I'm colour blind, a little hue-challenged.
Duff McKagan
Being a rocker, to me, is equal to living as much of the truth as possible.
Is the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame that important to me? No. Is it something I've aspired towards? No.
Personally, I had made a good amount of dough for a 30-year-old guy, but I didn't know a thing about money. I'm not a dumb guy, but I couldn't figure them out.
Whenever Boston comes on, I play air guitar.
One of my first memories is marching with my mom. I was in kindergarten with with the Catholic ladies when Martin Luther King Jr. got shot. We wore the black armbands and marched downtown.
I went to Seattle U. Nice Jesuit school there.
I don't have resentments towards anyone I played with or to the guy who bullied me in the sixth grade. I've worked through it.
Going to talk to my little girl's teacher is a far cry from what people probably think I spend my time doing.
I made money in my 20s, became sober in my 30s, looked around, and didn't know who I could trust for money advice.
I'm a book nerd, and I've seen authors that I love, I've gone and seen them speak or read from a book.
I saw the Clash in '79 at the Paramount in Seattle, and it changed my whole life.
I never had a personal beef with Axl, truth be told.
I had a column for the 'Seattle Weekly' for five years, and there was one column that was called 'How To Be A Man,' and it was kind of tongue in cheek; it was really tongue in cheek. And I got a book deal from that column.
I saw some really amazing stuff with Axl. We worked really well together. We were good friends. And I hope to perhaps have that friendship back one day, although it's not something I wait around for.
I'm not Cormac McCarthy, but I can get my point across in a thousand words.
When you're in a band, a marriage - whatever, it's kind of the same deal - there's a lot of things that you see, and people trust you with information about their lives. Call it a 'bro code' or whatever you wanna call it, but there are certain things you do not tell. At least, I don't.
Turn off the TV, turn off the Internet, just go out, and I bet you your life will get better really quick.
People in Seattle - and I'm speaking from experience - are indoors more. It used to just rain a ton, and as a result, you'd be inside listening to music all the time and playing. You'd all rehearse at each other's houses and share ideas. There was no competition. When I got to L.A., I was really stunned by the competition.
It's funny: when I started playing bass in 1984, you had guys like Paul Simonon fron the Clash, John Paul Jones, Lemmy, and Nikki Sixx was the head guy in Motley Crue, and you had all this post-punk stuff like Magazine and Killing Joke where the bass sort of lead the way. Not that I picked it to sort of be a main dude, but it intrigued me.
Our family is mixed. My oldest sister married a black man in 1962, which was way out there then.
I didn't have any work to do, and I had files of my personal and Guns N' Roses financial statements for the previous eight years. I wanted to learn how to read these, but I didn't trust anybody. I just got a lightbulb in my head and said, 'I want to go to school.' That began my journey, taking accountancy and business classes at Seattle.
Everybody in Seattle thought I was the chosen one, musically wise. You know, if anyone was going to make it, it was going to be that guy.
'Mr. Brownstone' is always a fun song to play because it's got that beat, and you see people bouncing.
Attending Seattle Central was an awesome experience - it taught me a lot about discipline in a great way.
'The Joshua Tree' was the soundtrack of my life when we were making 'Appetite.'
I went to business school in my thirties.
Music was going to be my thing. Was I going to make a living at it? That was kind of a joke. It was just my passion, and if I was broke doing my passion, so be it.
When you know you have a good song, when you're onstage, even if it's just a weird, basic energy, you know your song is good.
We wrote the songs we wrote - we took from our own experiences, melded it together, and wrote what became 'Appetite For Destruction.'
Any musician in any band - for a really good band - you know your part in the band.
I read Slash's book because we were on the road together with Velvet Revolver when that came out.
Rock n' roll is a volatile thing; at least, it's supposed to be.
Left to my own devices, I tend to go darker and weirder, and it's fun.
Sometimes, when you get into a record, it's like writing a book, and you get so far inside the story you can't tell anymore if it's gonna be good to an outside listener.
When I started going to business school, I started getting calls from my peers asking for my help. I thought, 'Well, there are a lot of people like me who make a bunch of money and just get so scared of it and don't know what to do with it.' I just didn't want to be 60 years old and broke.
One of the first 45s I ever bought was the Stooges' 'I Got a Right.' Probably one of my favorite singles, ever.
I think after 9/11, here in America, I saw something extraordinary. I saw neighbors looking after neighbors. I don't think anybody asked who anybody voted for. It was people taking care of other people.
Not to name names, but a lot of pop female artists you see, they don't write their own songs. Lot of top male artists and boy band artists, they don't write their own songs. They're just a product. They sell, they sell, they sell. They don't care about musical integrity, any of that kind of stuff.
By the time Guns n' Roses spent 28 months from 1991 to 1993 touring the 'Use Your Illusion' albums, the tour staff sometimes approached 100 people. We were carrying not only backup girl singers, a horn section, and an extra keyboard player, but also chiropractors, masseuses, a singing coach, and a tattoo artist.
Being from a big band is great because you can do other bands.
Being in a band is the best place I can think of to be as up-front as possible. If you let something stew, it'll grow into a mountain of nonsensical black mud in no time.
I've had a panic disorder since I was sixteen, and they always said that's a subset of depression. And I'm like, 'I don't have depression.'
The thing is that business and success, and how hard it is, doesn't look any different whether you're playing a gig at eleven o'clock at night or you're going to work at nine in the morning at a law firm.
That connectivity with the audience that I get to enjoy, that's my church. It's not one of ego or anything like, 'I'm on the stage and the lights.' It's just this connectivity, and it's always been that way for me.
My twenties were tumultuous at best... I think.
Lemmy Kilmeister is most certainly a rocker.
I have always been a huge sports fan, but more of the pedestrian and 'homer' sort.
You know what's a great song that will be stuck in your head if I say it? 'Single Ladies,' by Beyonce. Killer song.
I do love the term 'rocker.' The word itself imbues a ton of imagery and romance. But I don't think a rocker needs to have AC/DC and Metallica and the Black Keys rumbling through their car speakers speeding headlong into the night.
