2009.05.09 - About.com - Interview with Duff

Duff McKagan Interview
A Conversation With The Loaded and Velvet Revolver Member

By Chad Bowar, About.com Guide

Duff McKagan is a busy guy. The former Guns N’ Roses member is also in Velvet Revolver, who are currently on a break while they find a new singer to replace Scott Weiland. He’s also a writer, penning his thoughts for a few publications and writing about business for Playboy. The last full-length from his group Loaded was back in 2001. They released an EP last year, and their latest CD Sick is out now. I caught up with McKagan as Loaded was on tour, and he fills us in on the album and his many other projects and endeavors.

Chad Bowar: Why was this the right time for another Loaded record?

Duff McKagan: We didn’t think it was going to take seven years for our next record. That’s just the way music happens, I suppose. Maybe if we would have tried to put the record in there between the two Velvet Revolver records, it might have seemed forced. Everything happens for a reason. After all the drama and stuff the whole band (Velvet Revolver) went through at the end with the things we went through with Scott (Weiland) and all the things twirling around that band, I was really questioning why I was in music anymore. I have to deal with this b.s. all the time? It’s not worth it.

The guys in Loaded are some of my best friends, and it’s fun all the time. I had some levity in my life again. We started sending bits and pieces of songs to each other via MP3, one thing led to the next, and we got together in Seattle and put the songs together. It was a really inspired bunch of songs, from beginning to end. I still think in terms of making a record, it being a journey that you listen to from the beginning to the end. We’re really not in that culture much anymore. People buy singles and stuff. I like a whole record.

In your other bands you’re not up front, but in Loaded you’re also the singer. Do you enjoy it?

It’s no big deal, because I don’t give a crap about what people think of me anymore. I don’t mean that in a conceited way. This is what I do. People come because they want to rock. It me my whole career to finally realize that. I’m really comfortable being the front guy.

I understand you’ve also been training to climb Mt. Rainier. When will that happen?

I’m always training for something. It keeps me sober. I kickbox and I’ve done martial arts for the last 14 years. I’ve done a marathon. I was asked to climb with a group of guys going up Rainier. I’m an armchair climber. I’ve read every climbing book there is. Growing up in Seattle and looking up at that huge mountain, I think now it’s finally time.

One of your training partners is Tim Medvetz, the big biker guy who was on the Discovery Channel reality series Everest.

We just did a peak in the Sierras right before this tour. He’s a big tough dude.

Could you ever see yourself trying to climb Mount Everest?

I don’t know. We’ll see. It is suffering, there’s no mistake. You have an 80 pound pack on, you’re climbing in thin air and you have crampons on. If you fall, you’re dead. It’s a lot of suffering, but I enjoy that kind of thing. Tim calls it “feeding the rat,” meaning you can see what limits you can take your body to. It’s kind of a breakthrough and you can go out in normal life after that and know you’re capable of a lot more than you thought you were.

You went back to school and got a business degree and have been doing some writing on that topic. What do you write about?

We all got carried away and thinking we were stock experts. But you have to understand what a stock is first, and what a price-to-earnings ratio is, and all the financial jargon they use. My first order of business is to explain those terms and what they mean, and educate the reader so we all can be informed. We need to invest for the longer term. Your house is not your bank, it’s your home. Don’t take second mortgages out, don’t take loans against your home. It’s not your own personal bank. It just basic, solid advice.

These days I imagine touring is quite different than back in the Guns N’ Roses days. Do you take your families along now?

My girls have grown up traveling the world. They are 8 and 11. They can pack a bag and be ready to go to Europe in 15 minutes. They grew up little world citizens. They are not U.S. centric. They realize we live in a big world and there’s different people and different cultures.

Have they shown any musical interest yet?

My 11 year old has been into musical theater since she was 4, but not rock. They think it’s too much hard work. You have to work 16 hours a day.

Most people think it’s a pretty glamorous type life.

There was one glamorous life moment when me and Slash and Axl went down to look at this plane that we leased for the Illusions tour. We went down and they treated us like kings. They sent limos for us to go down and look at the plane. They had a book of stewardesses that we could pick from. That lasted for about 30 minutes. That was the glamorous part, and then it was over.

We live on the bus. I just went to the gym, paid the 10 bucks, worked out, did my laundry in the shower. Now it’s drying out on the bus and I’m shopping at a mall for socks. Then I have to do a sound check and then play a show. Then it’s back on the bus and to the next city.

That’s a lot different than your partying days when you nearly died at one point.

I’m in extra innings. I’m here and I shouldn’t be. I wake up every morning and say it’s going to be a good day. I’m not ashamed of anything I did yesterday, and that’s the kind of life I try to live right now and do right by my family and my fans. That goes back to last spring when there was so much crap swirling around and I started to question what I’m doing. If it would have continued, I was gone. I wasn’t going to go through that. It’s not worth it. I’ve seen the dark side, and it ain’t cool, it ain’t glamorous, it’s not sexy.

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