Duff's Loaded: Hi-Quality Nottingham Footage

via Blabbermouth
High quality fan-filmed video footage of Loaded's October 12, 2009 performance in Nottingham, England can be viewed below ("Thanks" goes to snakepituk).

Loaded to Tour South America

via Blabbermouth
Duff McKagan's Loaded will tour South America in early November.

The band is scheduled to perform at Willie Dixon in Rosario, Argentina on November 5, with dates in Brazil (November 8) and Chile (Santiago on November 11) also in the works.

In other news, McKagan will guest on "The BJ Shea Morning Experience" this Wednesday (September 30) on the Seattle radio station KISW 99.9 FM

Duff will appear at approximately 8:20 AM PST

Drummer Geoff Reading recently quit Loaded and was replaced by Isaac Carpenter.


In other news, Blabbermouth is reporting that former Guns N' Roses / Velvet Revolver drummer Matt Sorum told Blistering.com that Velvet Revolver will eventually get back together. He said, "We have been e-mailing back and forth, in search of a singer, so we have high expectations. We want to make sure this singer will work and be a better thing. We looked a long time before we got Scott, and I don't know if we got Scott because it seemed like an easy way to fill the bill.

I know we want to take it up a notch and make it better. When we got Scott, we jumped into it pretty quick. Even though Me, Slash, Duff and Dave had been working together on the first record before Scott came on, then Scott jumped on and we went on the road and did the record pretty quick.

The second album, I think, we fell prey to more of what Scott wanted to do and we wanted to straight-up rock and roll. I think this time around we would like to make a real strong rock album and stick with more of our roots.

The first record he picked the songs. We had about fifty songs written. He just started to sing on them, that album happened real organically and really quickly.

When we went to write the second album it seemed to take different road, I always wanted to make a harder record, but I think we went a little lighter and the fans didn’t really care for that much. I think the second record is a good one but we did what we did. I think it was a weird chemistry between us."

You can read the full interview here.

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."

Duff McKagan's Loaded Drummer Quits

via Blabbermouth

Drummer Geoff Reading has left Duff McKagan's Loaded. He says in a statement, "The pressures of being in the 'Duff from Guns N' Roses' spotlight, while thrilling, have left me unable to get back to the performer I was pre-cancer, and unable properly provide for my family. This combination has plagued my mental recovery, and I need to take time now to focus on these things.

The fellas have hired the great Isaac Carpenter (Loudermilk, Gosling, Ours, The Exiles) to fill in for the UK tour, with a warm-up show at the Chop Suey in Seattle on October 3. I wouldn't miss this show for anything. Isaac is an AMAZING drummer and I, for one, will be right there in front of the stage, with all you Capitol Hill hipsters, arms folded, judging them.

Thank you all for the love and support you've shown me and Loaded."

For more information on the new Duff McKagan's Loaded drummer, visit his MySpace page.

Loaded to Play Acoustic Benefit Gig Tuesday

Next Tuesday, August 18 at the Sunset Tavern in Ballard section of Seattle, Duff McKagan will be playing with Loaded's acoustic offshoot, the Rainmakers, at a benefit concert for Dave Ravenscroft, who has been suffering through Squamous-cell Carcinoma.

Dave has not been able to work for the last 12 months while going through multiple surgeries and chemotherapy.

Donations can be made to the Dave Ravenscroft Benevolent Fund at any Chase branch.

"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

Duff McKagan's Loaded Re-Loads for Another Round

According to his twitter page, Duff "will be writing new LOADED songs tonite and tomorrow. Some great ideas and riffs have come on this latest tour. Excited for sure!"

This is bittersweet news for many of Duff's fans. In my opinion, it implies that Velvet Revolver is indeed staying parked on the back burner. 2010 will see Slash's solo album and I presume, an ensuing tour. Loaded, in turn, will likely cycle through another period of songwriting, recording, touring, etc. I imagine it will be a few years before VR convenes again, if ever.

Later today, Duff tweeted:

"VR will continue our search for our singer. It WILL happen! When I speak of Loaded, I am certainly not speaking against VR!"

Okay.

I've been listening to Loaded's latest Sick, and while I do enjoy it, it's a little to happy and upbeat for my tastes. I prefer their 2001 release, Dark Days.

There are some great songs on this record though. "Sick" has aggressive lyrics and a crazy guitar solo. "Forgive Me" is a perfect little alt-pop-rock song that crystallizes Loaded's sound quite well. Duff's vocals sound great on that track. "Wasted Heart" wouldn't sound out of place on the Stones' Beggars Banquet LP. "No More" is probably the catchiest tune on the disc.

In an interview with Guitar World Magazine, Duff explained that the band decided to write a new album when, at a Christmas benefit gig, they realized how many good unrecorded songs they had.

Although Duff wrote most of the songs on Dark Days, much of Sick was composed by the band or with other writers. One track, the somber “Mothers Day,” took shape from McKagan and Rouse jamming together on bass guitars. It was called “Two Basses” until McKagan wrote lyrics about friends he’s lost to drugs.

Surprisingly, although doing time in GN’R and Velvet Revolver cemented his association with Slash, McKagan credits former Gunner Izzy Stradlin as the guitarist that most influenced his own rhythm playing. “I think from Izzy I learned where a rhythm guitar player should be, within the band,” McKagan says. “As a result, I don’t overthink it.”

Franky Perez, Dave Kushner and Duff McKagan News

Franky Perez and Dave Kushner of Velvet Revolver have been working together in the studio on some material. "We've been writing some great songs and the collaboration has been amazing. I'm exited about the possibilities and I hope to post some new music soon."



Duff McKagan's Loaded has been added to Crüe Fest II's second stage. As a result, Loaded's previously announced short run of US club dates, which was scheduled for later this week, has been canceled. Crüe Fest 2, features additional support from Godsmack, Theory of a Deadman, Drowning Pool and Charm City Devils.

Duff McKagan's Loaded Live in Munich

June 14, 2009. "Queen Joanasophina" and "I Wanna Be Your Dog."





Loaded Tour Dates:

6/22/09 - Wettingen - Sportzentrum
6/23/09 - Cologne - Palladium
6/26/09 - Milan - Idroscalo Festival
6/27/09 - Dessel, Belgium (Graspop Metal Meeting)
6/28/09 - Amsterdam - Melkweg

More dates to come. Check this link.

Alumni News

Via his Twitter account, Slash posted a recent picture of himself and his mother Ola Hudson. Great shirt Slash, and thanks for being so open with your fans during such a difficult time.

Slash is scheduled to play Norway's Quart Fest on June 30.


Canadian guitarist and vocalist Rob Lamothe just the posted MP3s of his Velvet Revolver audition on his official site.

I think he has a pretty cool voice.

"Heartbreak"

"Hollywood"

(right-click, save as)

Meanwhile, former Velvet Revolver vocalist Scott Weiland recently told ARTISTdirect that Stone Temple Pilots has "18 songs written, and vocals are written on about 10 of them."

Former Velvet Revolver bass player Duff McKagan was interviewed on June 10 at the Caribana festival in Switzerland. The interview focused mainly on Duff's new disc with his band Loaded. According to Duff, "it's a straight-up Rock 'n' Roll record."

Next week I'll be publishing my belated review of the album - Sick.



An extended video of Adler's Appetite playing this past Monday night at the SoDo nightclub in Colorado Springs, is embedded below.

Their set: Nightrain, My Michelle, Civil War, Mr. Brownstone, Knockin' on Heaven's Door, Rocket Queen, Mama Kin, Sweet Child O' Mine, Paradise City, Welcome To The Jungle.



Finally, thanks to the kind folks at ChopAway.com, I was able to put together this video slideshow of Izzy Stradlin performing "Battleship Chains" live. I'm guessing that the recording is from his 2000 European tour. Thanks for the audio guys. Enjoy.

Duff at Download: Talks Sick, VR and Money

Duff McKagan's Loaded played Download 2009 over the weekend, and I have just a few videos to share, but first, the news.

Duff told Contact Music that he expects their new singer to "land in their laps."

He said, "either you've got the guy or you've not and we've worked with some really talented guys. The trick is getting the chemistry right. Slash is making his solo record, which he's desperately needed to do for years, so I'll keep working with my other band Loaded, he'll do that and music will happen when it's supposed to happen. The right guy will fall into our laps when he is supposed to and maybe that's why it hasn't happened yet."

In a separate interview with Noisecreep, Duff says, "anybody that spends too much on a record these days, that's fool's money spent. Nobody sells records like we did in the '90s or '80s. It's not the business model anymore. People get their music for free off the Internet."

"We signed with a small, indie label which was really cool. There's not a lot of pressure like you get from a major. Major labels are becoming a thing of the past."

"The great thing about this band is that we just don't give a fuck. We'll play anyplace, and it's refreshing. It is kind of rewarding when you become the buzz of a town when someone sees you and finds you are playing. We sell records at the gigs. Who knows? By July this could be an underground summer record."

Duff: "Why Are We Rehearsing at 3 in the Morning?"

On the corner of a big Los Angeles intersection stands an office block you could pass a thousand times and not take in. At ground level, there are a few shops, a couple of places to eat and the ubiquitous Starbucks. Nothing the tiniest bit special.

It's here (armed with a skinny cappuccino) that I meet someone totally out of place in the mundane surroundings - Duff McKagan, American hard-rock institution.

Taking in the fortysomething with short, spiky blond hair and aviator shades, you know he couldn't be anything but a rock'n'roller.

Founder member and bassist of Guns N' Roses, he's now bassist in Velvet Revolver (with his GN'R mates Slash and Matt Sorum) and frontman of his own group Loaded.

I also gather he's a seriously daring mountaineer, martial arts expert, financial guru for Playboy.com (yes, really) and budding radio presenter in his home town of Seattle where he also writes a local blog.

Tonight, he brings Loaded and songs from the band's riotous new album Sick to Download 2009 at Donington Park, on the same bill as a much anticipated performance from the reformed Faith No More. But, as we take a table outside Starbucks in the early LA summer sunshine, this pencil-thin, sober, super-fit character tells me he's "just happy to be alive".

He experienced it all - the women, the drugs, the extreme highs, the devastating lows and, most of all, the booze.


"If I wrote about what happened to me in 1994, it would have to be called All The Shit I Don't Remember," he explains.

That was the year he contracted acute alcohol-induced pancreatitis (his pancreas swelled to the size of a football) and he was told to give up booze or die.

"And I wanted to die because it hurt so bad and there was no escape. I was pleading with the doctors to kill me."

1994 was the year he became sober.

"If I drank, I would have died. It was very black and white," he continues. "When I got sober, I really started to get in touch. I took up martial arts. My sensei told me to look at myself in the mirror every day and say, 'Yesterday, I did everything right that I could do'. I'm proud of that."

It was at this point Duff began to realise he wanted out of Guns N' Roses, which, with Axl Rose at its helm, had become the biggest band in the world.

"I met my wife Susan and she got pregnant. And as I was about to have this kid, I started thinking , 'Shit, there's only me and Axl left (of the original members).'

"Why are we rehearsing at three in the morning? I don't want to do it anymore. I got a life.

"I was kind of hoping the band would get back together. I was under a lot of pressure but I was looking like the level-headed guy.

"Our manager was calling me every day for advice. What a scared little prick. I'm going, 'Dude, manage the fucking band. You're the manager!' I started to look around and go, 'What a bunch of morons'."

It's sad to reflect on the disintegration of a band who made some of the finest rock albums since Led Zeppelin - Appetite For Destruction, Use Your Illusion I and II.



Duff remembers the band's humble beginnings in LA. "Five guys who started in this town. We were living in squalor with nothing but a united belief in what rock'n'roll was,

"And we brought enough different shit and we trusted each others' opinions and we liked each others' influences. We toughed it out. We didn't care. Then not just America but the whole world were like, 'Yeah, we relate to this whole thing'."

All these years later, I ask Duff what he thinks of Chinese Democracy, the Guns N' Roses album that took an excruciating 15 years to make with only Axl of the original line-up present.

It's a question he gets asked a lot. "Number one, what does it matter what I think of it?" he replies. "But for the record, Axl sings great on it. There are some songs I really like and some I don't.

"People have read it as, 'Oh, Duff doesn't like it,' but it's not like that at all."

This brings us on to the subject of Velvet Revolver, formed in 2002 as a kind of hard-rock supergroup made up of ex-G N'R members, Dave Kushner from Wasted Youth and, until he left, Stone Temple Pilots' singer Scott Weiland.


For Duff, the lead-up to Scott's departure in April 2008 was a particularly harrowing time.

As someone who's been sober "apart from a couple of stumbles" since 1994, he was watching the singer going "over to the other side".

"Our last month and a half of touring with him was brutal," says Duff. "I guess maybe it's not fully known that Slash, Matt, Dave and I decided that we were going to get rid of him.

"We tried to bring him back but we couldn't do it. His old demons popped back up. Look, I'm a drug addict, I totally get it but he was too far gone. None of us had the energy to go through that.

"So we actually fired him on April Fools Day after the gig in Amsterdam. I wish him the best of luck."

Now VR are on enforced hiatus as they look for a new singer. "We've written all the music for the next album and the songs are huge," says Duff. "Scott was an amazing frontman, one of the best on the planet, but I think we still have our best record to come.

"But until Velvet Revolver find a singer, I'm putting 110% of my energy into Loaded. The new record was really fun and really inspired."

You can see elements of Duff's other bands in Sick but there's a clear nod to his youth and his love of punk rock - "the 13-year-old kid who saw the Clash in Seattle in 1979".

This is Loaded's third album, arriving a full eight years since Dark Days, and finds Duff swapping bass for lead vocals and guitar.

One song kind of sums up Duff's life less ordinary - Slide. It goes, "The Seventies gave us punk rock/The Eighties gave us crap/Nineties junky chic so cool, I don't remember much of that".

Then he turns to me and smiles: "Well fuck, I survived all that shit and I'm here feeling really great about it."

The Sun

Duff in London Town

From Duff's Twitter:

Just got to London. Playing live on Radio 5 and Absolute Radio today. Giving Manic Street Preachers a MOJO award tonite. Tomorrow DOWNLOAD!!



And from Duff's Seattle Weekly blog:

My family comes to Europe tomorrow, and I am more than excited to see them. Tomorrow in London, Squires and I will play live on the radio to something like eight million listeners. No pressure. Later that day, I will present an award to the Manic Street Preachers at the MOJO Awards (a big British awards show). On Friday, Loaded plays the Download Festival, probably the pinnacle of any rock band's career. I have played it with GN'R, and twice with VR. Next week? We start our European tour with Mötley Crüe. Oh, the stories I could tell . . .

Loaded's European Tour Starts Tomorrow

Our hero, the white-Seattle-punk-who-became-a-world-famous rock-star, Duff McKagan, just wrote his first piece for the New York Times. Congratulations Duff. NYT also has a Q&A with Duff here. Loaded's European Summer Tour starts tomorrow in Helsinki.

Loaded with Bumblefoot @ the Gramercy Theater

Monday night, current Guns N' Roses lead guitarist Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal updated his Twitter status with this message:

Duff McKagan's LOADED 8pm Tue May 19 2009 Blender Theater 127 E23 St NYC. (I'll be there, maybe with guitar in hand for a song or two....?)

This sounds like fun to me and should be a pretty cool gig.

I'll be updating this page later on with any eyewitness reports / video that surfaces.

Here are some pictures, thanks to shepoutsherbest at CD.com via gunns5 at MYGNR




"Ron played the last song with them, it was a Medley of 'I Wanna Be Your Dog,' some Journey song, 'Tush,' 'Living After Midnight,' 'T.N.T.,' and 'Wild Horses.'

I am sorry to say that they played no GN'R songs, but Duff did play 'Dust N' Bones,' 'It's So Easy,' 'So Fine,' and 'Attitude.'"

Talking Metal
Blender Theater
BBF 2 see Duff's Loaded
Twitter.com/MackArillo
Bumblefoot playing with Duffs band Loaded

Duff Rocks on the Range with Alice in Chains

Rolling Stone
Hard rock ruled the heartland this weekend as Mötley Crüe, Slipknot and Alice in Chains headlined Rock on the Range. For its third year, the Columbus festival drew 38 bands and sold a two-day total of 56,000 tickets, according to L.A.-based promoter Del Williams. A mixed crowd — college kids in baseball caps to bikers — partied under dreary skies on Saturday, and were energized and ready to toss the devil horns on sunny Sunday.

On day one, before he joined Alice in Chains for a haunting rendition of “Rooster,” Velvet Revolver’s Duff McKagan played a side stage, fronting his band Loaded. “The thing about Rock on the Range, I didn’t understand it until Velvet Revolver played here a couple years ago,” explained Duff backstage between appearances. “It’s in Columbus, a little college town — how big a festival can you have here? But people come here from Cleveland, Detroit, Toledo, Cincinnati, Indiana, West Virginia, from Kentucky, Tennessee. They all converge, and this is the big thing of the summer.”



Alice in Chains returned in full force with new co-vocalist William DuVall (formerly of Comes With the Fall), opening the set with the murky anguish of “Rain When I Die.” Singer-guitarist Jerry Cantrell led the reconstituted Seattle quartet, who bulldozed through choice cuts like “Dam That River,” “Again” and “Man in the Box.” By the mesmerizing set-closer “Would?” the crowd was roaring approval. DuVall isn’t a clone of deceased singer Layne Staley, and though he didn’t hit the notes in quite the same way, he hit them all the right way.

The set was one of just two American summer shows before the band unveils a new album. Slated for September release, the as-yet-untitled disc has a strong buzz. After his set, McKagan called it “the best rock record he’s heard in the last 15 years.” Cantrell — who had nearly twice as many writing credits as the late, great Staley on previous albums — said the record represents the entire AIC spectrum from electric dynamics to unplugged angst. Though the group’s set didn’t feature any new material, DuVall hinted at a subtle new lyrical direction.

“I think there’s always been a little bit of death trip element [and a] survivor element,” said DuVall. “I think maybe the percentage has been a bit inverted [on the new album]. Where some of the records might have been more Scarface, this one is more Shawshank Redemption.”