1995.05.DD - Gearhead Magazine - Interview with Duff

Interview by Mike LaVella from Gearhead #3

GH: Thanks for calling me!

D: No problem, sorry I couldn't get back to you sooner, we're working on our new record.

GH: Who is?

D: GNR.

GH: I thought you were talking about your band.

D: I made a solo record, yeah. That band just played up your way, at the Paradise Lounge in fact, where were you bro? (laughs)

GH: Pretty punk rock huh?

D: Well, the band is made up of ex-Verbal Abuse and Personality Crisis members.

GH: Woah. So Kim says that you and her mother get along pretty well.

D: Marge! She rules, moms rule.

GH: My mother likes you guys a lot.

D: Cool, tell her I said hi.

GH: So, if you can remember back that far, how did you join The Fastbacks.

D: I can totally remember! Back then I was 15 and me and Kim were really good friends. I was going to alternative school and she could sign my slips for music credit because she was 18.

GH: So you could get school credit for band rehearsal?

D: Yeah totally! But that's not why I started playing drums for them. Basically, Kurt was the drummer then and everybody knew he was like, the greatest guitar player. So there were these drums sitting there and one day he said "we have a show, do you want to learn how to play drums?" and that was that.

GH: So you played bass before you played drums?

D: Yeah, I played bass in lots of punker bands. It wasn't like it is now where you have to know how to play! (laughs) We had a show in like a week, so I just learned how to play the songs and I actually became a semi-good drummer. It was like a family back then, there were a bunch of bands and we were all friends. It was really cool, the punk rock days.

GH: So who were all these bands that you were in?

D: Are you kidding? I counted once and it was over 30 bands!

GH: I know about The Vains.

D: The Vains were my very first band, we actually did a single. Let's see... The Fartz, The Silly Killers, 10 Minute Warning, The D.T.'s Cleavage, Our Gang... ask Kim or Kurt they might remember better than I can, I would play with anybody.

GH: Why did you leave the Fastbacks?

D: To tell you the truth, I really can't remember. I was like 15 you know? There was like no one incident or anything like that, not even. In fact I roadied for them after I quit, on a tour where we went down to California, opening for D.O.A. and T.S.O.L. Which, years later, T.S.O.L. opened for us and I had to tell them "remember years ago I roadied for your opening band?" Because back then T.S.O.L. were godlike, I was just happy to get a chance to see them. But The Fastbacks are the coolest band in the world. Still are.

GH: Hey, I'll quote you on that.

D: Well it's true man! How are they doing?

GH: Really great I would say, they just finished an East Coast tour, and I think their latest record (Answer the Phone, Dummy) is their best on yet.

D: I just got it on CD, it's totally killer!

GH: I think Kurt is writing his best stuff right now.

D: Hey, lemme tell you, even back then we all knew that Kurt was just amazing, we were all really lucky to be in a band with him. Did you know that GNR's first gig was opening for The Fastbacks?

GH: Actually Richard Stuverud was telling me something about that, he said you drove up in a beat up old van or something.

D: We hitchhiked!

GH: Really?

D: Yeah, the van only made it about 100 miles out of L.A. so we hitchhiked the last 1100 miles.

GH: I'm just having a hard time imagining Slash hitchhiking.

D: Well we all did it, Slash, Axl, Izzy, me and Steven. We would play wherever we could get a gig, even if it meant opening for The Fastbacks in Seattle.

GH: So it sounds like you had a really good experience with The Fastbacks, it really stuck with you.

D: Well yeah, in fact I play drums on my solo record, and that is directly from learning how to play drums for The Fastbacks. I still play in that style too, which is like fast poppy punk 'cause that's the only style I know.

GH: Well that's about it.

D: Please send me some Gearhead shirts and keep in touch!

(c) 1995 Gearhead.

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Source: http://noonz.tripod.com/inter.htm

The exact date is not mentioned in the magazine's site
https://www.gearheadhq.com/library.html

but I found it here
https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/gearhead-magazine-fastbacks-meices-73625389

Since this magazine wasn't released regularly and the issue before this one was released in May 1994 (so a year earlier), the interview may have been conducted many months earlier.