2019.07.28 - AXS TV's Rock & Roll Road Trip with Sammy Hagar - Interview with Duff

Full episode:

https://www.axs.tv/video/5f781370b70e4fcc60693ebb/

Excerpts from Far Out:
-----------------------------

When McKagan sat down with former Van Halen singer Sammy Hagar for the latter’s Rock & Roll Road Trip television programme, the two swapped stories about how living the rock and roll lifestyle affected them. McKagan got remarkably candid about how deeply he had fallen into addiction, so much so that, at his worst, he went for over a decade without even having a glass of water.

“My family tried an intervention on me the day after we played the King Dome [in Seattle], dude,” McKagan said. “But my family: they drank. So [for] this intervention, I ran. My body was failing. My hair was falling out. I didn’t drink any water. I just drank alcohol. I literally didn’t have a glass of water for 12 years. And I’m not kidding.”

“I didn’t want to end up this way,” he added. “I got to a point at like 28-and-a-half that I thought, ‘Well, I guess I’m just gonna get to about 30, and that’s gonna be it.’ But you’re okay with it. You’re in this state of mind like, ‘That’s the way it is: life fast, die young. Fuck it.'”

McKagan had spent the better part of a decade-plus surviving on alcohol and drugs. He’d managed to make it to 30, but in 1994, he suffered acute pancreatitis brought on by his excessive drinking. “I woke up one morning, and I thought it was just some sharp gas pains, so I rolled over, and it spread down to my quads all the way around to my back, and I couldn’t move to get to the phone to call 911,” McKagan recalled.

“It was so bad I could barely breathe, and my friend came up to see – I couldn’t yell, I couldn’t do anything – he comes up to see me, and he just said, ‘Oh shit, it finally happened,'” McKagan added. “What had happened was that my pancreas had burst, so all the enzymes that digest your food aren’t supposed to be outside dancing around on top of your organs.”

McKagan was told that any more alcohol intake would likely kill him. A visit from McKagan’s mother, who was struggling was Parkinson’s disease at the time, was enough for him to fully commit to sobriety. The first step was hopefully finding a way to incorporate water into his diet.

https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/guns-n-roses-duff-mckagan-didnt-drink-water/

Excerpts from UCR:
_________________

Guns N’ Roses bassist Duff McKagan discussed the moment when he chose to escape from drugs and fight back to health.

He was rushed to the hospital in May 1994, at the age of 30, after his pancreas burst as a result of his lifestyle choices. He’d accepted he was going to die – until his sick mom visited him and he made an instant decision.

In a newly-published clip from an episode of Sammy Hagar’s Rock & Roll Road Trip TV show, McKagan said he’d run away from his family after they’d tried to stage an intervention in the hope of getting him off drugs. “[M]y body was failing. My hair was falling out. I didn't drink any water; I'd just drink alcohol,” he said. “I literally didn't have a glass of water for 12 years, and I'm not kidding … I got to a point … where I just thought, ‘Well, I guess I’m just gonna get to about 30, and that’s gonna be it.’” When Hagar expressed horror at the thought, McKagan said: “But you’re okay with it – you're in this state of mind; like, ‘That’s the way it is. Live fast, die young, fuck it.’”

He went on to recount how he’d woken up that May morning unable to move and barely able to breathe as his pancreas began to leak fluids into his other organs. “And my best friend, he said … I can clearly hear it to this day: ‘Oh shit, it finally happened.’ … So he got me to the emergency room. I just laid down on the floor, and they hit me up with morphine – and it didn’t do anything. And that's when I knew I was in trouble, because I knew what morphine should be doing.” He remembered his doctor’s face had “gone white” after realizing how close to death his patient was. “They were gonna do surgery and I wanted them to kill me, because I couldn’t take the pain,” the bassist said.

What happened next initiated the big change. “My mom had Parkinson’s at this point, and I’m the youngest son. She comes in in a wheelchair; she’s crying, I got tubes coming out of me.”

He thought: “The order of things is wrong here, man – I should be taking care of her. I fucked up, and I’m sorry; I’m gonna make it better.’”

On finally being released from hospital, he was told: “We have a rehab for you to go to.” But he replied: “You don’t understand. I’m fucking done.” He added: “And my life changed 180 degrees from that moment.”

https://ultimateclassicrock.com/duff-mckagan-guns-n-roses-drugs-death/