2007.06.DD - Metal Hammer - Video interview with Duff [incomplete]

Transcript:
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Q: Why were there so many different rumours about the new album?

Duff: You know what it is, man. It’s probably that and then the writing process, different points. It’s because where we were at. You know, we were all in L.A. at the time, but it could have been London or any other big city where there’s people around in the press all the time; if you go out to a function – you know, we don’t have functions here and there, and I’m kind of over going to function. But there was a point we were going, and there’d be people asking shit about the record, constantly with something in their hand, and it’s on the internet that night and you’re quoted – I was with Scott when he said, “Well, you know, maybe it’ll be, like, a concept record” and he was half fucking joking, half making conversation, and that was taken as set in stone that we’re making a concept record. So you can’t really just have a conversation, and-

Interviewer: (talks over) (?) You don’t know if he has the same sense of humour when it comes to – you know, you’re having a joke-

Duff: I mean, I’ve been asked why we didn’t make a concept record - already, just doing the press campaign for this thing – and I have to go, “Oh shit!” you know? What do I say, “I happened to be there and it was a joke, it was kind of a half-joke, it was a conversation…” So it’s just the times we live in now. When you’re in a band that’s not holed up in a house - you know, we’re guys, we go out to places – you’re gonna be quoted saying stuff, and you just gotta be careful what you say, I guess – more and more careful what you say.

Interviewer: Don’t you feel like sort of having a lot of fans, fans you have certain names that don’t really mean anything, and because they’re constantly asked about it, will just make up stuff. And you must feel like you want to kind of “fucking leave us alone,” kind of thing. You know what I mean?

Duff: I mean, I’ve just thought of that, of just, like, making up something fantastic and saying it, then saying something completely contradictory the next time, and… But I’m just not that type of person. I can’t constantly think of goofy things to say, and so I’ll say what is the truth to me at that moment. You know, we are a group of five guys, very strong musical sensibilities and separate from each other, but together we make this band. So, if you’re gonna ask Matt something one night and then ask me something another night, and we’re probably in the same place writing, we might take what we’re doing two different ways. But it’s not final until it comes out on the record and then we have this united, like, “Okay this is the song and we’re all backing it.”

Interviewer: Okay. This actually leads in to another question. How come you’re so nice, all of you? It’s like fame never happened to you. You know, you just meet those divas who are a quarter the size of bands you’ve ever been in.

Duff: Speaking for myself, you know - and I can speak for the other guys in my band, really; actually I could speak for all of us. We’ve all done this for the right reasons from the beginning. And that wasn’t to make fucking money; it wasn’t a commercial thing ever, you know, a starting moment of teenage kids. It was about the love of what we’re doing – you know, it’s from the heart. As long as you do it for that reason, I think - and there’s other guys like us. Josh from Queens is one of the nicest guys and most intriguing guys. Why? Because he does it for the fucking right reason. That guy’s got a big old heart and he creates, like, all this fucking great shit, you know? He’s not out there trying to fucking sell a perfume line, you know? He’s doing his thing. And that’s why we do it. I think commercial success is great – you know, we had commercial success on our first record – but the commercial success wasn’t the end game for us. It wasn’t at all the end game. Commercial success has never defined who I am, you know? As a matter of fact in Guns, when we were playing stadiums and it got so big, I was lost and swimming for a while. And if I was ever nuts, it might have been during that point, because I was just fucking lost. I didn’t know why I was doing it anymore. I couldn’t feel the heat of the audience; they were so far away.

Interviewer: You kind of understand then, like, Roger Waters’ The Wall, the whole sort of having been on those huge stages; you’re kind of “Ah, makes sense now.”

Duff: Yeah. Those guys are always freaky though, Pink Floyd.

Interviewer: Yeah.

Duff: (Laughs) But yeah, I know, I totally understand why some people can’t get out. You gotta have a sense of… I was lucky to regain my sense of humor about what this whole thing is we do. I take it very seriously – absolutely - what I do, but you have to look at it with… Like, some of the shit that I’ve been involved with is fucking hilarity, man. You know, some stories I hear about shit I’ve done, but I don’t remember. And it’s like, “Oh my god, that’s fucking Spinal Tap - full on.”

Interviewer: In terms of, might say, being a band who are just here because you want to play and you want to make music, as opposed to, you know, groupies and whatever else…

Duff: Yeah.

Interviewer: And I’ve said I don’t want to just get you slagging about Rick Rubin, but, was he… I imagined having read an interview, actually the week we heard you were going to work with Rick. I read he’s kind of turned into the sort of executive producer, the guy who comes in once a week. Was that what you really wanted, you thought he was gonna sit there, produce your album, produce your record?

Duff: We kind of thought we’d get - because Slash and I have known Rick Rubin since ’87, maybe ’86. And I think that’s the Rick Rubin who we thought… we thought he’d go back old school. But I mean, he was doing - by the time we got into the nuts and bolts of us, we thought he would be coming down every day. And, you know, “Oh, Rick, you didn’t tell us you’re doing a U2 record, a Metallica record, a Linkin Park record, a Slayer record, and you’re starting this, and Weezer is over there...” - well, a couple of months of that, of really not seeing him. And it just wasn’t our style. You know, the band was sort of… we got through a bunch of shit - this band is not allergic to drama - and there was some shit going on that was really outside of our control, but it was affecting us. And we needed somebody to come in and kind of like put us in a room, lock the door, fucking remind us about the music like, “This is what we’re doing. Reunite the band and fuck everything else.” So, I think, luckily the thing happened with Rick, because if we would have stayed with Rick, wouldn’t have found Brendan to do this record, and then he was the perfect guy to do this record. He’s a musician, came in, and just started kind of like playing with us. He plugged in a guitar and started playing along our songs. And, you know, he started talking about the songs, the music and “Fuck yeah, this is great,” getting excited, “Oh yeah, we’re band, that’s right, this is what we do. Fuck all that other stuff that’s outside; that’s outside of our control and outside of us.”

Interviewer: So what do you think Brendan brought that was fresh to the new record? Even approaches to… because you guys-

Duff: A musical approach. Because with Rick, what happened to us, Rick would come in once a month. He said, “Okay, well, write more songs - without me.” So we had, like, 40 to 50 songs, too many fucking songs. But we didn’t know what was good or not anymore. And with a guy like Rick Rubin saying “Write more songs” and then leaving, we started to have self-doubt. Like, “Do we stack? Maybe we’ve just lost it,” you know, “maybe we just can’t write a song anymore.” And Brendan came in and he’s like, “Wow, you guys have too many songs. How do you know if it’s good or not?” We’re like, “We don’t, Brendan.” “Okay, well, fuck, I’ll listen to everything. Let me pick out some songs and I’ll just start working on those. Don’t worry about all that other shit you’ve written, just we’ll take it a song at a time.” “Really? You’ll listen to everything?” “Yeah, yeah, I’ll listen to everything.” He shows up with a guitar, “Fuck, this part going from this part of this part is fucking great, man!” He could play and he started playing to it: “It starts, like, fucking with… what it came up? Put a B minor 7 in there,” you know? “Oh, I don’t know, maybe that’s great.” So we just got excited about us on a song by song basis, and, you know, within 11 days we were making a record.