Duff McKagan on His Return to the Road: Interview, Photos

Guns N’ Roses bassist Duff McKagan has played stages both big and small all over the world for decades. So it’s a surprise to hear him say that he still gets nervous as he’s getting ready to go on, even if it’s a giant stadium with GNR.

“You just feel honored,” he tells UCR. “I end up coming out on stage and first of all, it’s like, ‘Is anybody going to show up when I come out around my amps? Is there going to be people here? Wow, there’s people here. Amazing.’ Doing these smaller shows, it’s like that on steroids, because you can see everybody.”

McKagan began the latest leg of his ongoing Lighthouse tour this week in Boston, followed by a show in New York City. You can see photos from New York below. His next concert happens tonight in Chicago (Nov. 8).

He checked in with Ultimate Classic Rock Nights host Matt Wardlaw on Halloween as he was getting set to leave for tour. In the below discussion, he shares stories about what he’s learned about touring and what he continues to find out each night. McKagan also discussed the three new songs he recently released, including his cover of “Heroes” by David Bowie, a live version which features his longtime comrade Steve Jones of the Sex Pistols.

The touring you’ve been doing for the Lighthouse album and beyond, it just seems like it’s been so much fun. I love that you got the chance to share the stage with Steve Jones again. Obviously, there’s a lot of history there with you two.
He remains a hero, although he’s a close family friend now. He’s like an uncle to my daughters and he’s my buddy. But he’s also Steve Jones. I learned to play guitar listening to Steve Jones. When we started Neurotic Insiders with me playing guitar with him, I was like, “Oh, he’s going to find out that every riff I know is his.” But he was super cool about it, like, “All right, mate.” Having him play “Heroes” with us in London, that whole tour, the first leg, the European run, was really magical. I have a really good band, like the murderer’s row of players from Seattle and I got them.

They were all available for this tour. It worked out, the crowd and the amount of people that showed up to the shows, if it wasn’t sold out, it was super close. All of the rooms were packed. To put out a record 10 months prior and then go tour, you’re like, “I don’t know if anybody will come, or if they’re into it.” You know, you just don’t know. It turns out, it may be a good idea to wait that long, because people were invested in the songs. They knew the lyrics and they were emotional about some of the songs. It worked out amazing.

Watch Duff McKagan Perform David Bowie’s ‘Heroes’ With Steve Jones

I like that you still have that feeling where you don’t know if anybody’s going to come. I think it shows that you’re still invested and you’re not lost in your own shit.
No, no. I think that with Guns shows, I’m still [nervous]. The other thing that I think about that kind of dawned on me, about 10 years ago or so, was that I’ve talked to enough people and traveled enough and I observe culture. You realize in your life, everybody’s got some story. Everybody’s got some deep thing — they might have saved somebody’s life the day before. Everybody’s got some fascinating part of their story. Everyone. So when you go out and play to people, realizing all of this, it’s like, all of these people that have stories, they came to our show. They took the time, bought the tickets and did all of that stuff. But with Guns, I look out and it’s a lot of energy.

That’s a lot of stories and a lot of people. You just feel honored. I end up coming out on stage and first of all, it’s like, “Is anybody going to show up when I come out around my amps? Is there going to be people here? Wow, there’s people here. Amazing.” Doing these smaller shows, it’s like that on steroids, because you can see everybody. Some people are singing the songs and crying, like, I wonder what that means to them? It obviously relates to something in their life. So these are the things I’m thinking about. It becomes this huge honor and you realize that we all have our own stories. There’s no difference between us. I’m up on the stage and you’re out there in the audience, we’re all in this thing together. There’s nothing separating us here and now.

I talk to a lot of artists and it’s like, “the show is the show,” But it’s obvious that you feel otherwise.
Absolutely and any size venue, you know? I take a lot away, and it’s a lot of energy and I plug into it. I do it on purpose — I plug into the energy, I think, of anybody I play with. You know, the musicians I choose to play with. Guns N’ Roses, Iggy Pop, Jerry Cantrell, Ozzy Osbourne, they’re all those people that plug into the audience and don’t just phone it in. I wouldn’t play with somebody that just phones it in, if that’s even a thing. But you have to have that connection. You’re doing the truth, you know? The songs are all pieces of truth and you’ve got to be plugged in.

Watch Duff McKagan Interview Lee Ving of Fear

I liked watching your conversation with Lee Ving. I don’t think that teenage Duff would have sat there going, somewhere in all of this, Lee Ving is a country guy. What’s the most interesting thing you took away from that conversation?
I’ve gotten to know Lee over the years and that’s cool, man. My life is cool. I’ve gotten to meet and get to know some of my heroes. Henry Rollins, Iggy Pop, Lee Ving, Joey Shithead, Steve Jones, Paul Cook, it goes down the line. The thing I take away, with Lee, for what you see? Like, he scared the crap out of me in 1980. He scared the crap out of all of us. And he’s the real thing — and like, he will kick your ass, as well. So he’s still that to me. He’s that real presence of Fear. But the flip side of that coin is that he’s the nicest gentleman. He’s one of the nicest guys I’ve ever met. Very sweet.

Slash and I did that cover of “Nice Boys.” We went down to Orange County and played in the studio and he was just like this really wonderful host. “Oh, guys, can I get you anything?” No, Lee, you just be Lee Ving! I went and saw FEAR in Orange County, right around that time. I’m taking to him backstage and he’s like, “How’s the wife and the girls?” “They’re great, Lee.” Then, he comes out on the stage with FEAR and I back up three steps, because there he is! There’s Lee Ving. I’m looking forward to doing these shows with him. We’re going to hopefully share a song together. I did these two punk songs and Lee co-sings one of them and Joey Shithead does the other, so hopefully he will get up on stage and do that song with me.

We talked about Steve Jones earlier and he guests on your version of “Heroes.” How daunting was it for you to tackle that song?
I just did it, you know? I didn’t let it daunt me. I was recording a bunch of songs at that point. I had a song with a working title called “Heroes” — and I have it and it’s not going to be the title of the song. My producer, Martin [Feveyear], suggested, “Hey, you really should try covering ‘Heroes.'” Jamie [Douglass], my drummer, was there and we were tracking songs. I learned the song really quick and thought, “Okay, the vocal is in my vocal range. It’s kind of like the music I recorded for Lighthouse and Tenderness, three chords.” There’s a great historical story [within the song] of the Berlin Wall and the star-crossed lovers and how she had to go back to East Germany and he had to go back to London.

Bowie’s observing this whole thing and the lyrics, “And the guns shot over our heads,” like, I love that stuff. I’m a history freak, you know. So I bought into the lyrics and bought into the song….I mean, everybody buys into that song, how can you not? I started to add guitars, sang it and put the bass on it and thought, “This came out alright.” I decided to put it out. So it wasn’t daunting. It just happened and it was natural and we put out the studio version before we went to Europe. We play it live and people dig it and the live version with Steve Jones in London [just came out].

I’ll wrap with this. You talked about how you’ve done a lot of cool stuff. So this tour with Lee and Joey, that’s another one off the bucket list…
…and my daughter is opening for me. She finally agreed to open for me. She stays away from the nepotism thing. I said, “Would you consider doing a show with me on the Lighthouse tour? She loves the message of Lighthouse, so I get Lee Ving, Joey Shithead and in the middle of it, I get my daughter opening the show. So all of this stuff is bucket list stuff for me, if there’s a bucket list. You know, I mean, I’m not there yet.

Listen to Duff McKagan’s ‘My Name is Bob’ With Joey Shithead of D.O.A.