DUFF MCKAGAN On Starting Over

December 31, 2009

VELVET REVOLVER/ex-GUNS N' ROSES bassist Duff McKagan has penned the latest installment of his weekly column, which appears every Thursday on Reverb at SeattleWeekly.com. An excerpt follows below.

"My band, GUNS N' ROSES, was in shambles, and suddenly the dynamic had changed. Not too long after I got out of the hospital, Axl [Rose] came up to Seattle to visit me. The challenge was how we were going to make a new record and what direction we were going to go musically. We couldn't very well do anything at the time because Slash was out doing a SNAKEPIT tour and battling his own addiction. In previous years, there had seemed to be a fail-proof alliance and understanding within our band; we knew that at the end of the day we only had each other to rely on. Now I was doing sober things with Axl, like riding mountain bikes and eating healthy food and talking on the phone about a productive musical direction. That sense of family and trust had recently been tainted by management dealings and other wedges that did everything possible to vanquish our bonds.

"Looking back now, it is all so fucking clear. But then and there in the moment, I couldn't wrap my head around the fact that outside forces could be so selfish and money-grubbing. These were the hard lessons I would finally learn to live with, although never by."

Read McKagan's entire column at SeattleWeekly.com.

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