36-43 Duff feature 3/16/04 2:10 PM Page 36 36-43 Duff feature 3/16/04 2:14 PM Page 37 Bulletproof In less than a decade, DUFF McKAGAN shot from strung-out GUNS N’ ROSES megastar to sober bass-groovin’ dude for VELVET REVOLVER. Bass Guitar’s E.E. Bradman gets the rock-solid bass man in his sight. BG 37 36-43 Duff feature 3/16/04 4:25 PM Page 38 36-43 Duff feature 3/16/04 5:22 PM Page 39 “Every good rock band has to . You need that something that moves people.” uff McKagan knows covers-only Spaghetti Incident and the so-so Live Era didn’t measure up to the band’s HAIR FORCE ONE: about missed opportuni- Duff, with Rose and Slash, debut, and by 1992 Izzy and Adler had been in his GN’R daze ties. He was, after all, the replaced by Gilby Clarke and Matt Sorum. In founding bassist of the 1993, McKagan released his first solo album, legendary Guns N’ Roses, Believe in Me. Guns eventually crumbled, leaving an uncompleted (and still unreleased) whose rock-star excesses, album, tentatively titled Chinese Democracy, volatile live shows and incendiary in the balance. albums made them the biggest band in McKagan’s second effort, Beautiful D Disease, was lost to record company politics, the world before they spluttered to a but he stayed busy producing Betty Blow- messy close a decade later. But McKa- torch, playing several instruments with gan—who after a drug-and-alcohol- Screaming Trees vocalist Mark Lanegan, and related pancreas explosion 10 years ago handling guitar and bass duties for Iggy Pop, was told by doctors that his next drink Ten Minute Warning, Loaded, the Neurotic Outsiders (with John Taylor of Duran Duran would kill him—also knows a thing or and Steve Jones of the Sex Pistols) and the two about second chances. Rackateers (also known as Mad for the Rack- et). Duff officially left GN’R in 1997, but when he reunited with Slash and Matt for a 2002 tribute concert for Ozzy/Mötley Crüe drum- mer Randy Castillo, the chemistry was still ing when to play and when not to play,” he lyrics on later. Scott is more involved, and he there. “If we had started a band right when says. “When you find little holes to do some- found brilliant parts for vocals in places we we left Axl, it would’ve been cheesy, and the thing, attack it, get the fuck out and get back couldn’t have imagined. So I’m underplaying, timing wouldn’t have been right,” Duff says. in the groove.” letting him do his thing. “Now it’s time.” BASS GUITAR Did you make a conscious BG Do you and Matt work out your parts Velvet Revolver’s debut is packed with decision to play less on this album? away from the rest of the band? It’s somehow fitting, then, that on this sunny L.A. after- Duff’s songwriting and bass contributions, from DUFF McKAGAN Definitely. Matt and I McKAGAN Yeah, especially his fills. noon, McKagan is betting on Scott Weiland. The onetime the nasty, distorted riff on “Big Machine” to the worked hard to create much more of a They’re grandiose, they’re ugly, they’re singer for Stone Temple Pilots, Weiland cultivated a drug chaotic “Dirty Little Thing,” where he holds groove, and I played deeper in the pocket fucked up, and I can’t just sit there and do addiction that outlasted his group. But McKagan is wager- steady as a rock while sheer madness swirls than I’ve ever played. Our job was to create eighth notes while he’s playing ’em! ing that Weiland will do better by his new band mates in around him. His grinding pick tone on “Set Me the foundation, so we said, “Okay, let’s make BG Do you follow his bass drum closely? Velvet Revolver—Duff, guitarist Dave Kushner, former Free” and his sensitive work on “Loving the the best fuckin’ foundation we can.” McKAGAN I look at his kick pedal, but that Guns drummer Matt Sorum, and Guns cofounder Slash. Alien” make you wish the guitars sat out a little BG Compare your role in Velvet Revolver doesn’t mean I’m going to play exactly what Listening to early mixes of their first album, Contraband more often, and on the victorious arena rocker to your role in Guns N’ Roses. he’s playing on the kick. I like to know what (RCA), due May 18, it’s impossible not to feel the band’s “Fall to Pieces,” Duff, true to character, rises McKAGAN In Guns, it was easier to play he’s doing so I can decide what to play. If I thunder, precision and chemistry, and how Weiland swag- from the mix at just the right time. fills and runs because of the way Axl sang. We have to lock in with his kick, I will, but that gers over and through the music. Slash sounds strong, “I think the secret to bass playing is know- wrote the music without him and he put his can get boring. I use it more as a click, to ready to take on all comers, and coguitarist Kushner adds fresh textures to a trio that has logged millions of miles together. Sorum is thunderous, evoking the giants while Same As It Ever Was Duff’s Gear Gunnery laying down his own solid beats. And Duff, as always, seals When Guns N’ Ros- production in the 2001RB amps with a rackmounted the bottom line with bluesy, in-the-pocket bass. es received their early Nineties, the G-K RBH 4x10 cabs. Yamaha SPX90 mul- While a teenager, McKagan played guitar and drums first advance from Fender Custom In the studio, Duff ti-effects. His only in punk bands around his Seattle hometown, but it wasn’t Geffen Records in Shop built McKagan goes direct but other effect is an until he moved to L.A., in the early Eighties, that he 1986, Duff McKagan several copies, each sometimes mikes MXR M-80 D.I.+, picked up the bass. One of his first projects was Road took his share and with Dunlop straps his 4x10 cabinets, a which provides Crew, a group that featured Slash and drummer Steven purchased a Fender and strap locks. G-K 15-inch and a powerful gain and Adler, but he quit the band and quickly joined another Jazz Bass Special. “I Duff’s combina- Marshall 12-inch for distortion tones. with frontman Axl Rose and guitarist Izzy Stradlin. When liked how it sound- tion of Rotosound extra crunch. He Onstage, Duff uses Axl and Izzy’s band mates backed out of a tour Duff had ed through my Gal- RS66 Swing Bass has also recorded a Bradshaw Custom put together, he brought in Slash and Adler, and GN’R’s lien-Krueger,” he strings and Dunlop some tracks with a Audio Switcher and most famous lineup was born. says. “It was kinda Tortex .73mm picks G-K head and an a Samson UHF Less than two years later, the multi-Platinum success funky, but it still lets him cut through Acoustic 2x15. Synth 32 wireless. worked with rock the mix at will. As Duff stomped His tech, Mike of their debut, Appetite for Destruction, had set a new stan- and roll.” He’s been for amps, he’s been through a few “McBob” Mayhue, dard for gritty, Hollywood-style hard rock, and the band’s using Specials ever a Gallien-Krueger Ibanez and Boss keeps everything extravagant partying became the stuff of legend. The con- since. After the man from day one chorus pedals ready to rock. troversial Lies, the sprawling Use Your Illusion project, the PREVIOUS SPREAD:OPPOSITE JOHN PAGE: SHEARER/WIRE LARRY BUSACCA/RETNA IMAGE;THIS (GUNS PAGE: N’ STEPHEN ROSES); STICKLER; ANNAMARIA DISANTO (GEAR) model went out of and uses G-K before switching to —E.E.B. 38 BASS GUITAR 36-43 Duff feature 3/17/04 12:07 PM Page 40 know where I am and where the beat is. was all about the groove. I’d have to lead the BG What was it like playing with Steven way with the bass, almost being percussive. Adler in the early days of Guns N’ Roses? But he became a unique and one-of-a-kind McKAGAN We really had to make a drum- drummer by the time we did Appetite. mer out of him. We took all his drums away— BG How did those R&B influences find he had a double-bass drum and all these their way into GN’R? fuckin’ toms—and he ended up with a kick, a McKAGAN Every good rock band has to snare, a floor tom, crash and ride cymbals groove; you need that something that moves and his hi-hats: a Ramones-style kit. The people. I mean, listen to Zeppelin; the groove band would rehearse, then Steve and I would is so fuckin’ deep you can sleep in it. There get together—just bass and drums—every are a lot of bands out there that have no day and work on grooves. groove—you can tell they’ve never listened to BG What did you practice? Sly, the Funk Brothers or Prince. McKAGAN We’d put on songs like Cameo’s BG When did you realize the importance “Word Up,” and we’d play over it, and then of the groove? we’d play it on our own, just trying to get a McKAGAN Early on.