2009.02.17 - Rolling Stone - Duff McKagan Opens Up About Guns n’ Roses, Loaded and Steven Adler

Duff McKagan Opens Up About Guns n’ Roses, Punk Band Loaded and Steven Adler

By Andy Greene

When Duff McKagan dropped by the RS offices last week was running late due to an extended stopover at the Playboy headquarters. It didn’t seem like a problem until his people told us he had to be out of here by 12:30 p.m.. As you can see from his badge above, it was 12:19 at the time. In the 11 minutes we had together, McKagan very graciously answered a fast and furious barrage of questions about Velvet Revolver’s new lead singer, Guns n’ Roses, Steven Adler on Sober House and his punk band Loaded, who are releasing their new album Sick on April 7th. Here’s Duff in his own words:

On Loaded: “We have a really quirky sense of humor as a group and the type of music we do and like is a little left of center. We can take maybe more chances that Velvet Revolver can. We don’t have people depending on us for an income so we can kind of do whatever the fuck we want. We don’t have to go through a bureaucracy to make a video. We’ll make a video for 3,500 bucks, man, in a day and there’s no craft services and there’s no star wagon and we make a video at a place we find that we can get for free and we shoot it punk-rock style.”

On a possible Gn’R reunion: “People ask me that all the time. I certainly don’t sit here and go, ‘God, I wish that’s going to happen.’ I don’t even know what’s going to happen in four weeks from now in my life so I’m not going to be one of those guys who’s like, ‘Fuck that, that’ll never happen.’ It could very well happen. It would have to be right and it would have to be righteous for everybody and for the fans and it would have to be like a kick ass thing or it would just kind of be sour I think… I mean, I love Axl. We’ve been through a lot of shit together and shit nobody can take away from us no matter what people try to make of a squabble.”

On Steven Adler on Celebrity Rehab and Sober House: “I watched about four minutes… somebody said, ‘Dude, you got to watch this thing.’ It was too hard for me to watch. My stomach started getting queasy and I couldn’t watch it. It seems a little dirty, the whole deal. I know the Dr. Drew guy, and he is a strong member of the sober community and he’s helped a lot of people and I think his thing is, ‘Hey man, if one person can get sober out of this whole experience… great.’ I’ll put it this way: if I was still using, I would never go on that show. I don’t get it. I just don’t like reality TV.”

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