1993.12.DD - Metal Express (French TV) - Interview with Duff

Transcript:
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Host (translated from French): The last time we spoke with Duff McKagan was in December 1993, and the Guns N’ Roses bassist was happy about the upcoming release of his band’s album of covers, “The Spaghetti Incident.” But the euphoria didn’t last long. Now, word in the media is that Guns have officially split, and everyone is wondering: Will Axl Rose get over his breakup with Stephanie Seymour and patch things up with Slash? Or is it already the end for the band, as guitarist Gilby Clarke has said in his interviews? In this exclusive interview, Duff talked to us about “The Spaghetti Incident” and his solo career, but he also informed us what kind of music Axl will make if he goes solo.

[Music break]

Duff: The album is out for – I think it’s a dedication to all these bands that haven't gotten recognition. So the only reason I hope it sells a lot is so they can get some money, you know, because a lot of these guys are poor. And they’re also waiting for it to come out (laughs).

[Music break]

Duff: I do a lot of vocals, yeah. I sing on – you know, I just laid down scratch tracks, because I knew all the songs better than anybody else. It was my record collection that all the songs came from. So I would lay down a scratch track for Axl, like Raw Power I sang, and New Rose by the Damned, Attitude... And I’d lay down a vocal for Axl to listen to, and he’d come down to hear it and he’d go, “Hey man, that’s good. I’m not gonna sing it.”

[Music break]

Duff: The title is – I can talk about it now, because the trial is over, the Steven Adler trial. It’s actually from my deposition. Steven, Slash and myself lived in Chicago for three months to write tunes, and we all lived together in this condominium, in an apartment above an Italian restaurant - this is very funny, this is why it’s called “Spaghetti Incident.” So in the deposition, Steven’s lawyer asked me, and he goes, “Did you guys ever get into any fights while you were there?” And I said, “Well no, not really. It was just kind of like brotherly fights.” Then I said, “Maybe,” you know, “just maybe, if I got spaghetti from the Italian place below us one night, and ate half of it and saved the rest for the next morning – because everybody likes cold spaghetti - and maybe somebody else ate it, and I was looking forward to eat it, maybe there’d be, like, a real fight.” And that was it, period. And the lawyer was like, “Okay.” So we get to court, and I’m up on the stand, there’s a jury and everything. “Now, about your spaghetti incident...” and I just – and the guys in the band and everybody started busting up [laughing], because the lawyer took it seriously. So we got done with the court that day, and we were like, “We gotta call this album ‘Spaghetti Incident’.” So that's where that’s from.

[Live footage – Duff’s band]

Duff: I recorded the songs when I felt – “Lonely Tonite,” I wrote it on the road. I wrote it on the spot. It was that, you know, I’m not into going to the parties and everything with the supermodels, the prince of Monaco or whoever might be there (laughs). And there’s always girls, you know, and I’m just not into that. So I would always go back to my hotel room, turn on the TV and go, “Okay, I just played in front of 80,000 people and still here I am again alone,” you know? So, to get away of that, to get away of all that (?) ego and all that stuff, I would go into a recording studio. I’d book a studio whatever town I was in, turn off the lights, light candles, and go, “Okay, I’ve got my feet on the ground, I’ll record a song and get myself back in my world.”

[Music break]  

Duff: Slash came out to London just to hang out with me on tour, because he’s going nuts at home. He’s got nothing to do, you know?
I think one day, what [Axl] will do – what I’d really want him to do, because I think I’d be killer – is do a kind of like Nine Inch Nails type of record, a real industrial type of record. I think that’s what he’ll do – one day. Well, you know, he’s my bro, and his personality doesn’t swing as much as it’s often publicized. He’s just a regular guy. He has good days and bad days, like everybody else. When he has bad days, he has really bad days, and I feel sorry that he has some of those problems. But it’s not like everybody thinks it is, he’s just more intense about it. If I thought about everything as hard as he does – you know, he lets everything kind of get to him.