2010.09.06 - Reuters - Ex-Guns N' Roses Bassist Leaves Jane's Addiction

Ex-Guns N' Roses Bassist Leaves Jane's Addiction

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Rock band Jane’s Addiction said Monday it has parted ways with its latest bass player, former Guns N’ Roses member Duff McKagan, five months after announcing his addition to the oft-vacated post.

McKagan, 46, performed a few concerts with the band, and worked on new material for its first album in seven years, but musical differences cut short his tenure.

“Hey we wanted to thank Duff for helping us write songs for our new record,” the band said via email. “We love the songs we worked on with him -- and the gigs were a blast -- but musically we were all headed in different directions. From here Duff is off to work on his own stuff so we wish him all the best.”

Jane’s Addiction has been through five bass players since it formed in 1985, while the rest of the quartet’s lineup is unchanged. Original member Eric Avery has come and gone twice, most recently replaced by McKagan in March after an Australian tour.

McKagan is best known as a founding member of Guns N’ Roses, contributing such songs as “Paradise City” and “It’s So Easy” to one of the biggest bands of the early 1990s. But as with some of the group’s other members, drugs and alcohol got in the way, and McKagan almost died after his pancreas ruptured in 1994. He sobered up and quit the band a few years later.

After studying business at Seattle University, he joined forces with two other Guns alumni to form Velvet Revolver in 2002. The band released two albums and won a Grammy before crumbling in 2008.

McKagan last year recorded and toured with his new band, Loaded. According to a Twitter message from Jane’s Addiction frontman Perry Farrell, McKagan plans to issue a follow-up album and return to the road in the fall. A spokesman for McKagan was not immediately available.

Jane’s Addiction emerged from the Los Angeles rock underground in the 1980s, distinguishing itself from other post-punk groups with Farrell’s sexually ambiguous stagecraft and the musicians’ deft ear for melodic tunes. They recorded just three albums and scored radio play with such songs as “Been Caught Stealing” and “Jane Says.”

Reporting by Dean Goodman; editing by Sandra Maler

Related article in Spinner, Sept. 7, 2010:
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Duff McKagan Leaves Jane's Addiction After Just Five Months

With most bands it's the perennial struggle to hold on to drummers, but with L.A. rockers Jane's Addiction, the problem has always been holding to their bottom end . And now Reuters reports that bassist Duff McKagan has left the band after just five months in the job.

Despite playing a few gigs and working on new material for the band's first album in seven years , the former Guns N' Roses bassist has quit after citing the age old problem of "musical differences."

Jane's Addiction said in a statement released via e-mail, "Hey we wanted to thank Duff for helping us write songs for our new record. We love the songs we worked on with him -- and the gigs were a blast -- but musically we were all headed in different directions. From here Duff is off to work on his own stuff so we wish him all the best."

It is understood that McKagan will now concentrate on his band, Duff McKagan's Loaded, who recently finished working on their new album with Soundgarden and Pantera producer Terry Date.

Loaded are in the process of finding a new home after parting ways with Century Media Records who released the band's debut album, 2009's 'Sick.'

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