (Stone Temple Pilots) was the last piece in the puzzle, being
brought in as the singer. Throughout 2003, the band was recording, and their debut album
"Contraband" was released June 8, 2004. The band went on tour following the
release.
(Updated November 17, 2006) |
Artist Name:
Duff McKagan
Real Name: Michael McKagan
Born: February 4, 1964 in Seattle, Washington
Other Bands: Duff McKagan, Neurotic Outsiders, Loaded, Ten
Minute Warning, Izzy Stradlin, Mad For The Racket, Velvet Revolver, Road Crew, Fartz
Worked with: Slash's Snakepit,
Gilby Clarke, Iggy Pop, The Presidents of the
United States Of America.
Parents: Unknown
Siblings: 7 older. His brother Matthew thought him to play bass and later
played with GnR. Joan is his sister. |