2005.02.07 - The Sun-Herald - From Under The Gun To A Rock Survivor (Duff)

From under the gun to a rock survivor

By Jane Rocca

Guns N' Roses may be long gone, but its bass player is still strumming strong and heading our way with his new band, Jane Rocca writes.

There are many casualties in the rock world, but sometimes it feels like we've all heard the stories before. Often overlooked are those who actually survive hard years toying with sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll.

Enter Duff McKagan, former bass player with 1980s rock group Guns N' Roses who is, as he describes, "a shipwreck survivor". McKagan has found renewed success as a member of Velvet Revolver - but to get there, he had to outlast those early years.

Guns N' Roses created a heavy rock sound that was loud, misogynistic and violent; it was one part glam rock and two shakes metal. Led by frontman W. Axl Rose, they sang about Los Angeles's Sunset Strip, its sleaze, and showed no sign of regret feasting on the city's loose morals. Albums that defined their reputation included 1987's Appetite For Destruction and G N' R Lies in 1988. Suddenly they were gracing the cover of Rolling Stone , touring the world over and performing at the MTV Video Awards in the same year.

"I definitely thought I wasn't going to survive," says Duff McKagan, whose pancreas exploded in 1994 after too much drinking and cocaine abuse. "At the age of 28 I was addicted and I couldn't get out, but I thought I'd make it to 30. It was kind of like that is the way it's going to be. I was so f----d up most of the time it wasn't like a sharp reality, everything was numb."

McKagan, now 41, is married with two children Grace, 8, and Mae Marie, 4, and lives with his wife in Los Angeles and his home city of Seattle. He kicked his habit years ago, but says he began experimenting with drugs long before he stepped into music's grittier corridors.

"We lived in a port city and a lot of heroin comes through there and it became an epidemic," says McKagan. "My roommate was a junkie, my girlfriend was a junkie and I was.

"But I was the guy in the Seattle scene that people thought if anybody is going to show promise, it's Duff. There was enough going for me to get out of there. I went to LA and I can at least say I gave it a try."

He quit Guns N' Roses eight years ago and hasn't spoken to W. Axl Rose since. It was a difficult split, but one that McKagan has no regrets about. "I sat down with Axl and said this is no longer a band, it's an autocratic situation where you're calling all the shots and that's not a way to run a band. That is not how the band was formed, the band was a family. I am not interested in the Axl Rose Band under the guise of Guns N' Roses."

Their halcyon days were marked by a visit to Australia in 1993 when they played large outdoor concerts, including one at Eastern Creek Raceway."That was amazing, it was a blast and a highlight."

Funnily enough, the band was so heavily into consuming illegal substances and drinking too much, they don't even remember driving from Melbourne to Sydney even though they insisted on doing it. "It was a blurry time, what can I say?" says McKagan. He also headed to promoter Michael Gudinski's resort in Port Douglas on that tour. "It was a beautiful place, I actually got to relax there - and if one positive thing came out it, I learned how to drive on the other side of the road."

These days, McKagan has his new band to focus on. Velvet Revolver is a supergroup that formed in 2002. Fronted by former Stone Temple Pilots frontman Scott Weiland, guitarist Slash (ex-Guns N'Roses), drummer Matt Sorum (The Cult then Guns N'Roses) and Dave Kushner (ex-Wasted Youth), the group is truly dedicated to rock 'n' roll. Their debut album, Contraband , was nominated for three Grammys.

Two singles from the album have reached No. 1 in the US rock charts.

"I am very proud of my past laurels," says McKagan, "but I'm certainly not resting on them. We're just forging ahead with this group. We're not trying to compete with our past bands, that's nearly impossible to do and why would you want to do it? We're mature guys and we know what's going on and we're really happy with where we are at and it's building."

Outside of music, McKagan is obsessed with kickboxing. It's his way of shutting out the world and really focusing on the self. "Kickboxing and becoming a good fighter and knowing you can do damage to somebody is one thing," he says. "But that is not where I get off. I am a lot calmer and there is no fear involved. I can look at things from the outside and not just knee-jerk react to something. I have really changed as a person."

Velvet Revolver frontman Scott Weiland has already revealed he owes a lot to his band mates, all who have helped the singer get his life in order after years of drug abuse.

He's been in and out of live-in drug detoxification centres and this time he's clean. But how long will it last?

"Scott is the last guy we could yell at, we've all hit our bottom at some point," says McKagan. "Mine was pancreatitis, Slash had angioplasty. We all had our wake-up calls. Scott came in the band with a habit he wanted to stop. He came to me and he and I went away to the mountains in Washington and he was shown another way to look at life and live life. He'll never go back."