Duff: "Plans are in Place to Reform VR Next Autumn"

California Chronicle
Duff McKagan proved he had an eye for figures when he was invited to a wild party at the legendary Playboy mansion. But the US rock star wasn't just eyeing up the scantily-clad Bunny Girls lounging around the home of millionaire Hugh Hefner.

The bassist impressed the sex industry mogul with his business knowledge and landed a job writing a financial column for Playboy magazine.

Duff said: "I went to business school and got my finance degree. It's an interesting time to be writing a financial column. It's great fun and keeps my brain ticking over."

Duff shot to fame playing with two of the biggest bands in rock history - Guns N' Roses and Velvet Revolver, so he's one of the few rockers equipped to keep tabs on the royalties he earns.

He said: "I keep a handle on where all our money goes. When Guns blew up we began creating huge income - not just for us but for other people. Musicians have no training for things like business managers and tax credits. I didn't want to get ripped off so I learned about it."

Duff brings his new band Loaded to the O2 Academy in Glasgow on October 17 supporting Black Stone Cherry.

The group will promote new single "Mother's Day," a track from their album, Sick.

Duff said: "I like the feeling of forward motion a tour gives you [everything] from the cameraderie of a band to the feedback from the audience."

He has fond memories of playing in Scotland with Velvet Revolver, the supergroup formed with ex-Guns' bandmates Slash and Matt Sorum.

He told me: "Our show at the SECC in Glasgow in 2004 is one of my three favourite gigs of my entire career. The crowd was figuratively carrying us on their shoulders. I felt so in the moment. I'd put it up there with when Guns played at Rock In Rio in 1991."

But Duff has promised we've not seen the last of Velvet Revolver.

In 2008, singer Scott Weiland announced on stage at the SECC he was quitting the band but Duff says plans are in place to reform the band next autumn.

He said: "We've got a top 10 list of singers we'd like to try out, and enough material for a great new record."

"Sick" Released on Limited-Edition Vinyl

via Blabbermouth
Sick, the second full-length album from Duff McKagan's Loaded, has been released in the US on limited-edition vinyl.

According to the band, "The custom multi-colored record comes with LP-only cover art by Mexican Chocolate Design, and is packaged with a white label two-song 7-inch!"


You can buy it at cockroachmedia.com

In the Studio with Slash, Flea and Steven

"Flea & Steven did a fabulous job on the new track. Steven is doing really well, I'm proud of him"
-Slash

Slash's Weekly Update (July 15)

Hey all, what's happening? Everything's good on this end. It has been a pretty productive summer so far. My record should be done next month & the recording has gone smoothly & sounds fucking great.

Steven Adler played on the 1st of the last 3 tracks yesterday, along with Flea on bass. The song kicks ass & the drums & bass sound so recognizable & sound so fucking good. Steven is staying clean, which is great, flea is just amazing, period. Steven, Flea & I all lived & met in the same neighborhood in West Hollywood back in the day. Yesterday, we had a great time reminiscing about when we all 1st started playing Rock & Roll & how school didn't fit into the plan, we were like 15. Flea was the 1st one to join an "established" band called "Anthem," I remember being envious. I had a band called "Tidus Sloan" but we didn't have a singer. Sound familiar? Steven & I didn't really have a band together until a few years later when we joined Nikki Sixx's old band "London" after Izzy left. Which, incidentally, was very short lived.

Izzy came down & played on a track a couple weeks ago, that sounds great too. It was good to see him, it's been awhile. Our guitars together really do have a sound all their own.

Besides having some friends of Eric Valentine's come down from Northern California & play cello & violin on a track, I haven't had any other guest musicians so far. Having Flea, Steven & Izzy play has been a real gas. There might be a couple more surprise musicians on this record I think.

The movie I scored while I was writing songs for my record last summer, "This is not a movie," is in it's final production stage & being shopped for distribution. I went to a closed screening of it at Warner Bros a couple weeks ago, its a really dark but funny movie, very indie & very raw. It really surprised me to hear/see it all put together. The score is awesome & almost entirely comprised of electric guitar. It gives the picture a distinct musical personality, which has many moods. Edward Furlong & Peter Coyote star in it, by the way & are phenomenal. Its funny, Edward Furlong was teenage delinquent "John Conner" being chased by the Terminator in "Terminator 2." His key scene was when he was escaping on his motorcycle to the tune of GnR's "You could be mine." Now he is staring in a movie that I did all the music for 18 years later.

The Norway gig happened & was a fucking blast. The band (Jason Bonham, John 5, Ted Andreadis & Franky Perez) was amazing & Ozzy, Fergie & Ronnie Wood were stellar to say the least. But, what really made the gig great was the crowd, they were pretty fucking fantastic. There is some talk of doing some more shows like that in the not too distant future, its too good of a time.

There's a lot of stuff coming up actually, all good. As it happens I will keep you up to date in as timely a fashion as I am capable.

Slash