Guns N’Roses’ Duff McKagan gives verdict on whether rock has a future

Duff McKagan has shared his hopes for there being a guitar band one day that has the same impact as Guns N’Roses.

In a new interview with Classic Rock, the bassist addresses the subject of rock’n’roll’s future and he reveals his view of things remains optimistic.

“Man, I hope so,” he said. “I see these young people coming out to Guns show, and I’m, like, ‘Man, it’s cool you’re coming to see us, but there should be a band that’s 21 or 22 that you’re fucking losing your shit to.’ I don’t know if it’ll be the same, but I fucking hope so.”

Elsewhere in the same interview, he goes into detail about his longstanding musical relationship with Iggy Pop. McKagan appeared on both the 1990 album ‘Brick By Brick’ and his most recent record, ‘Every Loser’. In return, Pop guested no his new solo album, ‘Lighthouse’.

“To me, there’s Prince and there’s Lemmy and there’s Iggy,” McKagan said. “And Iggy is a deity to me – it’s hard for me to have a regular relationship with him, because he’s been a hero of mine since I was 12 or 13 years old and I discovered The Stooges.

“Back when I played on a record with him in the early 1990s, I was drinking. I was a little bit more, ‘Yeah, man, fuck yeah!’ But doing that last record with him now, and playing those shows with him [in April 2023], he’s such a hard worker. He’s kind of like James Brown in how he runs a band.

He continued: “He had a band, which was me and [Red Hot Chili peppers drummer] Chad Smith and Jamie [Hince, guitarist] from The Kills and [guitarist/producer] Andrew Watt. We’re professionals, y’know. But he’ll call Chad “drummer”. He has notes on every song and he’ll go, ‘OK guys, gather round. Drummer! Can you hit that on the upbeat?’

“He did ask one of the other guys if he smoked. ‘Maybe you should have a cigarette on that song.’ I was thinking, ‘I really hope I don’t get asked to smoke a cigarette on that song.

“But he really is very good at running a band, and he’s very appreciative of musicians. And my two daughters both fucking love him. They came to one of the shows, and I see him over in the corner enraptured in a conversation with them, just going for it. He’s an all-round nice guy.”