Top 104 Quotes & Sayings by Duff McKagan
Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American musician Duff McKagan.
Last updated on December 21, 2024.
'The Joshua Tree' was the soundtrack of my life when we were making 'Appetite.'
If you don't have a good rhythm section, your band is toast; you're a bar band. Good rhythm section, you've got a chance to get out of the bar.
Words and titles can be used as dictums and guides for all of us. A certain word can suddenly snap us back to a good place. 'Rocker' works for me.
I didn't have any work to do, and I had files of my personal and Guns N' Roses financial statements for the previous eight years. I wanted to learn how to read these, but I didn't trust anybody. I just got a lightbulb in my head and said, 'I want to go to school.' That began my journey, taking accountancy and business classes at Seattle.
I don't know if I have a favorite song.
I have a teenage daughter and a 10-year-old daughter. Things are pink and fluffy at my house, with two little dogs. It's pretty funny to be me now. And I'm in on the joke that is my life.
In rock n' roll, we don't sell records at all like we used to. Yet the artist still has to pay to make records. So you've just got to get out on tour and be smarter about your merchandising.
'Mr. Brownstone' is always a fun song to play because it's got that beat, and you see people bouncing.
By the time Guns n' Roses spent 28 months from 1991 to 1993 touring the 'Use Your Illusion' albums, the tour staff sometimes approached 100 people. We were carrying not only backup girl singers, a horn section, and an extra keyboard player, but also chiropractors, masseuses, a singing coach, and a tattoo artist.
When you're a musician, you are around your peers a lot, like Slipknot and Alice In Chains... you name the band. We're all just kind of friends.
I started playing in punk-rock bands and touring when I was 15, so I missed high school.
Any musician in any band - for a really good band - you know your part in the band.
Playing with Iggy pulled me back in for a while and reminded me of what I love about music.
I've never been one to just play safe music and think that's all there is to it.
I didn't start off as a bass player, and Guns was the first band I really, like, 'Oh, I'm gonna be a bass player. This is what I'm gonna do.' And I really dove into it head first.
I got to the point of insanity, but I also got out, but during the insane times, I felt invincible, and I felt creative and wonderful, too, but I was also hiding something.
One of the first 45s I ever bought was the Stooges' 'I Got a Right.' Probably one of my favorite singles, ever.
Is the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame that important to me? No. Is it something I've aspired towards? No.
I just don't like reality TV.
Not to name names, but a lot of pop female artists you see, they don't write their own songs. Lot of top male artists and boy band artists, they don't write their own songs. They're just a product. They sell, they sell, they sell. They don't care about musical integrity, any of that kind of stuff.
You know what's a great song that will be stuck in your head if I say it? 'Single Ladies,' by Beyonce. Killer song.
I'm a book nerd, and I've seen authors that I love, I've gone and seen them speak or read from a book.
Being a rocker, to me, is equal to living as much of the truth as possible.
I have panic attacks here and there, like in the weirdest places ever, and I've learned to deal with them.
'The Taking' is the closest thing to a 'concept' record that I have ever been involved with. Pain, loss, triumph, and redemption. Life. Bring it.
People in Seattle - and I'm speaking from experience - are indoors more. It used to just rain a ton, and as a result, you'd be inside listening to music all the time and playing. You'd all rehearse at each other's houses and share ideas. There was no competition. When I got to L.A., I was really stunned by the competition.
I saw some really amazing stuff with Axl. We worked really well together. We were good friends. And I hope to perhaps have that friendship back one day, although it's not something I wait around for.
Keep a meter on your fear. Fear can cripple you.
You turn road-gay on the road. After about 10 days, the fellas in your band start looking really good.
When I sing with Loaded, I can't move at all. I'm playing guitar, and I'm singing.
Whenever Boston comes on, I play air guitar.
You become friends with your kids' friends' parents. That's just the way it's gonna be. And sometimes you luck out, and it's great.
I find in my career that I never know what's going to happen in two months.
I think you can tell stories and give perspectives and yet still keep stuff for yourself, too. I keep a lot of my life private, even in a public forum like writing.
I can only write from a man's viewpoint.
'Chip Away' is somewhat of a rail against cable news and divisive agendas... all for the almighty dollar.
Axl's favorite record in 1987 was 'Faith,' by George Michael.
I'm not Cormac McCarthy, but I can get my point across in a thousand words.
I've had a panic disorder since I was sixteen, and they always said that's a subset of depression. And I'm like, 'I don't have depression.'
I'm really not about changing my image.
I didn't graduate high school.
I had a column for the 'Seattle Weekly' for five years, and there was one column that was called 'How To Be A Man,' and it was kind of tongue in cheek; it was really tongue in cheek. And I got a book deal from that column.
I went to Seattle U. Nice Jesuit school there.
When you start a band, you have to find people that are good, have the same sort of mindset as you musically.
I have always been a huge sports fan, but more of the pedestrian and 'homer' sort.
I'm colour blind, a little hue-challenged.
I went to business school in my thirties.
I don't have resentments towards anyone I played with or to the guy who bullied me in the sixth grade. I've worked through it.
I learned, by the time I was twenty, I'm not gonna die from a panic attack; you feel like you're going to.
Axl did sometimes have volatile actions, but I knew that guy as a whole - all the good stuff, too.
One of my first memories is marching with my mom. I was in kindergarten with with the Catholic ladies when Martin Luther King Jr. got shot. We wore the black armbands and marched downtown.
I saw the Clash in '79 at the Paramount in Seattle, and it changed my whole life.
When the record company pays you an advance, it is just that - an advance. And it's at worse rates than any bank would charge you to pay them back.
When you're in a band, it's a close-knit thing. There's a lot of emotional stuff.
Turn off the TV, turn off the Internet, just go out, and I bet you your life will get better really quick.
When you're in a band, a marriage - whatever, it's kind of the same deal - there's a lot of things that you see, and people trust you with information about their lives. Call it a 'bro code' or whatever you wanna call it, but there are certain things you do not tell. At least, I don't.
Back when I was single and Guns were on the 'Illusions' tour, chicks were, like, left and right. They were falling over themselves. And I saw the sadness in that. The first six months of that, it's like, 'Killer! Chicks are hot. They're into me.' And then you realize they're not really into you. They're into the guy they saw on the JumboTron.
Our family is mixed. My oldest sister married a black man in 1962, which was way out there then.
It's funny: when I started playing bass in 1984, you had guys like Paul Simonon fron the Clash, John Paul Jones, Lemmy, and Nikki Sixx was the head guy in Motley Crue, and you had all this post-punk stuff like Magazine and Killing Joke where the bass sort of lead the way. Not that I picked it to sort of be a main dude, but it intrigued me.
I don't know where I'm rated. I don't pay attention to that. I'm really so just all into my craft. It's not a contest. I try to play the best.
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