2020.03.27 - Unknown Source/Ultimate Guitar - Duff McKagan Names Song He Wants to Pass on to His Daughters, Recalls Opening Up to Them About Drugs

Guns N' Roses' Duff McKagan Names Song He Wants to Pass on to His Daughters, Recalls Opening Up to Them About Drugs

During a recent radio interview, Guns N' Roses bassist Duff McKagan was asked to single out the song he wants to pass on to his children.

The musician opted for "Little Doll" by The Stooges, originally released on the band's 1969 self-titled album. Duff commented (transcribed by UG):

"The track that I want to pass on - and I think I have passed on - to my daughters Grace and Mae who are now 18 and 21, is 'Little Doll' by Iggy and The Stooges. They both came upon The Stooges kind of on their own at about 15. The Stooges and Iggy changed my whole perspective about how rock 'n' roll should be done, and that my daughters each independently came into The Stooges made this dad's heart sing. 'Little doll I can't forget; Smoking on a cigarette,' just so cool... 'In my life a real queen; Prettiest thing I've ever seen'... it's amazing. Just the groove of that song and the idea of those girls dancing to that song, and really finding joy out of the anarchy of The Stooges and the freeness of that music and Iggy himself I think would make the quality of their life better.

"One of my daughters, she has a band, and she's the lead singer. And they're radical, and they've got their own thing going. She doesn't want my help. I've been that goofy dad, like, 'Hey, I got a riff!' 'Dad, that's cute, maybe you can use it for your band.' The other one is in fashion design, but they come out to shows, they come out on tour with me, and that's dad and his old friends doing their thing, and they appreciate it. They know what we do. It's, like, we're honest about it, we're not out there phoning it, and I think they appreciate that. Guns, we wear our hearts on our sleeve when we play, we live it all out on the stage, so seeing that as probably a work ethic thing rubs off on them. We'll play huge places, it's the most uncanny thing. There will be so many people out there, but if one of my daughters is out in the crowd, it's like there's a light shining on, I spot them. And they're like, 'Dad, how did you see me?' 'I don't know.'

"Have I advised my girls on the perils? Yes, I have, and it was a real talk I had to have with each of them probably younger than most parents might have had a talk because my journey, a lot of it is on YouTube... So before they ran across stuff they would have questions about, I told them my story. I said, 'I don't live in a fairytale world. If I tell you guys, 'Just don't do drugs,' I know that's me just putting my face in a corner and ignoring real life. You're gonna try some stuff, it's gonna happen. You may or may not enjoy one particular thing, but you have half of my DNA in you, and when I thought I was enjoying something, I found myself really quickly trying to chase that first enjoyment, and it got me all the way into the hospital at 30.'

"I still enjoy 'Little Doll' to this day, it makes me feel like I'm 16 years old, so I hope they take that same thing with them forever."

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