1996.09.06 - The Boston Globe - Stars enjoy a little rock on the (Out)side (Duff)

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Stars enjoy a little rock on the (Out)side

By Jim Sullivan
GLOBE STAFF

"There’s no egos; we’re all big motors,” says bassist-singer John Taylor, once and forever of Duran Duran, but most recently of Neurotic Outsiders, which shows up to punk out professionally at Mama Kin’s Music Hall tonight at 11:45. “I’m a big motor with Duran; Steve [Jones] is with the Sex Pistols; Duff [McKagan] is with Guns N’ Roses. We know how to move a train along. But we definitely all wanted to be the frontmen.” (The non-frontman-sitting motor of the LA-based band would be Guns N’ Roses drummer Matt Sorum.)

The guys have an eponymous album out Tuesday - nine originals, most written by Jones and a cover of the Clash’s “Janie Jones” - and, in concert, they add old faves like the Stooges’ “I Wanna Be Your Dog” “Raw Power” and “No Fun,” the Damned’s “New Rose,” the Pistols’ “Pretty Vacant,” the Monkees-cum-Pistols’ “Steppin’ Stone,” Roxy Music’s “Virginia Plain” and Duran’s “Planet Earth.” New wave nirvana!

The new band’s first single is “Jerk” - and it’s a semi-hit already on modern rock radio - but it was going to be called, well, something else. We can’t even print the title of this boys-against-girls rocker. But the cuss word of a song was approved by their record company, Maverick, up until... “we got a call the next day,” says McKagan, rather surprised the title even made it that far along the pipeline. “It’s not a big deal.”

“It’s a ‘War of the Roses’ song,” adds Taylor. “It’s a Steve Jones song. Steve is a law unto himself.”

“The common link is Jonesy,” adds McKagan. “With me and John, believe it or not, the Pistols gave us the idea they we could do it. Jonesy’s the blueprint for the band. Matt played with him on a solo record that never came out. We all got together and did a benefit gig and there was a chemistry. I was lucky to find it once - I’d been in 30 bands before Guns N’ Roses. There was always one guy who was a weak link.

“Neurotic gave me back something,” the guitarist continues. “I dunno if I lost it, playing stadiums and arenas, but you’re so far from the people, the feedback from who you’re playing to gets lost. We toured for almost three years. There was something missing and you can forget what that is.”

It’s not like the Neurotic Outsiders are a traveling rock ’n’ roll/AA show or anything, but drink and drugs have played a part in members’ lives and no longer do. “The idea that you have to be stoned to be happening, it’s a romantic misconception,” says Taylor. “We wouldn’t be together if we weren’t sober. We wanted to rock, but we didn’t want to put ourselves in a slippery situation. A lot of the songs on this record, particularly ‘Good News’ and ‘Feelings Are Good,’ are about the joys of recovery.”

Says McKagan, simply: “I had to do what I had to do or else I would be dead.”

FUN FACT: No, they haven’t yet met the boss of their record company, Madonna. They suspect she’s a figurehead.

WHERE ARE THE MAIN BANDS? Guns N’ Roses are two months into working on a new album. (McKagan and Sorum fly back from the NO tour for sessions.) “It’s rockin’,” McKagan says. “The problem’s never been the material; it’s getting us in the same room. There’s tension - good stuff.” Duran Duran, notoriously slow writers, are working on an album. Jones rejoins the Pistols on tour as they wind up their re-emergence in Australia.