2009.01.DD - Music Radar - Interview with Duff at NAMM

Transcript:

Joe Bosso: This is Joe Bosso with Music Radar and I' sitting here with Duff Mckagan, rocker, blogger. Rocker blogger.

Duff: I have a column.

Bosso: There you go.

Duff: Yes.

Bosso: Duff of course is with Velvet Revolver-

Duff: You have to watch what you say about me because I'll write about it!

Bosso: Oh....

Duff: I have the pen now.

Bosso: And you know how it works!

Duff: Yes.

Bosso: Duff of course is in Velvet Revolver, also the band Loaded, one time member of Guns N' Roses obviously - how's it going?

Duff: It's good, I'm...obviously everyone here knows we're here at NAMM. If anybody has ever gone into Guitar Center and they go a little crazy after about 5 minutes, because everybody's playing this [gesticulating to the loud guitar music in the background], this is like a Guitar Center times 200! The thing about NAMM, and I'm fortunate enough that the gear I scrounged up to get, like Cougar amps, Fender guitar when I was a kid, and all the stuff with Dunlop and Rotosound strings, I now get them free, I endorse the companies. And they send me stuff all over the world when I'm touring, great stuff for free, so, but the pay back is I'll do an ad for them and I have to com here, it's like a little bit of repentence. Maybe it was something I did, I don't know, I might have tripped an old lady unbeknown to me when I was 9 or something.

Bosso: Now you've used Rotosound Strings for god, what 20 years? What exactly do you like about them so much?

Duff: Rotosound? You know I just, when Guns, we got our record advance back in '86 I went and bought gear, I bought stuff like, "That bass [pointing], I want that bass," and I got it, I got a TK head, again, a Cougar head and Rotosound strings were like, something about Rotosound, you know, the old ads with The Who and The Rolling Stones, I started school and bought a couple of packs of Rolling Stone strings and that was my sound just like all of a sudden that's my sound and we played a bunch of gigs, recorded Appetite with the
same Rotosound Strings and my bass, my Fender Bass, TK head and it kind of became my thing. So I don't know, what got me into Rotosound Strings was the pictures of The Rolling Stones and The Who.

Bosso: And you've had a relationship with Dunlop for quite a few years, you use a number of their products, effects, straps you know what...

Duff: Dunlop kind of rounds out the whole thing, the effects, both bass effects and guitar effects for me for Loaded guitar effects, strings, guitar strings. Then, I've always had a hard time finding straps because I'm tall and I wear my bass low and Scotty Cheeto [?] with Dunlop,
couple of years ago said, "Man, we'll just make you a strap, we'll just call it yours, the Duff strap maybe add some killer leather," the strap's long, you know, they wouldn't work on anybody unless they were me. But I think they make them, I think they have a leather strap similar to the one they make for me.

Bosso: So tell me what's going on with Velvet Revolver and the search for the lead singer, how close are we now?

Duff: When does this come out?

Bosso: Tonight or tomorrow.

Duff: Oh, ok, so we really, when we parted ways with Scott last spring we thought, you know, the band was going really, I mean, the guys in the band, meaning me and Slash and Matt and Dave, we were going like this [gesticulating upwards], we were starting to play so much better and better. Now our relationship with Scott was going south, he was really headed in one direction, we were headed in another and that's fine that's the way life is, I'm not saying one is right and one is wrong, that's the way it was. So we thought we were going to be able to part ways with Scott and find some guy, you know. There's no right or wrong way to find a singer and there's no really proven way to find a singer. So we said, "Ok, we'll kind of put the word out there an we'll find a guy right away." What happened with us, we started to the get people by the droves, these singers coming in, it's really hard to listen, it's kind of like coming here [gesticulating at the background music], you start not being able to distinguish, "Wait, was that guy any good? I can't even tell." So, I think that was our biggest problem, trying to figure out a way to listen to guys and we've narrowed it down and we'll see.

Bosso: So it's narrowed down to a couple-three guys?

Duff: This is going to be right on the air tonight, right? So yeah, I'll say that! What did you just say?

Bosso: That it's narrowed down to a couple-three guys?

Duff: Yeah. Fair enough.

Bosso: So we might be hearing pretty soon who it is?

Duff: Maybe!

Bosso: Well I'll look for a Music Radar exclusive then when you let us know! How are things going with Loaded?

Duff: Very good man, I mean our record is done. Really my... Loaded, we were just playing gigs around Christmas time for the last 4 years
doing Velvet Revolver's thing. This last Christmas things were kind of hard with Velvet Revolver, there was a lot of drama at that point and we played our Christmas show in Seattle, Loaded did, and there was no drama there. And we had a bunch of songs, "Let's make a record, take it on tour," and we did and it's been, for me, a really musical reinvigoration about what is kind of beautiful and fun and kickass about making music in the first place. For me I might have hit my musical middle aged crisis, mid life crisis, maybe, I don't know. I didn't get some funny yellow Corvette, I was just hitting some... and we made this record and I'm really really happy about it. This year could prove for me to be extremely busy, I love Velvet Revolver and that's my... thing for me that's on the front burner.

Bosso: So can you tell me the initials of the person it might be?

Duff: Err, what?!

Bosso: Can you tell me the initials of the person?

Duff: What's that, what person?!

Bosso: The initials of the person who might be singing for Velvet Revolver.

Duff: I'm just f**king with you! No, I can't.

Bosso: So last we spoke, Chinese Democracy was about to come out and you said you hadn't heard any of it. Have you heard the album now?

Duff: I have.

Bosso: What do you think?

Duff: Excuse me [Duff was chewing]. It's a great record. I think Axl sings his ass off, great song writing. Axl I guess, wanted to make the record he wanted to make and that's important. Sometimes people get wrapped up in... I guess commercial, people had a lot of expectations behind that record and I know on the other side of the curtain, just being a musician and a songwriter, just want the best for the song and you can't be responsible for how other people view your music. So I look at songs and music that way so I think they did a great job.

Bosso: Lastly let me ask you about your blogging career. You write a weekly blog for The Seattle Weekly which is absolutely fabulous.

Duff: I don't really know, I write a column so I don't really know what a blog is, what is a blog? What is the difference?

Bosso: Well it's short for web log, but you write a weekly column for the Seattle Weekly. It's fabulous, you're really a great writer.

Duff: Thank you. I read a tonne, I just read a tonne and I started, I wrote a couple articles over the last couple of years for a couple of magazines and I talked to the editor of Weekly this last Summer and I tried a column, I did, I wrote one and it went great. It got a big, huge response so I started a weekly column there and it's a lot of fun. I mean, trying to think of something new to write about each
week is either hard or it's too easy. Some weeks it seems really hard for me to write, like, "This is a really stupid thing to write about," and they're usually the ones that get the biggest response. It's great, it keeps my mind going.

Bosso: Well I read it all the time and you write with a great style and ease and I encourage
you to do more.

Duff: I appreciate it.

Bosso: So this is Joe Bosso with Music Radar and I've been talking to Duff McKagan. Duff, thank
you very much.

Duff: You're welcome.

Bosso: For spending some time with me. As always it's been a pleasure and when it's time to
announce who that singer is let us know!

Duff: I will yeah.