Bill Riles - Let's go to Michelle in Toledo now, guys. We continue live and nationwide on Rockline. FM 104 WIOT is what Michelle's checking out tonight. Michelle, you're on. Michelle - Hi, hi, hi! Duff - Hi Michelle. Michelle - I love you. Oh my god! All right, I wanna know if you've made any videos yet, or for your album or if you're planning on... Duff - Well, as a matter of fact, as we sit here, we're just gonna finishing up the video for "Believe In Me". We... taped all weekend long, the gig and, just kind of walking around and... you know, in the city and... and... and doing like, Rockline. And we did MTV Headbanger's Ball today. We played , the whole band live and... Yeah, so, that's a good question. Yes, we are and it'll be out... when it comes out. [laughs] Bill Riles - Look for it Michelle. Let's go to San Diego. Thank you so much for the call, first of all Michelle. San Diego, it's Donny, listener of Rock 102.1 down there. Hi Donny. Donny - Hey, what's up? Duff - Hi Donny. Donny - How's it going? Duff - How you doing? Donny - All right. My question was, did you offer up any of these songs for Guns N' Roses to do? Duff - Uuh... Did I offer any of the tunes? Donny - Yeah. Duff - Uuhm... Well, it doesn't really work that way with the band. We all co-write everything. These songs are really kind of personal for me to, you know... This is something I had to get out myself. And also, it... Even if it came to that, which it wouldn't, you know, it wouldn't be fair for me to, umm... to ask Axl to sing the personal things that are coming from my heart, you know. 'Cause he wouldn't be honest. Bill Riles - As emotional as these songs are, as personal as they are, does it really... I mean, do you have an extra amount of anticipation for tomorrow, the release date of this album? Are you really, really a little bit nervous about how people will perceive you after hearing these songs? Duff - Well, it's not really... umm, you know, the album was made and... without really, like I said, not really wanting to... It was an album I made to myself. Now it's coming out and... expectations, you know... umm, I don't really... That's not the point of the record. Umm... you know, I'm not a great drummer, or a great guitar player, or a great singer, by any means. Umm, so, if somebody will criticize it for: "Well, it's kinda under-produced and not..." you know, Steve Vai record. I love Steve Vai, but you know what I'm saying. Umm, if they wanna criticize it like that, this is my heart and soul on a plat, or a CD, I guess, now. So, if you wanna criticize my heart and soul, get in line, you know! Joie - Let's go. Bill Riles - Thank you so much Donny for the call. Let's go to Hernando, Michigan. Cathy is listening to Rock 103. In Memphis, Tennessee. Cathy, talk to us. Cathy - Hey Duff, how you doing? Duff - How you doing? Cathy - I'm doing pretty good. I just wanted to tell you that I've been a big... a hug fan of yours since about 8th grade, and I'm in college now. So, I just keep... Duff - Wow. Have we been around that long? Cathy - Yeah. I wanna ask you about "So Fine". Who is Johnny Thunders and why did you dedicate that song to him? Duff - Umm... Uuh, Johnny Thunders is... kind of... He was in a band called New York Dolls back in the early seventies. And then he did his solo thing... And his style and his coolness and... Just his whole thing was a big influence of mine and I know a lot of people... umm, you know, Joe Perry from Aerosmith emulated Johnny Thunders, you know. And we became friends and he just died recently. So, that's what that's about. Bill Riles - All right Cathy. Thanks for getting through. Cathy from Hernando, Michigan. Thanks for calling Rockline. ______________________________________________________________ "So Fine" is played ______________________________________________________________ commercial break ______________________________________________________________
Bill Riles - We gotta go back to the phones, guys. It's… [inaudible] Lake, and that's in Michigan near Traverse City, I'm assuming. Jason is up there listening to 97.5 KLT in beautiful Traverse City. Jason, you're on. Jason - Duff, I understand you guys in GN'R are Ramones fans. I was wondering if you're gonna do any of their songs on your punk EP? Duff - Umm, we are... especially myself... No, we all are, I guess. Huge Ramones fans. We didn't do a Ramones song however. For what reason I'm not sure really. It just kinda wasn't... Joie - Too many good ones to pick from. Duff - Yeah, there was too much stuff to pick from. [laughs] It's not all punk rock songs we did, you know. The punk rock songs are basically everybody kind of pillaging my record collection, you know. [laughs] Umm, but, you know, we did like, "Hair Of The Dog" by Nazareth, and "Buick Makane" by T-Rex and... and... you know, old Iggy Pop & the Stooges, which was way before punk rock. Joie - The bebop song. Duff - What? Joie - The bebop song. Duff - An old like, fifties tune. "Since I Don't Have You", I think it's called. Bill Riles - Didn't you appear on an Iggy Pop record once upon a time? Duff - I certainly did. Bill Riles - All right, I thought I recognized that. All right Jason, thanks for getting through. Let's go to Dallas, talk to Sharnelle, listener of Q102. Sharnelle, you're on. Sharnelle - Hi Duff. Duff - Hey, how you doing? Sharnelle - Fine. I saw you and your wife on MTV, talking about an article in a magazine... Duff - Yeah. Sharnelle - ... that was coming out. I was wondering what the name of that article was and... when it came out, or is coming out, 'cause I could never find it. Duff - Well, it came out three months ago, two months. And... it's a magazine called Platinum and they kinda screwed us over, but it's out. It's called Platinum. Bill Riles - And that's about is as far as you're concerned, right? All right Sharnelle, I think we'll leave it at that. Let's go to Houma in Louisiana. Let's talk to Shelly, listener of 99.5 WRNO... [inaudible] ... you're on. Shelly - Duff, hey! Duff - Hey, how you doing? Shelly - I'm fine, and you? Duff - Ok. Shelly - Then great. Duff - Yeah? [everybody laughs] Shelly - I got a question for you. Who did you choose to produce your new album and why? Duff - Uuh, well... Actually I co-produced it with Jim Mitchell, who engineered... uuh, the Illusions records. And he's just a good friend and he knows how to run all the stuff. [laughs] I know how to run some of the stuff but, you know, you need a guy in the room when I'm out in the, you know... out recording drums or bass or something, and... So, we just did it together. Bill Riles - Let me ask you something. The album was recorded in Los Angeles, London, Dallas, Denver, Seattle. Did Jim travel around with you guys or did he base himself out of one city, or? How'd that work? Duff - Well, when I kinda got in the mood, I would just... I said, "Jim, get our here, you know, there's a ticket waiting for you, you know... you know, I'm in the mood to do this one particular song, or track drums or these two tunes, or when Jeff Beck asked to... Umm, we were in Paris. He came actually to the room, and I was playing a rough track of the song "Beyond Belief". He goes, "What's this?" And I told him what was going on. He goes, "Can I play on it?" And, you know, it took me about a tenth of a milli-second to answer. Bill Riles - That is a true story. Jeff Beck actually came across the hall, hearing the rough track of this and volunteered, huh? Duff - Yeah, absolutely. So, we did that in London and I just flew Jim out, you know. So it was things like that. Bill Riles - And it worked out. All right, Shelly, thanks for the call. Movin' on across th e nation, Oklahoma City. Let's talk to Matt, a listener of Rock 100.5. Matt, speak to us. Matt - Yo, Duff! Duff - Yo, Matt! Matt - What's going on, man? Duff - How you doing, bro? Matt - Oh, pretty good. How are you yourself? Duff - Okido. Matt - Umm, gotta say hi from Lainee, wanted me to say hi to you. Duff - Ok, hi Lainee. Matt - My question is, what made you switch over to playing bass after you'd played, you know, drums and rhythm guitar so long? Duff - Uuh... Well, I moved to LA when I was like 19, and the drum kit I had was really just... Joie - A piece of... Duff - Wasn't very good, ok? And, you know, I played guitar, I wasn't really... You know, moving to LA, there's like, a million Yngwie Malmsteens there, you know. So, I sold everything I had, which wasn't worth much, and bought a really cheap bass and a little bass amp, and I said, "Ok, I'll just get my foot in the door". And that was the door I got my foot in, so... Bill Riles - There you go. You played everything on this album. You really... You did basically pounder yourself for the Prince album, the debut Prince album. And that's just incredible. If you look at the album sleeve when you buy the album tomorrow, you'll see what I'm talking about. Duff McKagan all over it. ______________________________________________________________ "(Fucked Up) Beyond Belief" is played ______________________________________________________________
Bill Riles -... Joie was talking earlier about how he had to learn these Jeff Beck licks. Joie, you have it down now? Joie - Yeah, a little bit. Duff - No, a lot of it. Joie - No, it's like, all these great guitar players are playing on it. And I... you know, I heard the album and when it came time for me to listen to the whole thing, you know... I got Slash playing on it, I got Jeff Beck playing on it, and... you know, Snake and... "My god, great guitar players". And I sat there for like, I don't know, like about two weeks and I had this little machine that could actually pull out the notes, so... 'Cause, you know, Beck was the hardest one. It was definitely 'cause he plays with a whammy. And he hasn't even used a pick. He hits the strings with a whammy. Believe me, it was very, very hard. Bill Riles - Let's go to Bethel, Connecticut, guys. Talk to Andrea, checking out II95 in Bridgeport. Andrea, you're on. Andrea - Hi Duff. Duff - Hey Andrea. How you doing? Andrea - Great. So nice to talk to you. I saw you in March, New Haven. Duff - Yeah. All snowy and everything. Andrea - Yes. Duff - Yes. Andrea - And I wanna ask a question if your solo album is gonna be a permanent or occasional thing while still remaining in Guns N' Roses. Duff - Oh, yeah. It's just, you know... uuh, a thing that, again, I must say, that I did... umm, that had to come out. And then... we got done touring about two and a half months ago, two months ago, and the album was coming out and so like, "Well..." Joie and I, "Let's put together a band, you know. Let's go tour on it." And, you know, GN'R is my band, you know, but this is... These guys... Joie and the guys are... you know, also... It's just a different thing. I don't know really how to explain it. And the guys in GN'R are completely, way a 110% behind it. So... Bill Riles - St. Louis, Missouri is where we're going. Steve, a listener of KC95 down there. Steve, you're on. Steve - Yeah, hi Duff. Duff - Yo. Hey, Steve. Steve - I'd like to ask Duff if his songs are gonna be on Guns N' Roses tapes in the future. Duff - If my songs? What do you mean? My writing? Steve - Yeah. Duff - Oh, they always have been, Steve. ______________________________________________________________ commercial break ______________________________________________________________
Bill Riles - First of all, Joie, thank you so much. Joie - Hey, thanks a lot. It's been great being here, buddy. Bill Riles - And to you, Duff McKagan, you got a brand new solo album coming out tomorrow. We wish you the best of luck with it. And we'll see you when you get to California for sure. Duff - Yes, you definetely will. Bill Riles - Have a good time over there, Duff. Duff - Thanks again, bro. And thanks to everybody who called in and all that. |