Discography

GNR Discography

Noteable Appearances

History

Michael Andrew "Duff" McKagan was born on February 5, 1964 in Seattle, Washington.  As a child, his brother influenced him to play bass. 

While he is well known as a bass player, McKagan played drums in Seattle-based punk bands The Fastbacks (circa 1980), The Fartz, and Silly Killers.  He also played the guitar in 10 Minute Warning.  After stints in various punk bands, McKagan headed for Los Angeles at 19 to answer an ad for a bass player.  It was here he met Steven Adler and Slash of Road Crew.  The trio soon met with Axl Rose and Izzy Stradlin and formed the band Guns N' Roses.

McKagan became a household name after an alcohol induced acceptance speech at the 1990 American Music Awards.  He and Slash showed up on stage visibly drunk and the latter managed to curse twice on live television before getting cut off.  At the time, McKagan was laughing along.

After a half-hearted attempt at drug rehabilitation, he kick-started a solo career with 1993's Believe in Me. In 1994, McKagan's pancreas exploded (due to acute alcohol-induced pancreatitis) and he underwent emergency surgery. The doctors told him that if he did not quit drinking, he would be dead within a month, so McKagan quickly became sober. Duff was also one of the last people to see grunge idol Kurt Cobain alive.

In 1995 he collaborated with Slash in his solo project "Slash's Snakepit", co-writing a song called "Beggars and Hangers-On", which he played live at the Palace during a Snakepit show in May of that year. He would go on to form Neurotic Outsiders, an alternative rock super-group consisting of GN'R drummer Matt Sorum, "Sex Pistols" guitarist Steve Jones, and John Taylor of Duran Duran on bass. They played the L.A clubs circuit in the late 90s, and toured the U.S. in 1996. A self-titled album was released in September 1996. After that, he put back together 10 Minute Warning. They recorded some of their songs to release an album with the notorious Seattle-based label Sub Pop, published May 5, 1998.

Plagued by drug and alcohol addiction, McKagan survived for 13 years in the highly volatile band before finally resigning in early 1998, due to Axl Rose's demand that he focus only on Guns N' Roses, and not any other projects, as well as the fact that "Axl was completely taking over." McKagan's departure left Rose as the sole member left from their classic line-up.

In the years that followed, McKagan became a father and concentrated on his solo career. He recruited Abe Laboriel Jr., Michael Barragan, and Izzy Stradlin to help him record Beautiful Disease, with a 1999 release on Geffen Records. However, this album was never released due to a merger between Geffen and Interscope, which caused McKagan to be dropped from the label. Despite this, he went on tour recruiting former Black Flag's Dez Cadena, ex Twisted Roots' Paul Roessler, and former Morning Glories' Michael Barragan.

In 2008 Duff re-formed Loaded.