Board footer

jamester

 Rep: 84 

Re: DUFF MCKAGAN Says He 'Hates' Reality-TV Shows

jamester wrote:

http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbe … nt=Twitter
http://thecelebritycafe.com/feature/int … 03-28-2011

Interview with Loaded's Duff McKagan and Mike Squires
3/29/2011
Michelle Vaccaro

Duff McKagan is a founding member of two of some of rock’s greatest bands, Guns N’ Roses and Velvet Revolver. His solo project, Loaded, is releasing their third studio album, The Taking, on April 19. Duff and his Loaded band mate Mike Squires sat down with TheCelebrityCafe.com’s Michelle Vaccaro and discussed their new album and movie. McKagan also candidly spoke about reconnecting with GnR’s Axl Rose, the search for a new Velvet Revolver frontman and his wife’s reality show, Married to Rock.

TheCelebrityCafe: You have been a part of quite a few iconic rock bands. What did you learn from your time with Guns N' Roses and Velvet Revolver?

Duff McKagan: I’ve learned many things. I don’t know if I’ve been asked that question oddly enough…what have I learned…

Mike Squires: Maybe name one thing that you learned not to do.

Duff McKagan: Oh yeah, I’ve learned … not to do drugs on the road … or like ever. It’s not good. It’s not sexy … not good for your relationships with other people, not good for playing music. It’s not good probably for your liver and all that kind of stuff. There’s a lot of not goods about it and I found out twice. I did. So that’s probably key.

TCC: How do you think the industry has changed over the years?

Duff McKagan: When I started, I used to make records and it was analog. In 1989, when digital music … CDs started coming out, people still didn’t have home computers so nobody kind of got it. By 1993, more and more people had home computers and you could see music being traded. The big mistake the industry made was in about 1997 when Napster dude Sean what’s-his-name went to the record company and said, “Look, I’m getting all this revenue for ads, hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars worth of revenue on Napster’s site. We can do this. We won’t have to fight. This is the way of the future. So you might as well just go in as partners on the website. You can pay your artists from the revenues of the ads and that's way we’ll go.” And the record company said, “F*ck you, we’re going to sue you.” That’s why the major labels now are in so much trouble. They didn’t think ahead. So that’s a big change. Am I kind of sore about it? No. Luckily, I was part of a record that still sells a ton. People want that piece of whatever it is. They want to look at it.

With Loaded, we’re just like a smart street band. We’re in the front lines of the thing.Bands just don’t sell music anymore, so we sell CDs. I’m in a band, we sell CDs at gigs. We actually physically go out there. When we sell a thousand, it’s just like f*ck yeah. We put out this EP a couple falls ago--three, four--I don’t know when it was…the Wasted Heart EP?

Mike Squires: Two and a half years ago.

Duff McKagan: It was just on vinyl and it was just like 75 hundred copies and it sold out. And we were like, “F*ck yeah!”

Mike Squires: Victory.

Duff McKagan: Victory. Huge! It sold out in ten days or something. It was amazing for us. So it’s kind of the small things now that sort of make me happy. Bands just have to be smart and license music out. You know, it’s okay nowadays to have your music on commercials. Whereas ten years ago Iggy made that change with that cruise line thing “Lust for Life.” All of a sudden, Iggy did it so it’s okay now.

TCC: You had been separated from GNR for 17 years. What made you decide to join Axl at his London concert last year?

Duff McKagan: Oh, I probably said enough about that. It was just a chance meeting. We happened to be at the same hotel in London. I was there on some other business. I hadn’t seen him for some time. It wasn’t 17 years, but it was a lifetime ago. It really was.

TCC: What did it feel like getting back on stage with him?

Duff McKagan: It wasn’t about the stage. I actually kind of wish we hadn’t done that part because now we’re talking about it. You know what was a lot more fulfilling to me was he and I reconnected.

TCC: Velvet Revolver is currently looking for a new lead singer. Are you guys looking for someone with an already established resume like Scott Weiland or more of a newcomer?

Duff McKagan: I have no idea. I really--I’m being honest with you. Slash is on tour. We’re about to start touring. So right now, we’re not doing anything. There’s no rush. I guess we’ll get to that when we get to that.

TCC: What do you think makes a successful band?

Duff McKagan: You got to write good music. It’s about the music first. It’s about the chemistry of the guys. It’s about "is this something you want to do or need to do?" Is this something you need to do because you gotta get something out of your system or else you’re going f*cking kill somebody or break some sh*t? Those kind of things make the best bands. Mike and I have a little bit of tension on stage, and in life sometimes, but we know about it and sometimes we use it to our advantage. Every good band has to have a little bit of…there’s got to be a rub.

TCC: You take on vocals with Loaded. What else would you say differentiates Loaded from your other music?

Duff McKagan: Other than that? Well, that’s a big other than that. I don’t play bass in Loaded. It’s not a lot different than anything else I do. It’s still a band. I’ve been lucky. I’ve been in bands with good chemistry. I’ve done other things kind of here and there, and just for fun and I could tell that the chemistry was different. Mike and I…somebody introduced us in like 2001 or something and then Jeff Rouse the same year-ish. I’ve just been really lucky. Mike and Jeff had been playing together so there was this chemistry there. And then with this drummer Isaac, he’s a monster. We needed a good drummer. That was the first guy we thought of. We were really surprised when he said, ‘Yes, I’ll play in your band.’ I don’t know if you know about Isaac or his past band: Loudermilk…underground sensation, the band that all bands would go see and they went to go see them lots of times because of the drummer. So, yeah, I don’t know what differentiates Loaded from other things. I don’t. I just love this band. I don’t think about Velvet Revolver. I don’t know what the f*ck is going on with Velvet Revolver. Everyone’s on tour and doing sh*t, you know? It’s not kind of right here for me at all. It’s over there somewhere.

TCC: How would you describe The Taking?

Duff McKagan: Mike, you describe our record please because I want to learn.

Mike Squires: I would say it’s a little bit darker than anything. There’s always a little bit of darkness in Loaded’s music, but it’s a little more aggressive. I think there were a lot of tensions in the writing of this record and I think that comes out in the music and the words.

Duff McKagan: The music and words?

Mike Squires: That’s describing the record. The record consists of music and words.

Duff McKagan: You know something that really kind of happened on this record… This is the closest to maybe a concept record that I have ever been a part of in that we, as a band, witnessed something together while we were on tour: a falling apart of a long term relationship between a man and a woman. They were both very close with us. One of the guys was on tour with us the whole time and we couldn’t take sides. We couldn’t do it. We just watched it. It was really sad and hardcore. Maybe the first song with lyrics was a song that Mike brought in, it was called “Easier Lying.” And then the second song with lyrics was another song “She’s an Anchor.” And these were like, “Oh, we’re going there.”

My life, I have girls. Things in my house are pink and fluffy and f*cking OMG. They’re 13 and 10. My wife is fancy, you know? And we have dogs so my house is not a dark place, but I know I have to get all that sh*t out because there’s a thing that made me drink and do drugs and f*cking jump off building and sh*t and I have to get that out. I have to go to the gym every morning because I have to get that out. The lyrics got to mean something to me. I went to Nashville and tried to write with guys down there...like I’m going to be a song writer and try this out, but you’re writing about f*cking bass fishing, you know? I can’t--I don’t know how to do that really--but I can write about a situation. We’ve all been through sh*t. So this record is sort of about a falling apart. The stage of a relationship falling apart and anger and sort of a little bit of redemption and then at the end victory and everything’s going to be all right. We’re making a movie for it which is hopefully as funny as we think it’s going to be.

TCC: What is the movie about? Is it just about the album? Concert footage?

Duff McKagan: It’s about our drummer getting kidnapped.

TCC: So it’s not a reality type thing. It’s scripted?

Duff McKagan: Yeah. It takes place in one day, it may be a dream.

Mike Squires: We “act.”

Duff McKagan: We kind of act… It’s kind of a Hard Days Night/Inception…is it a dream?

TCC: When does it come out?

Mike Squires: When do we finish making it?

TCC: Oh, you’re still making it?

Duff McKagan: Yeah…So Seattle Film Festival would like to debut the film and that is in June…And then we’ll probably have it like a re-release of The Taking. That’s why the record is called The Taking because our drummer is taken…but The Taking can also apply to the subject matter of the record because it’s kind of like soul or heart taking…

TCC: Your song “We Win” has been played at a lot of sporting events. Did you guys intend for it to be a sports anthem?

Duff McKagan: Kind of. I would say kind of… Yeah, and I’ve never written for something but Major League Soccer last year was asking about. They wanted a theme song for the whole league. Well, it turned out they wanted a hip hop song. So we had this song “We Win.” Somehow I think [Eagle Rock Entertainment] got it to the Seahawks and they started playing it before the game. The local sport guy in Seattle was pimpin’ us. He loves our band. He was like “Seahawks…local teams should play local bands. They used to do that all the time. Like the Sonics game used to have Soundgarden and Alice and Chains and that’s it...Pearl Jam and Nirvana. Now they just play all the same thing…” So Seahawks started playing it and then Major League Baseball. We got this email, well, they want to use it. “But the season is just about over. You mean for next year? That’s kind of early?” “No, for the World Series.” So FOX used it which was great and our record is not even out.

TCC: The proceeds from “We Win” and “Fight On” go to the VA Pugent Patient Fund. Why did you choose that?

Mike Squires: Because they need it. The “Fight On” song has an underlying theme that relates to them and they need the help.

Duff McKagan: Mike was a Marine back when he was a youngster. I have a friend, Tim Medvetz, who’s a mountain climber and he climbed Everest. He got in a really bad motorcycle accident. They fused his foot together. They were going to take it off, but he was a Hell’s Angel. He said, “You take off my foot, I’ll take your foot off, seriously.” So they kept his foot on. They put a cage around his lower spine that’s all fused. He was in a hospital bed and he read Into Thin Air and goes “I’m going to climb Everest.” So he knows what it’s like to be in a hospital bed and kind of overcome. After he climbed Everest, he said he was taking a plane back from somewhere and there was a guy coming back from Walter Reed Hospital…a soldier, kid, 18. Kid’s out of high school in Minnesota, whatever…goes to boot camp, goes over and he’s six days in Iraq and “Boom!” An RPG…and you’re in a hospital in Germany with no arm and no leg or whatever and then you’re in Walter Reed in DC, they give you a prosthetic and kind of show you…the next thing you know you’re back on your mom’s couch going “What the f*ck just happened?” This is not a comment on war or any of that stuff. These are about the kids.

So Tim was telling me all this stuff and he started taking veterans up and made this hero’s project to raise money. He took a guy with no legs up Kilimanjaro. So he was telling me "it was so f*cking gnarly, amazing," so there’s a line in “Fight On.” “Soldier went to war, fight on. Lost a leg to a bomb. Fight On.” Again, it’s about overcoming.

This guy in Seattle at the VA hospital, Ken LeBlond, reads my weekly column and I had written about this Tim guy and he got a hold of me through the column, and next thing we know we’re playing Veteran’s Appreciation Day at the Seahawks game. We did kind of a deal with the VA hospital. We went in and visited some folks there, some patients. Went to rehab which is kind of near and dear to me--you know drugs, alcohol--and it just all made sense.

TCC: In your Seattle Weekly column, you say how much you hate reality shows. Has your mind changed since Married to Rock?

Duff McKagan: No, I hate them more. I hate them more. If you notice in Married I love my wife. I do. I love my wife. It’s no secret around my house since reality shows came it’s f*cking garbage. Then my wife [says] “They want me to be in a reality show.” "Good for you honey. Go do that thing.” “But they kind of want you in it too.” And I’m kinda like “No. Nuh-uh. Why do they want me?” “Well, it’s called Married to Rock and you’re like the rock that I’m married too.” So I’m married and when you’re married when you’re right, you’re wrong and when you’re wrong, you’re wrong. So if you notice in that show I’m kind of like only in it. They wanted me to do all kinds of dumb *ss sh*t like go camping with all the other couples and then a tent falls down and there’s drama. Like f*ck that. I’m not doing that. Sorry, but I love my wife and she’s as cute as a little button and she has fun with it. But no, it hasn’t changed. I hate reality…I don’t watch any of it.

TCC: What’s up next for you? A tour?

Duff McKagan: When’s the tour? You know more about that than me.

Mike Squires: June. I believe we will be in Europe for the festivals in Europe…through July.

Duff McKagan: I think we were talking about perhaps curating a tour of our own for the States. So what we do, we go on tour. That’s what Loaded does best…not really talking and whatnot. We’re good at touring. We really love it when we’re in front of an audience and the audience buys into our whole thing when they see us live.