Duff McKagan:
the story
'Duff', or Michael McKagan, was born on February 5, 1964,in Seattle. He was the youngest of eight children in a barber's family, that was always around music. By the time Duff was in eight grade, his elder brother Bruce gave him some lessons of bass playing. His idol then was (and still is) Sex Pistols' bassist, late hero Sid Vicious. Duff, though, wasn't gonna be a bassist then, he played drums and guitar as well, playing with no less than 30 bands during his teenage years. He even got as far as almost joining UK punk band 'The Angelic Upstairs' as a drummer when they passed  through Seattle one summer.
Among the bands Duff played with during the late 70's and early 80's were Mr. Michael Duff 'Rose' McKaganthe names like "The Fartz", and "Ten Minute Warning", with whom Duff recorded semi-pro demos. But Duff still felt that couldn't get something really big with those bands and Seattle. Duff: "...no-one got signed from Seattle, it was kind of a dead-end town. You had to move to New York or either Los Angeles...". Of course, it was years and years before the underground scene finally made a breakthrough, known as Seattle revolution, when names like Nirvana, Soundgarden, Alice In Chains and Pearl Jam forced the world of show-business to put Seattle on the map.   But back in 1984 it was still a 'dead-end town', and young Duff decided to leave it. L.A. was near, plus he had a brother - Matthew McKagan, a horn player, known as member of "Suicide Horns", who lived there - and in the age of 20 Duff McKagan bought a new bass and a small bass amp and moved to the City Of Angels. Why bass? Duff decided to concentrate on the bass because "bass players are pretty rare to find".
So he arrived, and immediately started looking for a band to play. He saw this advertisement in local music paper, that, as Duff thought, belonged to some punk person - it was signed by the name Slash. Duff called the Slash and Duffnumber, and was quite surprised hearing about Slash's influences, bands, like Aerosmith, Alice Cooper, AC/DC, The Stones, Motorhead, as well as Duff's idols, Sex Pistols. He met both Slash and his buddy - young drummer Steven Adler - in Kosher Canyon.  They agreed to give Duff a trial for their band, Road Crew. The threesome got together and started rehearsing, but soon they saw that it's not gonna go. They needed a frontman, more frequent rehearsals, and much better material if they were "gonna do something other than dissapear up their own amps", as Duff said later.
So Duff quickly understood it wasn't what he came to L.A. for, and started looking for more active gig. And - thanks God - he came across young band, newly formed Guns N' Roses. They were crying out for a bassist, and Duff arrived in time. Soon after this, guitarist and drummer -Tracii Guns and Rob Gardner - both left the band, and Duff, who had already booked small West Coast tour for the group, suggested to Izzy Stradlin and Axl Rose that they contact Slash and Steve from his previous expirience, Road Crew, and they agreed. From this point, official history of the awesome band Guns N' Roses start, and, since this page concentrates on individual Duff's story, you can read everyting about what happened then here.
Duff - Believe In MeIn 1993 Duff McKagan, as you know, officially started his solo-career, without leaving the G.N'R. He released the solo-album called "Believe In Me", that featured 13 tracks, written by Duff / friends, and no covers. He went on his own tour, supporting the album, that was not a jewel release from a commercial point, but Duff was very happy and enthusiastic about it.
Then in summer of 1994 came rumours that Duff was fired from the Guns and replaced by Lords Of New Church bassist Dave Tregunna, but it was just bullshit. And in 1995 was released latest Guns N' Roses' single "Sympathy For The Devil", that featured Duff, as well as new rhythm guitarist Paul Huge, Gilby Clarke's replacement.
Sad, but true: Duff left Guns N' Roses in 1996, when he officially joined his new project, "Neurotic Outsiders", that featured ex-Guns' drummer Matt Sorum, ex-Duran Duran bassist John Taylor (Duff played the guitar), and Steve Jones, ex-Sex Pistols' member. They released self-titled album in 1996, and in 1997 this project seemed over.
And from the last news of Duff we know, that he was gonna release his second solo album in 1998, but then some problems started between Duff and Geffen Records. Album's release was postponed till february 1999, but it wasn't released then, as well. And finally, came news that Duff lost the rights to his album, and it will never be released. Damned... Album's was titled "Beautiful Disease", and here you can see the cover of this album. From the latest Duff 's news, he formed some live band called "Loaded", and plans to release a live album with this band that will duplicate the ..Disease's songs. For more detailed story, contact this official Web Site Of Duff McKagan.
For those who interested, Duff also played on much of the tracks of his old bandmate's 1998 album, Izzy Stradlin's 117.
This Duff McKagan's story will update every time there will be some news about Duff, so you can bookmark it and visit me frequently. Thanks!


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This site was created by Ronnie "Stradlin" Slogun, @1999. If you wanna use something from this page, contact me at: Ronnie_Stradlin@yahoo.com. Thank you!
 
 

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